NEW YORK — From paying her bills before they’re due to maintaining a good job, Kimber Matthews does everything she can to boost her credit score which she admits is less than stellar.
“It gets a little bit better – a few points each month.”
She’s hoping her score will soon get a boost.
On July 1, credit reporting agencies started removing some negative information from the equation including nearly all civil judgements and most tax liens.
“It’s going to help those individuals who don’t have other negative information on their credit report.”
Financial advisor Bruce Stuart said overall about 12 million people are expected to benefit from the deal between the credit reporting agencies and 32 state attorney generals who accused the bureaus of including “inaccurate” information in their credit files.
From now on, records will need to have more details.
“If they don’t have the name, address, date of birth or social security number of the individual it will be taken off the credit report.”
Removing those is expected to help thousands get rid of mistakes on their credit report.
Kimber is one of many hoping that a higher credit scores leads to lower interest rates and better deals.
“I would definitely refinance my car at a better interest rate.”
The credit bureaus will soon also be required to update their records every 90 days, will no longer list medical debts less than six months old, and they’ve already removed things like traffic tickets and court fines from their files.
Those who do benefit from the new rules are expected to see an average credit score boost of about 20 points.
