April's "Top 11 Tips" for Rebuilding or Imporving your credit.

1. Pull your credit reports and Fico scores 1-2 years before applying for a loan.  www.myfico.com 
2. Build four or more primary accounts of credit as young as possible but at least 2-4 years prior to applying for a loan.
3. Do not open or close any credit within a year before applying for a loan (unless you don't have enough credit to be approved for that loan)
4. Don't close credit just because you may not think you will use it.  The older active credit will increase your scores.
5. Use open credit at least 2-3 months a year to keep it active.
6. Have a variety of credit since that adds to increasing your scores.
7. Keep your balances on revolving credit at 7-10% of the limits, at least 2-3 months prior to applying for a loan.
8. Limit third party reviews of credit profiles.
9. Make timely payments on all credit and resolve any open bad debt before it affects the credit scores.
10. If you have open collections don't pay them until you speak with us directly.
11. Call us early and get the help you need to increase your scores and understand how they work.