Hey, times are tough!  Therefore, during this economic downturn, helping yourself to moneymaking opportunities or even well needed loans involves working your credit rating to your advantage. First, you'll need to check your credit and see where it stands. Then, you'll need to find situations to optimize your credit with activities that will not damage the current credit score or rating. How is your score determined?  Well, a credit report pulls together information on how much you have borrowed in the past and how well you have done paying it back in order to let creditors know how much of a risk they would be taking by lending to you.  It is based upon the following information:

• Payment history – In short, delinquent payments, generally being more than 30 days, will lower the credit rating.
• Responsibility and stability – Lenders look to scenarios such as longevity in the borrower's home and job (at least two years is standard) as signs of stability.
• Debt control – This means that borrowers are not living beyond their means.  Most financial experts estimate that non-mortgage credit payments each month should not exceed more than 15 percent of the borrower's after-tax income.
• Re-Aging – Changing the date of last action on an account is called re-aging.  This can dramatically alter the credit score.  In 2000, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFEIC) clarified guidelines on re-aging accounts for delinquent borrowers.
• Utilization – Do your accounts have balances near their limits? If so, potential lenders will often ascribe increased risk.
• Credit inquiries – This is a big issue.  An inquiry is noted every time a company requests some information from a consumer's credit file.  There are several kinds of inquiries that may or may not affect one’s credit score.  Inquiries that have no effect on the creditworthiness of a consumer (also known as "soft inquiries") are prescreening inquiries where a credit bureau may sell a person's contact information to an institution that issues credit cards, loans, and insurance based on certain criteria that the lender has established.  Creditors will also check their customer’s credit files periodically.  A credit-counseling agency, with the client's permission, can obtain a client’s credit report with no adverse action. The important thing to remember is that a consumer can check his or her own credit report without impacting creditworthiness. On the other hand, if you are looking for a loan, inquiries that do have an effect on the creditworthiness of a consumer (also known as "hard inquiries") are made by lenders when consumers are seeking credit or a loan, in connection with permissible purpose. Having permissible purpose as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, lenders can "pull" a consumer file for the purposes of extending credit to a consumer.  Hard inquiries from lenders directly affect the borrower's credit score.  Overall, credit inquiries to a minimum can help a your credit rating. Often a lender may perceive many inquiries over a short period of time on a person's report as a signal that the person is in financial difficulty, and may consider that person a poor credit risk.
• Credit cards that are not used – Most people believe that having too many credit cards can have an adverse effect on a credit score.  The truth is closing these lines of credit will not necessarily improve your score.  Many risk models consider the difference between the amount of credit a person has and the amount being used: closing one or more accounts will reduce your total available credit, lower the percentage of available credit, and possibly lower your credit score.  Likewise, closing an account with several years of history that is in good standing will most likely negatively affect your score.

Although this current recession has weakened the general economic climate, if you continue to pay your bills on time and maintain other strong money-management habits, you can ride out this economic downturn with a solid credit history intact.

Knowing this, FIND YOUR CREDIT SCORE NOW