Your credit rating can be very important to your financial future. A good score will help you to purchase a home, rent an apartment, pay lower interest rates on loans, buy a car, or even get a job. As a single parent, you may have a lower score due to a divorce or trying to juggle bills and child expenses on one income. Here are a few tips to help raise your credit score which will aid your single parent finances..
The most important thing that you can do is to pay at least the minimum payment required on your bills on time every time. If you see that there is no way you can make a payment, contact the lender immediately. This may help to keep your credit from being dinged or at least as badly as it would have had you not contacted them.
Keep tabs on your credit report. You have the right to get a free credit report yearly from the three agencies, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. You can use www.annualcreditreport.com to request your reports. You may want to stagger your request throughout the year instead of requesting them all at once so that you can better catch if errors have been made.
If you see an error on your credit report, take steps to get it fixed immediately as this can take some time to straighten out. You don’t want to miss out on something that you really wanted because your credit report is messed up.
If your credit is bad, consider getting a secured credit card. These cards require you to pay a certain amount of money up front, and then you can use them like a normal credit card. This will help to rebuild your credit rating.
Pay off your existing debts as quickly as possible as this can help raise your score. Also watch the balances on your cards as a card that is close to being maxed out can hurt your score.
As a single parent on one income, your credit should be good so that you can obtain good interest rates. It is a shame that those who need the best interest rates the most due to financial difficulties end up paying the highest rates. Follow the tips above to help rebuild your credit score and shore up your single parent finances..