The Debt Doctor

Don’t assume that one thing will boost your credit score a specific number of points.

Some debtors are lead to believe that paying off a credit card bill will boost their credit score by 50 points while closing an unused credit account will result in 20 more points. Credit scores are certainly not this clear-cut or simple.

How much any one action will affect your credit score is impossible to gauge.  It will depend on several factors, including your current credit score and the credit bureau calculating your credit score.

In general, though, the higher your credit score, the more small factors - such as one unpaid bill - can affect you.

However, when repairing your credit score, you should not be equating specific credit repair tasks with numbers.  The idea is to do as many things as you can to get your credit score as close to 800 as you are able.  Even if you can improve your credit score by 100 points or so, you will qualify for better interest rates.

Don’t think that having no loans or debts will improve your credit score.

Some people believe that owing no money, having no credit cards, and in fact avoiding the whole world of credit will help improve their credit score.

The opposite is true - lenders want to see that you can handle credit, and the only way they can tell is if you have credit that you handle responsibly.

Having no credit at all can actually be worse for your credit score than having a few credit accounts that you pay off scrupulously.  If you currently have no credit accounts at all, opening a low balance credit card can actually boost your credit score.