5 Ways To Keep Your Credit Afloat During A Crisis

These are truly distressing financial times. With the mortgage crisis still lingering in the midst, and with interest rates continuing to soar, many are thinking of better ways for keeping their finances afloat during these dark economic times. Here are five surefire tips for keeping your credit afloat during a crisis. Keep Your Credit Score High One of the best defenses during a crippling economic crisis is by keeping your credit score high. Also try opening a new credit card account; however, remember to keep your total revolving debt ratio to just 30% below your credit limit, so that you can rack up as much as 50 points to your credit score. Shop Around For Bad Credit Personal Loans The market for bad credit personal loans is on a high note these days. You can easily get different quotes from banks and financial institutions, and you can easily compare figures, to determine which creditor offers the most convincing terms and conditions. Put Your Other Creditors On Hold If you’re in a financial crisis, it would help if you call some of your creditors, and negotiate If you may be able to put on hold some of your payments. Under the right circumstances, it would be better if you ask for permission, instead of asking for forgiveness from your creditors, since these individuals can actually punish you with late charges and black eyes on your credit score. Arrange For Automatic Payments For Every Type Of Loan To keep your sanity intact during a financial crisis, it would help if you carefully manage all your bill payments. By arranging for an automatic payment system for all your bills and loans, you won’t need to scamper to the bank each time you forgot to pay the utility bill, or the credit card loan. Most creditors often set up an automatic payment system, which deducts a specified amount from your checking account. Develop Frugal Savings And Investment Habits During tough financial times, always make it a point to reduce your focus on purchasing items that are not an asset, and instead set your sights on items that can be able to reproduce more of the same asset. It pays to develop frugal saving and investing habits during tough economic times. Buy Second –Hand Items To conserve your cash, and prepare for the tough times ahead, buy good-quality second-hand items, instead of splurging on high-priced items, which are sure to keep you sinking in a sea of debt. To stay afloat during tough financial times, keep your sights focused on reducing, as well as eliminating, your debt. A better start would be reducing your credit card debt. You must also need to be able to build a proper emergency savings fund of at least 15 to 18 months of expenses in savings, by putting money in either a money-market savings account, or in certificates of deposit.