Thou Shalt Not Murder Thy Credit

For the longest time, I thought the credit scoring model was 2 parts magic, one part fairy dust, and three parts pi times the square root of the sum of the numbers in your social security number.  But now I know better; it's all magic.

Black magic for a lot of folks these days.  But there are some things we can do to lift the curse of sub-600 scores from our land.  Stop killing your credit!

IV - THOU SHALT NOT MURDER THY CREDIT

THE SIN- Ignoring the factors that influence your credit score is like ignoring that pesky rash that keeps coming back.  Stop itching and start treating the cause.  There are some obvious things that murder your score like foreclosures, bankruptcy, judgments, collections, late payments, maxed out credit cards, and lack of accounts.  But some of the silent wolves have snuck their way into the hen house and those are the ones that many of our clients are victims of.

I present to you, Exhibit A.  Those evil credit card companies are really sticking it to the consumer these days.  Borrower with a 750 FICO score has a $1500 balance and a $12,000 credit limit.  No big deal.  The fine folks at CITI Cards, switch this fellow's interest rate from 7.9% to a floating rate linked to prime; let's say Prime + 24.99%.  Not only that, they lower his available credit from $12,000 to $2500 despite the fact that he's paid on time for the past 6 years.  His debt ratio on this particular card goes from nothing to 60%, and in turn, his FICO drops 25 points.  I'm sure you've seen this and if anyone has a HELOC, it's either been frozen or the credit limit has been cut to the current balance.  Can I get an AMEN?

THE WIN - If your credit score has dropped or it's been low for as long as the Cleveland Browns last played in the Super Bowl, it's time to bring your FICO back to life!  For folks in the Bradenton-Sarasota area, I urge you to sit down with me and do some mortgage planning.  We can figure out why your score is low, look at the obvious and not-so-obvious contributing factors and scheme how to create a better chance of running your credit through Experian's 10 top-secret algorhythms and coming out on top.  If you're reading this on Active Rain, find a professional in your area to be your credit score bodyguard; they can help protect you from outside forces that can assassinate your beacon, and sometimes, they'll even protect you from yourself.