According to a recent report compiled by Experian, Las Vegas ranks in the bottom percentile of a national ranking of average credit scores. To be exact, Las Vegas had the nation’s eighth worst average credit score, 709, which ranked Las Vegas 136th out of the 143 cities polled. However, there are a few simple tricks that every Las Vegan can complete to raise their credit score immediately. Here is a list of simple tricks to use to repair your credit:
- Check your credit report for errors. Discovering any errors is the easiest and quickest tactic used to repair your credit report. A consumer is entitled to one (1) free credit report every year from each of the major credit bureaus, Experian, Transunion and Equifax. To obtain your free yearly copy of your credit report, you can go to each credit bureaus web site or you can visit www.annualcreditreport.com to obtain a free credit report from each credit bureau.
- Remove errors from your credit report. Now that you are armed with your credit report, you need to review the report for its accuracy and dispute any errors. Each of the major credit bureaus allows for disputes to be logged on-line. Further, the dispute must be resolved with a reasonable period of time, which is usually 30-45 days from date of dispute.
- Use credit wisely. A poor credit report means you have been unable to properly use credit in the past. In order to re-establish that you are worthy of credit again, you need to demonstrate you can responsibly use credit and repay your debts. Start lowly, use one credit card and repay the ENTIRE balance every month. Over time, build up to two (2) or three (3) credit cards while repaying the ENTIRE balance every month. If, at any point in time, you can’t pay the entire balance at the end of the month, stop using all your credit cards until the balance is paid in full.
- Never carry a balance greater than 30% of the debt limit. A factor in determining your credit score is the amount of available credit. The credit bureaus do not like to see all of your credit maxed out. As such, never use or carry more than 30% of the available credit on any given card.
However, even if you follow the above tactics, you still need to be patient. Credit scores are not repaired overnight. It takes time to remove errors, pay down balances and re-establish a responsible credit history. But through persistence and the proper steps, you can and will repair your credit.
