If you are in the market for a North Iowa home, one of the most important things you will need is good credit. A great credit score will take a lot of the stress out of the home buying process for you. But, even if you don’t fall into this category, there are important steps you can start taking right now to build your credit and bring you that much closer to your dream of home ownership.
Don’t have any credit? Take the following steps to build your score!
1. Help establish credit immediately by applying for a secured credit card. Use it to make purchases you normally make with cash or your debit card and pay it off right away.
2. Build your credit with a credit builder loan. Get one that is a manageable amount that you can easily make the payments towards.
3. Find a co-signer. This will allow you to build your credit at a lower interest rate than you normally can when first starting out.
4. Have your rent reported to the credit bureaus. Platforms such as RentalTrack and RentKharma offer this service and will help you build your score every month.
Don’t have good credit? It is imperative that you do everything you can to improve it. Getting your score to increase will take at least 6 months. Follow these steps to get back on track!
1. Make ALL of your payments on time! Your rent, utilities, loans, credit cards, and medical bills need to be paid by their due date every month.
2. Lower your credit utilization to 30% of what is being offered to you.
3. Do not close out accounts. You want your accounts to stay active as length of credit and payment history all impact your score.
4. Limit how many accounts you have. It is most important to have a few accounts that you are paying off for a while then a bunch of different accounts open at once.
5. Track your score for free with Credit Karma or Nerd Wallet mo ty to see your progress and assess what other changes you can make.
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