Reach your goals despite poor credit

You don’t have to put your life on hold because of poor credit, but there may be extra work to reach goals.

10:48 22 October 2013

If you have poor credit and you’ve wrestled with trying to get loans and achieve your dreams, you aren’t alone. Many people struggle to make ends meet and improve their circumstances. There are options, but if you have poor credit, those options are more costly and sometimes come with limitations. Even with limitations though, the good news is that there is hope for people suffering from poor credit.

Here are a few things you can do to reach your long-term goals no matter your credit status.

• Check your credit rating periodically, at least once per year. You can obtain credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and CallCredit. You should check with all three of the companies since the reports may vary slightly and you never know which one a potential lender may use.

 

• Your credit score is important, but remember that lenders take many things into consideration to find an accurate assessment of your credit worthiness.

 

• Instead of applying to many different places in a short amount of time research thoroughly before you get too far into the process. Some lenders will even tell you up front what types of scores they will consider and what the cutoff point is for scores they will not consider. You can also find out if you can pull the credit report to avoid an inquiry showing on your report.

 

• If the source of your poor credit is that you simply don’t have enough credit history to accurately determine your credit worthiness, it might be a good idea to obtain a credit card with a low limit and manage it well for at least a few months. If that is not an option, you may still face higher interest rates and refusals due to the lack of credit history a lender can examine.