One of the most important ways to achieve and maintain excellent FICO credit scores is to carefully manage your revolving credit.

When I say, “revolving credit,” I’m referring to any credit account you have where the monthly payment can vary. Credit cards are the most common form of revolving credit.

Of course, “revolving credit” refers to almost everything in your wallet or purse that’s plastic that you can use to buy something. This includes American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa credit cards. This also includes retail store cards such as Macy’s or Target, and gasoline cards.

The exceptions are check cards and debit cards. These little dudes may be plastic and have a MasterCard or Visa logo, but they aren’t really credit cards. They’re more like plastic checks than anything else. Debit cards have nothing to do with your credit scores.

Why your credit reports can show that your credit cards are maxed out when they’re not

In my case, my credit scores were lower than they should have been because I was using my personal credit cards for my business. An easy fix…I just applied for a corporate card and began using only that card for anything business related. (You should do the same if you have a small business.)

A few small business leases were also reporting as revolving accounts on my personal credit reports. Those were simple to resolve by just paying the small amounts off.

Then, I did a quick analysis of my credit reports.

The only way to really discover if revolving credit is lowering your scores is to do a quick analysis of your revolving credit accounts. (I’ll show you how at the end of this newsletter.) That’s how I found the big culprit that was destroying my credit scores…

Beware of home equity lines of credit

When I analyzed my credit reports I got a big surprise…I discovered several of my home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) were being misinterpreted as credit card accounts.

This was fooling the FICO scoring model into thinking that I had an enormous amount of credit card debt. But of course, I didn’t.

What I learned was that HELOC accounts can look exactly like a credit card account on your credit reports.

When I was trained by Fair Isaac Corporation, I got a different story. I was told there are two situations when a HELOC won’t be mistaken as a revolving credit card: Read More

A business stands firm on the ground with the help of funds. Every business man would know that without finances one can’t establish or advance a viable business plan. Not everyone is born with the kind of money required for furthering a business plan. Bad credit is so prevalent and this is the reason why we have bad credit business loans.

In practice, bad credit cannot prevent you from having bad credit business loans. Bad credit business loans can be difficult to find but they are certainly not impossible to find. Writing a good business loans application is key to getting it approved. There are a few things that the lender won’t neglect while providing you with business loans for bad credit. Business plan and its feasibility are crucial for bad credit business loans. Along with that lender will look for equity, collateral and repaying ability.

Now credit history is fundamental to getting a business loan approved. Since you have bad credit, you should start with your credit score. Obtain your credit report from any of the three credit reporting agencies – Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. Many people are unable to understand what the report and credit score signify. Credit score is given after studying the data in the credit history –

• Late payments

• The amount of time credit has been established

• The amount of credit used versus the amount of credit

available

• Length of time at present residence

• Employment history

• Negative credit information such as bankruptcies, charge-offs, collections, etc.

A Bad credit business loan lender will usually use a FICO score to identify your bad credit. Fico score ranges from 340-850. The lower your score is the chances are you might be seen as a greater credit risk. Any business loan borrower with a credit score below 600 is considered as bad credit. Here the business loans application will be approved with the added compensation of higher interest rates and down payment. Higher interest rate is attached to bad credit business loans. Research would be an investment worth it while finding a bad credit business loan. Comparatively low interest rates are possible for bad credit business loan. Read More