Tabulated by credit bureaus, a credit score or a credit report is a reflection of your financial behaviour and past payment history typically on your loan accounts, credit cards, and regular bills such as with telcos and utility companies, depending on the bureau and the relationship they have with the reporting companies.

Depending on the loan type, other factors- such as your salary, length of employment, bankruptcy/litigation information, and the number of credit facilities you have- may also be taken into consideration by lenders during a loan application.

We have seen brokers and loan consultants touting credit improvement programs. While we cannot be sure that they are preying on desperate borrowers, we are definitely sceptical towards such programs in general.

In fact, it was a broker who reached out, wanting to partner with us to “help” our customer that we decided to write this piece on how to improve your credit score. Upon rigorous prompting from our CEO, it turned out they were just getting the borrower to do a debt consolidation – essentially taking the opportunity to charge the borrower twice, one for “consulting” and the other, the usual loan brokering fee, trying to swing our customer to pay for something we can assist for free.

It is also because of the things they are willing to say since the industry is unregulated and comprises mainly individuals that we decided to build a marketplace that removes the middleman altogether to make borrowing more transparent, unbiased and efficient. See us as a tool or CRM where you reach multiple lenders directly. All lenders make their offers directly to you and we do not cherry-pick which offer to only show you.

Improving your credit score is not rocket science but involves taking strategic and disciplined steps to demonstrate responsible financial behaviour.

Perhaps the mere act of someone pacing you, looking through your finances in detail may work wonders in your case. Regardless, here are some guidelines that should aid in improving your credit score:

1. Pay Your Bills on Time: Timely payments impact your credit score significantly. Ensure that you pay all your bills- including credit cards, loans, and utilities- by the due date.
2. Reduce Credit Card Balances: Aim to keep your credit card balances low relative to your credit limit. High credit card balances can negatively affect your credit score.
3. Check Your Credit Report Regularly: In the US, 1 out of 4 consumers shared in a survey that they had spotted errors in their credit reports. Consider reviewing your credit report at least once a year to ensure there are no errors or fraudulent activities. In Singapore, you can obtain a credit report from Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS).
4. Settle Outstanding Debts and Avoid Default on Your Loans: If you have overdue debts, work on settling them as soon as possible. And as mentioned above, debt consolidation program may also be able to help you work towards that.

This is a collaboration article with FindtheLoan.