Guest Post Written by: Brandon Schmid of www.howtomanagemoneytips.com

Your credit score health is incredibly important to your personal finances because of a number of reasons. For starters good credit scores are exactly what lenders are looking for when they decide whether or not they will lend you money. Often times insurance companies or landlords will research what your credit is like when determining if they will have you as a client or possible tenant. This article will show you several ways of improving your credit score and will help with your personal finance basics.

1. Pay Your Bills On Time

The reason why this is first on my list is due to the fact that this is likely the most valuable rule you should follow when trying to improve your credit rating. If you visit your financial institution and are applying for a home mortgage the primary item they will look at is if you pay your bills when they are due. This includes everything like your television or satellite, home or cell phone, heat and hydro or internet bills. Your credit score is determined by whether you pay for, miss or are a little tardy on your bills. If they discover that you religiously miss or are late for payments, chances are they will not approve you for the loan.

Some tips so you will make every bill payment:

-Create a separate checking account and allocate enough money at the start of each month for your bills so you always have enough.

-Create automated email reminders a few days prior to when your bills are due.

-Create automatic payments with online banking.

-Keep a written calendar of when every bill is due. Review it regularly.

-Purchase everything possible with cash. No credit card means one less bill to worry about.

2. Never Let Bills Go To Collections

This seems like a no brainer but these collection agency’s exist for a reason. You can’t forget about your bills. They won’t simply disappear. If just one of your unpaid balances go to a collection agency you are going to pay surcharges, major interest and your credit score will be tarnished.

3. Keep Credit Card Balances Low

The most simple of personal finance basics is if you must use a credit card, keep the balance at zero or as low as possible. The less of your available credit you use the better. The number that most reflects your credit score the most recent balance on your statement. Even if you pay your bill in full every month you should never exceed more than 30% of your available credit. The less you use the better.

4. Use Old Your Credit Cards

This may sound strange but don’t change from one credit card company to another. If you jump around and continually close or cancel credit cards your credit score can be adversely affected. Try to use the very first credit card you every had and stay with it. If you primarily use a different credit card, try and keep your old cards active and use it every once in a while. Make certain you pay the entire balance each time.

5. Check Your Scores Once A Year

Your credit can get into trouble in a hurry. One day everything might be going well and tomorrow your credit rating might be awful. Looking into your score annually is a personal finance basic tip we all must follow. This will allow you to correct any mistakes that the banks or you might have made. Be careful though. If you check your credit score more than once a year or on a regular basis it will affect your scores negatively. Your best option is to check once a year and only once a year. Another thing to do is to dispute any errors like missed or late payments when you are certain that they were paid on time or there might be other problems that may come up.

High credit scores create the opportunity for lower interest rates on mortgages, car loans, personal loans and credit cards. One of the earliest personal finance basics you should follow is to keep your credit rating healthy so you can take advantage of many different financial opportunities. The more quickly you can fix any problems with your credit, the more quickly you will get everything back in order. By following these tips you will be completely on your way to improving the health of your credit score.

About the Author:  Brandon Schmid is the president of Angulus Marketing Ltd. and has spent most of his adult life studying money and how it works. His blog will help you pay off your debts and save money at the same time! Say goodbye to your boss forever! A blog that will show you the secrets of the wealthy: http://www.howtomanagemoneytips.com