How to Fix Credit Score

Tips to Fix Credit Score

First Published Date: February 18, 2015

A bad credit score can make it difficult to get a loan or mortgage and also force you to pay more interest than you would normally pay with a better score. Today, I will talk about some simple things you can do to improve your credit rating.

Check Credit Report – Contact credit bureaus like Equifax or TransUnion to obtain a free copy of your credit report every year. This can be done online as well. If you find any errors, have those corrected by filling out a form or you can contact your financial institution if they caused the error.

Have A Mixture of Credits – Having different types of credits such as credit cards, personal loans, and mortgages help improve your credit score.

Don’t Be Rough on Your Bank Account – Stretching your bank accounts beyond their limits such as writing NSF cheques, drawing overdrafts, etc. will hurt your score.

Pay Off Credit Cards – Paying off your credits positively affect your credit score more than paying off other instalment loans such as mortgages, personal loans, etc. Try not to exceed 30 personal balances on each card in which you carry a balance.

Use Old Cards Sometimes – Don’t keep too many credit cards, but don’t close your oldest credit cards either. Charge a few dollars on those oldest cards occasionally and pay them off right away. Keeping these cards active will have greater weight on your credit score.

Don’t Believe – Don’t believe ads that promise to fix your credit score faster by paying them fees. The facts that affect your credit score cannot be erased or fixed by someone and will follow their course to stay on your report until they complete their timeline. Only you can improve your credit score by acting responsibly and taking proper steps in the right direction.

High Credit Score: Above 800+

My Credit Score Update: Above 800+

From time to time, on AhmedDawn.com or on Youtube.com/adawn, I make my credit score public. The reason for this is that I talk about traveling by utilizing credit cards and rewards points and miles, and it only makes sense to publish my score to emphasize that I know what I am talking about.

You will find so many websites and YouTube channels online about credit cards and travel, but 99% of them are affiliated sites that make money by providing affiliated links. So that means these sites are working for the credit card companies and making money off you by providing best credit card lists or top credit cards lists and reviews which are affiliated, biased, and dishonest.

This is where AhmedDawn.com or on Youtube.com/adawn come in. All my posts are non-affiliated, unbiased, and honest. To maintain my integrity and truthfulness, I have those credit cards I am unboxing and reviewing, I am documenting and sharing my travel experiences utilizing these credit card rewards and miles, and I am publishing my high credit score.

You will not find what I am offering from any other so-called Credit Card Gurus. They probably have never used the credit cards on their best top credit card lists and are hiding various important facts from you to make you sign up for those cards.

For example, if you look at any best travel or top travel credit card lists provided by many Canadian sites like MoneySense, Rewards Canada, and Greedy Rates, they will not tell you that many of their best top credit cards do not provide trip cancellation insurance and also will not tell you how poor or good these insurance providers are.

So before trusting anyone, always do your research from an unbiased, non-affiliated source to come up with your own best credit cards.

To view my actual credit score, which just got updated recently, watch this video:

Credit Score Update | Staying Above 800

Triangle World Elite MasterCard Provides Free Roadside Assistance

Triangle World Elite MasterCard Review

Canadian Tire is launching its new rewards program called Triangle Rewards. Its iconic Canadian Tire paper money will still be available to earn & redeem at Canadian Tire stores.

The Triangle Reward program will be offering 2 new credit cards, including a World Elite series MasterCard. This is the 3rd free World Elite MasterCard after PC World Elite and Roger’s World MasterCard.

Earn rates are:

4% back on qualifying purchases at Canadian Tire, Mark's, Sport Chek, and Atmosphere.

3% back on grocery store purchases up to $12,000K annually. However, Costco and Walmart are not considered groceries.

7 cents per litre on premium fuel and 5 cents back per litre on regular fuel and at any Canadian Tire gas bar.

1% back everywhere else.

Another interesting features this card offers is a free Roadside Assistance Gold Plan provided by Canadian Tire. If you purchase Roadside Assistance Gold it costs about $100. So by just having this card for free, you will be saving $100 on Auto Club or Roadside Assistance programs.

The Triangle World Elite MasterCard has another stripped-down version just called Triangle MasterCard. The return rates on this card are the same: 4% back on at Canadian Tire, Mark's, Sport Chek, and Atmosphere. You also get 5 cents back per litre on regular fuel, but no 7 cents per litre on premium fuel. It has 0.80 percent back on everything else. There is no 3 percent back on groceries.

If you qualify for the Triangle World Elite MasterCard, which has an $80K personal or $150K household income requirement, you should definitely get it because it provides value—especially the free Roadside Assistance Gold membership.

Is CIBC Providing Free Credit Score?

CIBC Offers Free Credit Score Via Its App

Just about a year ago, Canadians had to pay $24-$25 if they wanted to access their credit score. However, the landscape of free credit score changed when FinTech loan companies like Borrowell.com, Mogo.ca, and Creditkarma.ca started offering free credit score.

Now, better yet, CIBC customers who have the CIBC mobile banking app on their phone will be able to access their free credit score without even signing up with any one of these three providers I mentioned.

CIBC’s free score is a result of partnership between CIBC and Borrowell and pulls Equifax credit score, which is a proprietary model of Equifax. Keep in mind that this is different than FICO credit score, which is a proprietary model of Fair Isaac Corporation. This credit score is a soft credit inquiry that does not negatively affect credit score.

Besides providing free credit scores, the mobile app has a FAQ section where clients can learn about how credit score works and so on. This is a good thing. Some recent research performed by CIBC shows that 69 percent of Canadians have do not know their credit scores and 45 percent have no idea where or how to obtain their credit score.

I have published a video review of CIBC’s providing free credit score and I also have showed how to access your free credit score on your app. Click on the above link to watch this video and you can follow step-by-step instructions to access your own credit score right away. You do have to have a CIBC account and mobile app to check your free credit score.

Don't Throw Out Your Credit Cards Yet, First Pick Up Your Phone

Cutting Credit Cards

Yesterday I decided to get rid of two credit cards. These two cards were in my wallet for long and I never used it. As I was calling customer service to close my account, my friend (who was next to me) suggested just to throw out my cards. He said he never bothers to call because it is a waste of time.

Many of us do the same thing. A lot of us don't realize that if you do not call your card company and close your account - your account will remain active and it will appear on your credit reports as a credit. So if you opened accounts here and there years ago just to get10% discount and forgot about it, chances are high that's what making your credit reports lengthy. We don't know how many credit cards we have and all these accounts appear on our credit reports and creditors might not like having too many accounts. So before you throw out your credit card next time, make sure you pick up the phone and call your credit card company to close your account first.
First Published: Mar 29, 2007 ADawnJournal.com