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Bank On It: Credit Reports

by C&N Bank - August 10, 2017

Your credit is as important to your financial well-being as your pulse rate is to your physical well-being. If you’re like most people, you probably don’t check up on your financial health as often as you visit your doctor’s office.

George Greeley, Senior Underwriter at Citizens & Northern Bank, shares his expertise and valuable tips to build and maintain a healthy credit score.

Why is your credit score so important?
The easy answer is having a good credit score means you can get credit when you need it. But your credit score affects many more aspects of your life than you would think. Insurance companies and utility companies may use your credit score to help determine whether you’re responsible and what level of risk you may carry as their customer. Many times, employers will check your credit when you’re applying for a new job and use it as a factor in assessing your character, dependability and trustworthiness.

How is your credit score determined?
There are three credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, that all use a complex algorithm to determine your score. Credit scores range from 300 to 850. Generally, a good score is considered to be anything above 700 and anything below 650 is considered poor. Your past payment history and whether you’ve made late payments has a very substantial effect. Your ratio of credit card balances to the limit is also an important factor. Make sure your have the card sized to your credit needs and work to keep your balance to 20-30% of your credit limit. If you have credit cards, aside from staying in good standing, it’s also important to have a long history. So jumping from company to company and not having that long history with one, consistent bank or provider is a bad move. Remember, poor payment decisions and late payments will stay on your record for 7 years.

How do you establish good credit?
In order to build that good, solid credit record, apply for and use a credit card, keep the balances in check and submit your payments on time, preferably paying the balance in full each month. A bank credit card is a positive for your record. Applying for store cards or gas cards can have a negative effect on your score. Be careful – many times their offers are enticing with low introductory interest rates, but these types of accounts tend to have a negative effect on your score and they typically carry a higher interest rate once the introductory offer expires.

What are the best ways to check and monitor your credit?
There are an abundance of services out there that promise to monitor your credit for you. Some of them may be legitimate, many are not, and it can be challenging to correctly assess them. You can access your credit reports, which report all of the credit records you have, by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com. It’s a free site where you can monitor your records and look for discrepancies for free. This is becoming extremely important as cybercrime activity is quickly on the rise and identity theft can go undetected for years if you’re not diligent about checking your report on a quarterly basis.

What are the best ways to improve your credit?
If you follow the suggestions laid out above, your score will be in a great range. If you do experience setbacks and find it challenging to follow these suggestions, don’t be embarrassed and let the problem build. Contact your local bank right away. The advantage of working with a local bank is that you can sit down, face-to-face and talk with an expert who will guide you and coach you back to a healthy credit position.

Remember, it takes a long time build a strong credit history but you can tear it down with poor decisions overnight. By following these tips and monitoring you credit report regularly, you can be sure your financial well-being stays healthy year after year.

Credits:

Idea/Concept: C&N Bank
Videography: Andrew Moore, John Vogt
Video Editing: Andrew Moore
Writing: C&N Bank
Anchor: Rhonda Pearson
Correspondent: Kristine Worthington
Photography: N/A,

Produced by Vogt Media
Home Page Sponsors: Citizens & Northern Bank

 
 
 
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