Step 1: Pay your bills on timeYour payment history accounts for approximately 35% of your credit score more than any other factor. If you have a history of paying bills late, you need to start paying them on time. If you’ve missed payments, get current and stay current. Each on-time payment updates positive information to your credit report. The longer your history of paying bills on time, the higher that portion of your credit score will be.Step 2: Review your credit report* Errors happen, so review your report closely for:
* Accounts that aren’t yours
* Accounts with the wrong account date or credit limit listed
* Names and Social Security numbers that aren’t yours
* Addresses where you’ve never lived
* Negative information, like late payments, older than seven years. (Late payments can only legally stay on your credit report for seven years.)Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the three national bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – and your creditors are responsible for correcting errors on your report. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website has detailed steps for correcting errors, as well as a sample dispute letter. If you find accounts that aren’t yours and suspect you’ve been the victim of identity theft, you’ll need to place a fraud alert on your credit report, close those accounts and file a police report and a complaint with the FTC.Step 3: Pay down your card balancesThe amount of debt you have is heavily scrutinized for your score. Your total reported debt owed is taken into account, as well as the number of accounts with outstanding balances and how much available credit has been used. The total reported debt is compared to the total credit available to determine your debt-to-credit ratio. Your credit score can suffer if those numbers are too close together. Your best plan for lowering your debt is to make a plan to pay it off. While it may seem like a wise move, don’t consolidate debt onto one lower interest card. Credit inquiries and opening new credit can lower your credit score, at least in the short term. Closing old cards with high credit limits can also throw off your debt-to-credit ratio. If a new credit offer is too good to pass up, keep your total amount of credit available high by not closing any old credit cards.Step 4: Use CreditYou must use credit regularly for creditors to update your credit report with current, accurate information. While paying with cash or a debit card may make it easier to keep to a budget, a cash-only lifestyle does very little to improve your credit score. The easiest way to use credit is with a credit card, especially if you’re trying to improve your score to qualify for an installment loan. If you have an old credit card, start using it responsibly again. A long credit history is a positive determining factory for your credit score, so making an inactive account active again may be advantageous. Although you need to make a point to use credit regularly, only charge as much as you can pay off. Keep your credit balances low so as not to damage your debt-to-credit ratio.Step 5: Monitor your reportKeeping a watchful eye on your credit report will let you see if your hard work is paying off. Credit monitoring allows you to keep tabs on account activity. You’ll also be immediately tipped off about any fraudulent activity. The credit bureaus and FICO offer credit monitoring services, which typically cost about $15 a month to monitor all three of your credit reports and scores. You can also use Credit Karma or other free sites alike.Step 6: When You’re shopping for a loan, do it quickly.This is a hack due to the lag time between the lenders and the 3 bureaus.When you apply for a loan, the lender will “run your credit” —that is, send an inquiry to one of the credit rating agencies to find out how creditworthy you are. Too many such inquiries can hurt your FICO score since that could indicate you’re trying to borrow money from many different sources. Of course, you can generate a lot of inquiries doing something perfectly reasonable— like shopping for the best mortgage or auto loan by applying to a number of different lenders. The FICO scoring system is designed to allow for this by considering the length of time over which a series of inquiries are made. Try to do all your loan shopping within 30 days, so the inquiries get batched together and its obvious to FICO that you are loan shopping.

We encountered a great term the other day when it comes to business financing – the term was ‘ expansionary finance ‘. Is it just us or does this term seem to perfectly cover off factoring and receivables financing.Often though three key issues come up when Canadian business owners and financial managers consider this type of financing. What are those 3 issues? They are the total cost of this type of financing, the rates associated with this facility, and probably most importantly what type of firm offers the best facility to match your company’s own specific needs.Let’s learn and cover off those issues, which will allow you to get more comfortable we think with this type of Canadian business financing.So, why should you even be considering receivables factoring? Simply because it has become a common way for Canadian business to cash flow their accounts receivable and generate working capital based on your own policy of extending credit terms to your customers.And, as most business owners know, sales does not equal cash flow and when business financing of your A/R is not available from your bank a logical place to turn to is to an independent finance firm that offers invoice financing.But, what does this type of financing cost, and who offers it, and an even better question… ‘How do you pick the best factoring partner?In Canada the financing and factoring of A/R varies widely. As a general rule we can say the cost is between 1-3% per month based on the size of the facility, your overall financial condition, and most importantly, whether you have sought out and picked the finance firm that best suits your needs.Let’s clarify our comment on your overall financial condition. Receivable financing places much less emphasis on your firms overall financial health – in fact a huge amount of Canadian firms that utilize this type of financing are in stages of turn around, high growth, experiencing temporary financial losses, etc. So don’t despair that your firm isn’t eligible. But, as we said, your client base, the size of your A/R portfolio on a monthly basis and some other factors will dictate your overall pricing.Frankly the best costs in factoring finance in Canada start to be achieved when your monthly financing capability for A/R is greater than 250k. Is there a ceiling on the amount of facility? Absolutely not, and facilities that go into the several millions of dollars on a monthly basis happen everyday in Canada.Clients often ask our favorite most recommended type of facility. That’s a simple one – its called C I D – which stands for confidential invoice discounting, allowing you to be in total control of billing and collecting your own a/r without any notification to clients that comes with the U.S. and U.K.versions of a/r finance.Remember also that when you are addressing the always top of the list issue with firms such as yourself, ‘ Cost ‘ that you need to factor in things you might never have thought about. They include your ability to grow your business and generate more profits simply because you now have the capital to do so, albeit at a higher cost. And couldn’t you offset some of the cost of factoring by taking discounts with your own suppliers (and improving relations with them along the way!), as well as purchasing more effectively with your new found working capital?So, in summary, if you need a financing partner when you are considering a receivable management and financing solution seek out and speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor who will ensure your cost and partnership with your factoring firm is focused on a mutually beneficial relationship for financing success.