Your credit score, calculated from information in your credit report, is a measure of how good a risk you are to a credit grantor.

You can obtain your score from many firms in the business, including www.equifax.com, www.transunion.com,www.experian.com and www.myfico.com.

1.-Pay on time: The core rule is to meet your debt obligations on-time, every time. If you have had payment lapses in the past but your habits have improved, time is on your side. The credit scoring rules weight recent experience more heavily than older experience.

2.-Correct mistakes in your credit report: Your score should not be reduced by reporting mistakes, which are all too common. I have an article on my website on How to Correct Mistakes in Your Credit Report.

3.-Detach yourself from the "wrong vendors": Because finance companies lend to relatively poor risks, the credit score of any borrower owing money to a finance company is lower than it would be if the creditor was a bank. By the same logic, borrowers who have credit cards of department stores are penalized, relative to what their score would be if they had cards issued by banks.

4.-Reduce balances on revolving credits to less than 50 percent of the maximums: A high utilization ratio is read as a sign of weakness and potential trouble, reducing your score. Credit cards are the most important type of revolving credits, but HELOCs belong in this category as well. A HELOC used to purchase a house or to refinance a mortgage, where the initial utilization ratio is 100 percent, will jolt your credit score.

Note that utilization ratios can be reduced by getting the maximums raised, as well as by paying down the balances. In many cases, credit card issuers are willing to raise the maximum at the borrower's request.

5.-Minimize the number of "hard inquiries": Hard inquiries are requests to a credit agency for your credit score from a credit grantor, insurance company or other entity to which you have applied and to which you have entrusted your Social Security number. "Soft inquiries" made by you or by firms looking to sell you something for which you have not applied don't require your permission and don't impact your credit score.

The credit-scoring systems may or may not penalize borrowers who shop multiple credit grantors within a short period -- unfortunately, you can't be sure.

The credit agencies tell you that multiple inquiries within a 15-day period count only as a single inquiry, but in fact inquiries for mortgage, auto and student loans would probably count as three inquiries, and even three mortgage inquiries could count as three inquiries, depending on how the credit grantors are identified to the credit scorer. I will have an article abut this in the near future.

The bottom line is that in applying for credit, find your own score that you can deliver to the vendors you are shopping who need the score to set the price. The vendor you select will verify the score through his own inquiry, but it will be only a single inquiry.

Pay off collection accounts: This may actually reduce your score in the short-run by converting the account from an older entry with a low weight to a new one with a higher weight. However, you can't get a loan with a collection account on your record, so you must pay it off -- the sooner the better

Top Five Reasons to Use a Local REALTOR®1. All local real estate licensees are not the same. Only local real estate licensees who are members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® are properly called REALTORS®. They proudly display the REALTOR "®" logo on the business card or other marketing and sales literature. REALTORS® are committed to treat all parties to a transaction honestly. Local REALTORS® subscribe to a strict code of ethics and are expected to maintain a higher level of knowledge of the process of buying and selling real estate. An independent survey reports that 84% of home buyers would use the same REALTOR® again. 2. No matter where you live in Lewis County, there is a REALTOR® who lives and/or works nearby. All aspects of your transaction can be handled on a more personal and “hands on” manner. An out-of-town REALTOR® cannot provide the same level of hands-on service. Local REALTORS® work well together on a daily basis which can help to make a transaction move smoothly through the process.

3. Many of the local Real Estate agencies have national affiliations which can provide buyers and sellers with access to nation-wide services and marketing. Many out-of-town agents represent independent or “Boutique” agencies which do not have access to the same powerful tools.

4. Local REALTORS® have access to the same technologies available to REALTORS® in the larger cities north or south of us…the same Multiple Listing Service, the same website presence, etc.

5. Local agents have the “home field” advantage of knowing issues pertinent to our area such zoning, flood areas, neighborhoods, land use, septic requirements and much more. Many out of town agents are not familiar with issues which are specific to a more rural community…they may know how to sell a tract house, but do they know about significant issues such as septic design, use class, invalidity or even what a “perk” hole is?

When selecting an agent, remember that if you chose an out-of-area agent, you have chosen to work with someone who is not familiar with our area AND is farther away. Local REALTORS® have the skills, knowledge and technologies that can go to work for you with that “local” edge which can make the difference.