Answer + Explanation:
There are several steps individuals can take to improve their creditworthiness, including:
- Paying bills on time: Late or missed payments can have a negative impact on your credit score, so it's important to make sure all bills are paid on time.
- Keeping credit card balances low: High credit card balances can indicate financial instability and can lower your credit score. Aim to keep your balances at 30% or less of your available credit.
- Limiting new credit applications: Applying for too many new credit accounts in a short period of time can make you appear risky to lenders and can lower your credit score.
- Checking credit reports regularly: Errors on credit reports can negatively impact your credit score. Check your reports regularly and dispute any errors you find.
- Building a long credit history: A long history of responsible credit use can improve your creditworthiness.
There is certain information that cannot be legally included in credit reports, including:
- Medical information: Information about medical conditions, treatments, or expenses cannot be included in credit reports.
- Bankruptcies older than 10 years: Bankruptcies can only remain on credit reports for up to 10 years.
- Criminal convictions: Information about criminal convictions cannot be included in credit reports.
- Race, ethnicity, religion, and gender: Credit reports cannot include information about a person's race, ethnicity, religion, or gender.
- Salary and employment history: Credit reports cannot include information about a person's salary or employment history.
Hope this helps!