Dear Experian,

I lost my job two years ago and have had a bad patch paying my bills. My credit score dipped substantially. I managed to get on plans with my late accounts and am on track to be debt free in about three years. Can my score ever improve?

- THO

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Dear Experian,

I teach seniors in high school. They want to know what a beginning credit score would be if you’ve just turned 18 and you are applying for your first credit card.

- RRY

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Dear Experian,

Does it affect my credit score if I pull my own credit report more than twice a month?

- LAK

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Dear Experian,

I was told by a realtor that paying off everything on my report will cause my score to drop. Is this true?

- STM

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Dear Experian,

Is there a pre-paid credit card company that I can use to help improve my credit score?

- MBM

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Dear Experian,

My son has less than perfect credit but was told by his bank he could get a car loan with a co-signer. I have extremely high scores and do not want them lowered for any reason under my control. Assuming all of his loan payments are made on time and the loan always remains current, will this negatively affect my credit scores?

- BOA

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Dear Experian,

Does paying credit card bills ahead of time hurt your credit scores?

- AVE

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Dear Experian,

I recently had a bankruptcy removed from my credit report, but it didn’t change my score. When or how do you update the credit score?

- PLM

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Dear Experian,

Does opting out of preapproved mail offers raise my credit score?

- RTU

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Dear Experian,

Will it affect my credit score if get I get a mortgage pre-approval letter from more than one bank? If it does how much would it affect my score? Also, will it affect my score, if I check my credit score with you guys?

- UYI

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Dear Experian,

I admit I was late on one mortgage payment in 30 years, and my credit dropped 52 points. Is that normal for the credit industry, and am I stuck with that for seven years on my credit? Is a dispute allowed on this or not?

- PWR

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Dear Experian,

If I am trying to raise my credit score, it is better to pay off one credit card entirely or pay down the balance of two cards without paying off either one?

- ECH

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Dear Experian,

Does paying a utility bill or car or home insurance late affect your credit scores?

- FXR

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Dear Experian,

I came into a lump sum of money and want to pay off my credit cards. I was thinking about negotiating down the two higher balances until I heard that it can actually hurt your credit score. Is that correct? Should I just pay the full amount rather than negotiating a lower amount to pay?

- CKL

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Dear Experian,

I have a business credit card that I am the only one who uses and pays. Does this business card help my personal credit score if I keep it in good standing? Right now it does not show up on my personal credit report. How can I make it happen?

- BYN

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Dear Experian,

How do you get rid of too many credit cards even if you haven’t used them for years? Also, some credit card companies are charging fees. How do we cancel those cards without hurting credit scores?

- DRS

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Dear Experian,

How did I get the comment “proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high” when all I have is a car loan with nine payments left on a 60-month loan and only owe about 15 percent of the loan amount?

- SKN

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Dear Experian,

I have a rewards card that I use to earn miles. I have developed a habit of using it for every purchase and then paying it off online right away (not even waiting for my billing statement). That way, I’m not stuck with a huge credit card bill each month. Would this practice affect my credit score?

- ADS

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Dear Experian,

What looks better on my credit report, closing a credit card account myself or the credit card company closing my account?

- EAU

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Dear Experian,

I have “N/A” for a credit score. How do I get that corrected? I have been told by the real estate agent that it is because I have no current debt, and my most recent credit history is a payoff two years ago. I do have plenty of bad credit – hospital bills – but I don’t understand why I don’t have a credit score, good, bad or otherwise.

- TTL

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Dear Experian,

I’m planning to buy a house soon, and I just paid off a fair amount of debt and I hope it changes my score. What I was wondering is how often do the credit bureaus reevaluate your credit and change your credit score? Is it monthly, quarterly or less? And if they only do it a few times a year can you request to have your credit rescored so it shows up when my credit is ran two weeks from now?

- NPU

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Dear Experian,

What’s the meaning of “proportion of revolving balances to revolving credit limits is too high?”

- ZHN

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Dear Experian,

I am going through a short sale on my home and the lender is saying that if I take out a promissory note to make up for some of their loss that they will report my short sale as “paid in full -not full amount” Is that better than just a short sale, or because of the “not full amount” will my credit be dinged just as much as if I did nothing and they just listed it as a short sale?

- ATH

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Dear Experian,

If I order a credit report and score for myself, does it count against my credit history?

- SKA

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Dear Experian,

I have several credit cards and am struggling to make house payments and credit card payments. If I make arrangements with a credit card company to pay the card off with a reduced amount, will that still affect my credit?

- SPS

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