Your FICO score, your score power, your credit score – although it may come with different names, it is a powerful number attributed to the overall health of your personal financial history. Your credit score is the number one aspect that will determine which interest rates are offered to you by banks, mortgage brokers and other lending institutions.
The majority of credit card companies offer three tiers of interest rates to their customers. These interest rates have been labeled as elite, premium and standard. For the most part, those with the highest credit ratings are offered elite credit card interest rates, and those with lower credit ratings are offered premium to standard interest rates on their credit card.
Many card holders are unaware that the interest rate can be adjusted, even after the account has been open and active for an extended period of time. There are many factors that can allow for an increase in interest rate, these are: if payments have been late one to two times, if there have been missed minimum monthly payments on the account, or if payments have been defaulted upon completely. Most often, when a card holder has defaulted upon payments, interest accrues at rates upwards of thirty percent, the maximum interest rate which is charged by the credit card company.
On the other hand, if you have been privy to falling credit scores, you, as the card holder could be liable to paying a higher interest rate. The lower the credit score of the cardholder, the higher the risk to the lending institution, therefore a higher rate is charged to the customer. At this point, the credit score should be increased using methods such as account history, the repayment of debt and the limiting of new accounts which are added to the credit file. These new accounts deplete the history, an important portion of the credit score.
At the other end of the spectrum, those customers that have improved their credit history or have developed good standing with the credit card company can also be granted lower interest rate. A simple phone call the company can yield lower interest rates for the cardholder; all you have to do is ask!
Interest rates are only one of the reasons to maintain the value of your credit score. With the current state of the economy, those with the lowest credit ratings are subject to rejection notices from credit cards, mortgages and even vehicle loans. A low credit score can cost you more than you think, and therefore it is important to keep the score high to maintain the value and health of you personal financial history.
Tags: bad credit, credit score
Categories: Credit Reports 101
