5 Ways to Avoid a Bad Credit Record

Having a bad credit record can severely impact on your life in a range of ways. You can experience difficulty finding a place to rent, as well as having applications for credit cards, loans and even phone contracts constantly knocked back. Preserving your credit record is particularly important if you are considering a home loan in the next few years. Here are 5 simple ways to avoid a bad credit record.

Create a Budget

Making sure that you have an accurate and detailed budget will help you to stay on track with all of your payments and expenses. You may need to spend several hours assessing your income and expenses in order to have a clear idea of what you have available for savings and bill payments. Try and allocate a saving account for emergency situations, and aim to have 3 months of your expenses saved at all times. This will cover you in case you temporarily aren’t able to earn your normal income.

Keep Your Details Up-to-Date

Ensuring that you stay up-to-date with any change of address and contact details will allow creditors to contact you directly. You can inadvertently damage your credit record by forgetting to update your change of address, and as a result miss any bills and outstanding payment notices that are being sent to your old residence. It also allows any creditors to contact you promptly in the event of a problem, which can save your credit record from receiving any unnecessarily damaging records.

Don’t Max out Your Cards

Try and stick to the minimum spending on your credit cards, and always pay it back as punctually as possible. Try not to max out your cards, as it increases the risk that you may not be able to make a repayment if your circumstances change.

Contact Your Creditors

If you’re experiencing issues making a payment, make sure you contact your creditors directly. You’d be surprised just how understanding they can be when given plenty of notice. Quite often they will make special allowances for cases of financial hardship, especially if you can present them with a structured plan of when you will be meeting your payment obligations.

Don’t Ignore the Problem

The worst thing you can possibly do is to ignore any credit issues. Being late on payment or worse, not paying at all, will do almost irreparable damage to your credit record. As soon as you are struggling to make your payments, you should contact your creditors to organise an alternative arrangement. If you aren’t comfortable doing this, an experienced debt solutions provider such as Fox Symes can negotiate with your creditors on your behalf. They will also assist in all kinds of debt help, from consolidation to personalised budgeting advice.

Preserving your good credit record should always be a financial priority. With the devastating impacts that a bad credit rating can have, your quality of life can be seriously reduced from even the smallest indiscretion. If you think you might have trouble meeting your repayment obligations, consider enlisting the help of professional debt solutions specialists.