Updating the credit report will be an ongoing process – lenders send updated data regarding an account to the agencies. It depends on how may credit accounts and individual has and when there is a change in the credit data. The moment there is a change in the credit data, it will reflect in the credit score.

Earlier, lenders had to rely on their own assessment (internal) of a customer before giving any loans or even credit cards. But gradually the situation changed with the availability of individual credit information through CIBIL. Lenders fetched details on your credit worthiness from CIBIL. So whether you will get your home loan, personal loan, auto loan, credit cards or not and at what interest will be determined by your credit score. CIBIL, which has been operating in this space for a fairly long time, already has a large database of customers with their credit scores. Lending institutions dip into this database for assessing your creditworthiness. Be ready to accept the fact that your credit scores will be a key reason to determine your loan sanction. T

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Small business owners are becoming acutely aware of the importance of establishing business credit scores that are completely separate from their personal credit scores.

In addition, many have found this to be a viable solution to overcome personal credit challenges that prevent them from obtaining credit.

While strong company credit files and scores can open the doors for various types of financing business owners should continue to work on improving personal credit scores as well.

This can benefit their business in several ways:

First, with good credit scores you have more choices for obtaining funding simply from the fact that certain lenders require a personal credit check as part of their approval process.

Secondly, it strengthens the credit picture of your business overall as many lenders will consider your personal credit scores as a strong indicator to how you will handle your company’s financial obligations.

Finally, a potential business partner or investor will look at your personal credit scores as a factor for determining how financially responsible you are.

This alone should bring you to the conclusion that raising credit scores is not only good for your business today but it’s also vital to its long term growth as well.

Here are several strategies that you can apply for increasing your scores:

*Become an Authorized User – If your spouse has an existing aged credit card account then add yourself as an authorized user on that account. As an Au

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Just recently FICO released data showing that over 25 percent of consumers now have a credit score of 599 or below. That’s a whopping 43 million people that are considered subprime and what’s even more startling is those numbers continue to climb.

Credit scores play such an integral role in our country’s credit system and more consumers need to be aware of how today’s financial decisions will impact tomorrow’s borrowing potential.

In FICO’s world ‘damage points’ are applied to a consumer’s credit score when there is evidence of financial hardship or patterns of risky behavior. Some ‘damage point

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Credit Report Inquiries

Out of the 88 negative rating factors that can hurt your credit score one in particular that I would like to cover in this post are inquiries.

In the credit scoring system inquiries are given two types of classifications one being ‘soft inquiries’ and the other ‘hard inquiries’. Let’s cover these two briefly:

Soft Inquiries

These inquiries do not affect your credit score so don’t be alarmed if you see a lot of these on your file.

There are three main types of credit checks that fall into this classification.

1. Personal – When you order your own credit reports or scores directly from the major consumer credit agencies or myFICO.
2. Promotional – Businesses that check your credit for promotional purposes use the data in order to solicit its products or services such as those pre approved credit card offers you find in your mailbox.
3. Procedural – As part of its procedure a company or lender that you currently have an established account with may periodically check your credit in order to either extend additional credit or look for signs of financial distress.

Hard Inquiries

A hard inquiry is what negatively impacts your score and according to myFICO one additional hard inquiry for some people may take up to but not more than 5 points off a credit score!

This credit check occurs when a creditor pulls your report as a result of you applying for credit. One important thin

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