The majority of people that you know probably do not have excellent credit. If you are among the small group of people who has worked hard to make sure that you maintain good credit at all times, you are lucky. And you may not even know how lucky you are. A large percentage of the people who have good credit don’t actually make sure to take advantage of the benefits that having good credit offers to them.

Here are some tips on how to use your good credit to your advantage:

• Get lower interest rates on existing credit cards. Many people know that having good credit will allow them to qualify for a lower rate on new credit cards that they apply for but some don’t realize that they can actually request a lower rate from the companies that they’re already a borrower with. The fact that you are a good borrower makes these companies want to keep your business so asking for a better interest rate on your outstanding debt should result in a positive response assuming that you are direct and firm in your request.

• Get bigger loans. A major reason that it is good to have good credit is because it will allow you to get bigger loans than you could qualify for without this good credit. For example, a loan for a new car or a loan for a home mortgage is much easier to get when you have good credit. Use this to your advantage by figuring out how you can invest using your access to big loans (for example, you may invest in real estate property).

• Get a nicer apartment. Maybe you’re not ready to use your good credit to get a new house but did you know that you can rent a better place with your good credit? You’re able to qualify for better apartments in nicer neighborhoods when you have good credit so you might want to start thinking about moving up in the world around you.

• Consider loaning money to others. You can probably get a low interest rate and low transaction fee on a loan because you have good credit. If your best friend has bad credit, she may not be able to get a loan at all or may be able to only get one with bad terms. You could help her out by getting the loan yourself and then allowing her to borrow the money from you at a rate that is higher than what you are paying but lower than what she could get otherwise. Of course, there are risks inherent in this; there are good reasons lenders don’t make loans to people with bad credit. However, it could be a way to help others while benefiting financially yourself.

• Get perks and rewards. Use your good credit to qualify for credit cards that are platinum-level or otherwise beneficial to the card holder in ways that aren’t true with lower-credit cards.

There are many advantages to having good credit. You’ve worked hard to maintain that good credit so don’t just let it sit there unused.

Everyone knows that they are supposed to try to have a good credit report with an excellent credit score. However, most people don’t completely understand all of the benefits of having great credit. They just know that it’s something that they’re supposed to aim to have. The reality is that there are a lot of things that you can get more easily in life when you have a good credit report to back you up. When others see you as a good borrower, they assume that you are responsible with your money as well as with the rest of your life and they are more easily willing to trust you. This means that a good credit report gets you better terms with your credit, loans for larger purchases such as cars and homes and even gets you better housing.

The main reason that you’ll be interested in improving your credit is because you can get better terms for your credit if you have a good credit score. The interest rate on your credit cards is determined in part by your credit so you’re going to pay less in interest on your credit cards if you have a higher credit score than if you have bad credit. You’re also going to qualify for better credit card rewards programs, get better general perks on your credit cards and be offered better customer service when you have a higher credit score. Basically, if you’re a good borrower on your credit cards then more credit card companies will want to compete for your business which means that they’re going to offer you better terms.

Having good credit will also make it significantly easier to get loans for larger purchases than what you could buy with your credit cards. People who are seeking out car loans and loans to purchase a home are going to find it much easier to qualify for those loans if they have already established good credit through the responsible use of their credit cards. These people will also find that the terms of these larger loans are much more favorable to them than they are to people with poorer credit. Again, lenders just take a stronger interest in lending to you if you’ve already established that you are responsible with your borrowing practices.

Finally, the individual with better credit is going to find life easier in ways unrelated to loans as well. The most common thing that you can get more easily with good credit than with bad credit is better housing. Landlords and even people selling homes are going to look at your credit report to determine whether or not you can be responsible in renting or buying a home from them. Those people who have good credit are going to find that they have more options than others in regards to the homes that they can choose to live in and the neighborhoods where those homes will be located. It’s worth making the effort to establish good credit so that others will view you as responsible and be willing to work with you in many different areas of life.

Getting good credit is one of those things that can feel like a Catch-22 when you’re first starting out with the process of building your credit history. Most credit card companies are not interested in giving a good credit card to someone that hasn’t established a credit history yet. But of course, you have to be able to get those loans in order to be able to develop that credit card history. It can feel like a sticky situation and may even be really frustrating if you don’t know what you’re doing. However, it’s actually fairly easy to start building your credit history if you know what you’re doing.

The first thing that you should realize is that credit cards are not the only way to start building a credit history. They’re certainly important but you can begin to build your credit history first through getting other types of loans that may be easier to qualify for than a credit card will be. For example, most people these days have a cell phone which is something that requires a monthly bill payment. That’s the first way that many young people start developing credit and proving that they can make payments. Make sure to get your own cell phone separate from your parents’ family plan as early as possible (and make sure that it’s one which requires monthly payments, not a one-time fee). Similarly, you may be able to get a small car loan from your bank before you can qualify for a good credit card so you’ll want to take advantage of opportunities like that. Anything that lets you establish that you can pay monthly bills is a good way to initially start developing a credit history.

As you start showing that you can make monthly payments, you’ll be able to qualify for very specific types of credit cards. The first ones that you should try to get are department store credit cards and gas station credit cards. These are easier to qualify for than standard credit cards when you have not yet established a credit history. The keys to making sure that you develop a strong credit history with these cards is to make sure that you only apply for a limited number of these cards, that you use them regularly and that you always pay them off in full and on time. A good plan is to get one gas card and one department store card for a place that you shop at regularly. Make sure that you are aware of when payments are due and that you create strong credit by paying early.

The next thing that you’ll want to do is start looking at credit card offers which are specifically designed for those people who have no credit or very little credit. There are many credit cards designed for college students which are based on the assumption that the college student has not yet established credit. Make sure that you review all credit card offers carefully because you’re going to want to try to get a good card. You shouldn’t ever apply for too many credit cards at once because this weakens your credit score. Instead, apply for just one card that has a good interest rate, no annual fee and may even offer you some rewards for your spending. As with your initial gas and department store cards, you’re going to want to always make sure that you pay the card off each month in full in order to develop the strong credit history that you’re seeking.

There are some people who simply can’t qualify for a credit card on the strength (or rather the weakness) of their own credit. Those people may be teenagers that haven’t established enough credit yet or people who have made credit mistakes that landed them in the bad credit no man’s land. If you know someone like that, they might ask you to co-sign on a credit card application for them. Should you do it? The answer depends on the amount of trust you’ve established with the individual and the risks that you’re willing to take with your own credit. (more…)

There are many different factors that can make your credit score go up or down. For example, a tax lein imposed upon your home by a court of law can negatively impact your credit score. However, that’s obviously not something that applies to a large number of people who are interested in getting a loan. The average consumer typically has five factors which affect their credit score.

One of the most important factors is whether or not your credit history shows that you make on-time payments. People who regularly make late payments will have a lower credit score than people with otherwise comparable credit histories who make their payments on time. The more recently you’ve had late payments, the lower your credit score. One of the fastest ways to improve bad credit is to start making payments on time. (more…)

When you apply for a loan, your lender is going to take a look at your credit score in order to determine some things about that loan. First of all, the lender will be deciding whether or not to give you the loan at all. If you’re going to get the loan, the lender will use the credit score to determine what the maximum amount of the loan will be and at what interest rate the loan will be made. A high credit score translates to getting more high-maximum loans at better interest rates. (more…)

You’ve probably got a general idea of whether your credit is good or bad. But the numbers matter when it comes to credit. If you don’t know your credit score, you don’t know all that you need to know about your credit situation. Knowing what the number is doesn’t do too much to increase your credit awareness if you don’t also understand what the number means. You should know more than just “high” or “low”; you should know what a lender is going to think when your number pops up on application. (more…)