Some common mistakes with regards to positive information on your credit report include the length of time the account has been open, the credit limit on the account, and any accounts where you may be a joint account holder but the account isn’t listed on your credit report. When it comes to these types of mistakes, adding the positive information to your credit report can usually be accomplished one of two ways:

Contact the creditor. If it’s a case of not having a joint account listed on your credit report, you’ll want to contact the creditor directly. In many instances, your creditor will be able to add the account to your report for you. This is especially true if the account is listed for the other joint account holder already.

Contact the credit bureaus. After you’ve contacted your creditor, you’ll want to confirm that the information has been changed within the credit bureaus. Wait a couple of weeks, and then check your report – if you still see errors, send a letter to the credit bureau asking them to correct the information, or use the online contact form.

For accounts that are in your own name, but that aren’t listed on your credit report, you should verify with your creditor that they report to the three national credit bureaus. Not every creditor chooses to report to the bureaus, and without their voluntary reporting, the credit bureau won’t be able to help you. If you do confirm that the creditor typically reports and just hasn’t reported your account, you can take the same steps above in order to have the situation resolved.

For creditors that do not choose to report your credit to the agencies, you can still help your chances of obtaining credit if you can get a certified copy of your payment history. If possible, request a copy of the payment history on company letterhead, and signed by a manager or someone else in charge. By having this documentation on hand to bolster your credit report, you may be able to convince some lenders.

Adding positive information can be a helpful step when it comes to repairing your own credit. Listing accurate, positive information can counteract some negative marks on your report. Additionally, by verifying these positive items, you will can be more vigilant to potential errors in the reporting process overall. Don’t just look at your negative items – always look at your credit report as a whole to attain the best results.

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Your available credit to debt ratio is, simply put, the amount of debt you currently carry, divided by the amount of your available credit. For example, if you have a credit card with a $1000 limit and you carry a $500 balance, your available credit to debt ratio is 50%. The lower this ratio, the better your credit score will be. Ideally, you should aim for a total credit to debt ratio of 30% or less. A high ratio will negatively impact your credit score even if you make all of your payments on time. This is because people who use most or all of their available credit are seen as having a higher risk of default.

It may seem as though the answer to improving your credit to debt ratio is to open more credit card accounts. In reality, opening multiple accounts in a short period of time will negatively impact your score. Your best option, if you have been making payments on time regularly to your credit card company, is to call and ask for a modest increase to your credit limit. This helps in two ways – first of all, it is an increased limit on a card that has a successful payment history. Secondly, it increases your overall available credit, which will lower your available credit to debt ratio, improving your credit score.

By the same token, if you have credit cards that you have paid off recently, don’t cancel them. The available credit on those cards still counts as part of your available credit to debt ratio. If you’re worried that you might be tempted to spend, take the cards out of your wallet and put them in a safe place that isn’t easily accessible for impulse purchases. Every six months or so, you may want to use the cards for a small purchase such as dinner or a movie, in order to keep the accounts from being canceled due to inactivity. Be sure to pay the full balance on the card when it comes due, in order to keep your debt ratio down.

Another way to improve the available credit to debt ratio is to pay more than your minimum balance each month. Besides being an excellent financial advice, paying more will free up more of your credit, and lower your available credit to debt ratio. One word of caution, however: if you have several credit cards with very high limits that you are not using, and that carry no balance, you may want to ask to have the limits lowered temporarily if you are in the market for a car or other large purchase. Some companies see an excessive amount of unused credit as potential debt, and may be reluctant to loan funds in that instance. In most cases, however, this credit will not work against you, but for you as you continue to build a solid credit history that will keep your credit score climbing.

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