Can Debt Consolidation Improve Your Credit Score?

The answer to that question is if payments of the loan are made regularly and the borrower adheres to the terms of the loan. The duration is usually a few years so that can show consistency in the repayment, which helps the person’s credit score.

Obviously, the borrower’s credit score can also be hurt if the payments aren’t made consistently. The term of the consolidation loan is usually one or two years and the borrower won’t see fast improvement of his credit score, but it will happen slowly. If the borrower got the loan to pay off credit cards and keeps any of the cards—it will be important to protect the newer improved credit score by keeping the current credit cards payments up to date and charges should be minimized and make full payments.

Another point for the borrower to remember is to handle his current and future financial moves within his budget. Creditors will be watching for a realistic approach as to how the consumer handles his finances. Doing all of these things right will be a good reflection on the consumer’s credit score.

Getting the debt consolidation loan, making payments on time, and adhering to the terms could be in vain, if the consumer doesn’t learn to control spending urges like impulse spending. There was a time when using a debt consolidation company to get out of debt was a negative factor on a consumer’s credit score. That’s because this information was reported to the credit bureau by the creditors and it was not considered a good way to pay off bills. All of that has changed. There are many debt management companies that are reputable today.

Having many credit cards can be detrimental to the consumer’s credit score and that worsens if he is only making the minimum payment on each of them. Of course, being late hurts too. By getting a debt consolidation loan to pay off his credit cards the consumer can get a better interest rate that can help him in the long haul to pay less interest.

If the consumer decides to get loans in the future his best action is to check his credit score ahead of time at all three of the credit reporting agencies. Sometimes there are mistakes on the report that could prevent the consumer from getting a loan. For instance, a paid off credit card may not have been removed. Since he has his credit cleaned up he will be wise to keep it that way and check his credit report periodically to see if everything on it is correct. He can also greatly improve his credit score by keeping his credit cards down to no more than three cards.

This can be a good solution for people with many debts and high interest rates. This method can even keep the consumer from needing to file for bankruptcy. It’s easy to see that if used wisely a debt consolidation loan can improve a person’s credit