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credit scoreIf you want to borrow money from the bank but find out that your credit score is not that good, you won’t be able to get an approval unless you are willing to pay this back at a high interest rate but this can change if you are able to improve your credit score. 


Here are ten tips that will help you get started. 


First, stop spending money on things that you don’t really need. These include clothes, shoes, jewelry, CD’s, toys, a trip to the parlor, the spa or salon. You will miss them for awhile but when things get better, you can surely enjoy them again. 


Most of us use the credit card to pay for just about anything and part of cutting on your expenses means putting limits where you can use it. This should only be used to buy food and groceries as there are things that we need daily. 


Reduce the number of long distance calls that you make. If possible, cancel your service provider and get one that gives better rates. The same goes with cell phones since some companies charge lower for air time or allow you to make free calls at certain times of the day. 


Your utility bills come during the end of the month so that is another thing to worry about aside from the card bills. To lessen the amount you have to pay, conserve so you don’t use that much by lowering your thermostat during the winter and raising during the summer as well as turning off the lights when no one is in the room. 


To come up with the money you need to improve your credit score, try working overtime, getting a second job if it is possible and sell stuff that you don’t need. Keeping yourself will really help so you are not tempted to spend your hard earned cash. 


When it comes to your credit card, pay the one that has the highest interest first then work your way down the line. 

Related Article: What is credit card fraud and how does it happen


Strike a deal with creditors so that they are aware of what is happening because this gesture helps improve your credit score. 


As things pick up, close your unused accounts especially the newer ones. You can also apply for a new credit card preferably those offered by groceries and supermarkets as they offer lower interest rates than those coming from banks.


Also, review your credit report and see if there are any errors. Most of the time, there is one or two there that can be corrected as long as you have the supporting documents. If the investigation shows that there was an error or that the creditor cannot prove their allegations, this is immediately removed from your record and you get a revised copy with these corrections. 


Improving your credit score is something you have to do if you score is below 700. Doing so will allow you to have better rates from banks and other lending institutions when you want to buy a house, a car or undergo a renovation at home. 


So for those who are in trouble, there is still hope. You just have to make some sacrifices that will eventually pay off in the long term. For those who are in good standing, keep up the good work or make it even higher.

When was the last time you saw your credit report

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Stop­ping fraud is as easy as start­ing at StopFraud.gov.​ 

Credit fraud tar­gets peo­ple of all ages and walks of life. Vic­tims are lured in with false promises of sig­nif­i­cant cash prizes, goods, ser­vices, or good works, in exchange for up-front fees, taxes or dona­tions. Some­times, how­ever, it isn’t an extrav­a­gant method of obtain­ing your infor­ma­tion that works for an iden­tity thief com­mit­ting credit fraud. Some­times credit fraud is com­mit­ted sim­ply because you lost your wal­let or purse and some­one else found it and used your credit cards.


Credit fraud includes a vari­ety of scams that tar­get peo­ple apply­ing for credit and/or are deal­ing with debt, such as:Advance-fee loan scams that involve charg­ing an upfront fee to guar­an­tee a credit card or loan before you apply. These offers are ille­gal and often tar­get peo­ple with credit problems.Debt set­tle­ment scams that include decep­tive ads that promise debt relief, when in fact what they are offer­ing is bank­ruptcy, and oth­ers that promise to nego­ti­ate with your cred­i­tors, but take the money and run.Loan scams that offer you entic­ing rates to apply for a loan, but then do not include any lan­guage to let you know that you’re not actu­ally get­ting the offered inter­est rate.Free Gov­ern­ment Grant scams that promise you can get tons of free money to pay your bills, go back to school, pay for your day­care, or even start a small busi­ness as long as you fork over all your per­sonal infor­ma­tion first.


This is in addi­tion to the most obvi­ous kind of credit fraud, which is using your card or your card’s infor­ma­tion to pur­chase goods and ser­vices with­out your per­mis­sion. Credit fraud is one of the fastest grow­ing crimes in the United States and falls under the umbrella of iden­tity theft because you gen­er­ally have to pre­tend to be some­one other than your­self in order to use a stolen credit card or open up new lines of credit in some­one else’s name.


How can you pre­vent credit fraud from occur­ring? There are a few basic steps:Bet­ter pro­tect your infor­ma­tion on your own. We’ve out­lined 10 basic steps you can take to bet­ter pro­tect your infor­ma­tion at home with­out hav­ing to pay a dime.Sign up for credit monitoring services. A good iden­tity theft pro­tec­tion plan will mon­i­tor your credit infor­ma­tion and your per­sonal iden­ti­fi­ca­tion infor­ma­tion around the clock so that you can know imme­di­ately if some­one else is mak­ing unau­tho­rized changes to your finan­cial picture.  Compare the best credit monitoring services at StopIdentityFraud.org

 

Ver­ify, ver­ify, ver­ify. If you don’t know why you’ve received a text or an e-mail, then don’t give a reply or click on a link included to pro­vide your per­son­ally iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion. When in doubt, call a cus­tomer ser­vice representative.Report any­thing sus­pi­cious imme­di­ately. Go to stopfraud.gov and report any­thing sus­pi­cious. You’ll be able to find the spe­cific type of credit fraud to report and where you need to go report it.


The worst thing that any of us can do is to not report any­thing. By not report­ing credit fraud when it is dis­cov­ered, we are con­don­ing it. By tak­ing the steps to pre­vent credit fraud and then actively report­ing sus­pi­cions, we are doing some­thing about credit fraud and iden­tity theft: we’re fight­ing to stop it. Fol­low these steps today to make sure that you can pre­vent credit fraud before it ever starts.

More ways you can prevent credit card fraud online.