Maintain Your Credit Health

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Congratulations, you have good credit!  Let’s make sure it stays that way.  The following 5 steps can help you to maintain and even improve upon your good credit.

1. Limit the number of times that your credit is pulled when shopping for new car or truck.  Pulling your credit should always be the last thing you do.
2. Do not carry more than 2 credit cards and try and keep the available credit above 90% of the overall credit limit.
3. Keep your debt to income ratio (DTI) below 38%.  Not only will this help you when buying a home but it’s generally a good rule of thumb that will keep you from overextending yourself financially.
4. Review your credit report often. If you find any errors, make sure to dispute them right away. Almost all lenders require an undisputed record of credit. It takes at least 60 days for credit bureaus to respond to disputes, so disputing errors quickly is of the utmost importance.
5. Keep your personal information safe.  Identity theft is an ever-increasing problem and it can take your good credit and turn it into bad credit overnight.  Be diligent whenever applying for loans or credit online and never give out your personal information over unsolicited phone calls.

For more information and credit help, please check out our friends at wiki.credit!