The Financial Safety Net: Keep Your Credit Score In Check

Personal financing is often times not as easy as it seems. It’s not uncommon to lose track of spending habits and get caught up in what seems like an insurmountable amount of debt.  Short-term loan services operate as a temporary safety net but if the right decisions aren’t made at the beginning then you could end up facing bigger debt problems in the long run.

At Quest Cash, we are happy to provide a temporary safety net for our customers but we also want to ensure that our customers are protected once that safety net is no longer there for support. In doing so, we’re providing helpful tips and information to educate our customers on best personal finance practices.

Managing your credit score is one of the most important aspects of building a personal finance record that is stable and secure. Here are six fundamental guidelines to follow to ensure your credit score is in the clear.

1. Credit score numbers are determined by a number of factors. These include: payment history, outstanding debt, length of time you’ve had credit, new credit, and the different types of credit you have.
2. Your credit score number is based on how likely or unlikely you are to repay borrowed money. Think of your credit score like a game of pinball, the higher the score the better credit rating you are going to have. Credit scores typically range from 300 to 850.
3. It is possible to have more than one credit score depending on which score models are used. For example, a credit card company has a different score than an automotive lender.
4. If your credit score is low, 600 or less, your options for loans become limited or can be more costly than the average loan. Low credit scores mean higher risk.
5. The easiest way to boost your credit score is to make sure you pay your bills in time. However, there are other methods to improve your score such as reducing your credit card balance to 75% or less, keeping old credit accounts, and reviewing your credit score often to ensure there are no errors.
6. It’s important to know where your credit score stands on a yearly basis. There are two national credit bureaus in Canada: Equifax and Trans Union. Each bureau provides the option to obtain your credit report at no cost or obtain both your credit report and score for a small fee. If you prefer to collect this information on your own, there are a number of services online that provide credit score calculators as well.

For more questions about credit scores and how they can affect short-term loans, contact a Quest Cash Representative.