Alert! Get that Bill Paid on Time!

Don't you wish that you had an alarm that would go off to remind you to pay a bill before the due date? Your credit score is made up of several things but the most important thing is Payment History. By paying your bills on time (and in full) is critical to getting a good credit score. Be aware that you can find several tools that can help you in making your payments on time.

First of all, check with your bank and find out if they have Online Bill Pay. If they have this feature and it does not cost anything, you should check it out. Most Online Bill Pay options have a nice feature that allows you to tell the bank when you want payment made to a company. You can set that up so that they receive the payment prior to the due date and this will help you avoid any late payments. Additionally, you might find that they can actually go and get the balance due each month. Then you just set it up for payment and you don't have to do anything. The bank and the company you do business with will take care of the rest.

If your bank does not have online bill pay, then you can look into financial software such as Microsoft Money or Quicken as they also have the ability to setup online payments. This also can help you work to reduce your debt and manage any problems that you may have financially.

If you have a concern for identity theft, then you can still use the tools to make sure that you are notified about payments that are due and help yourself get those payments in on time. Some people actually make two payments to their credit card companies. They have setup the payment that makes sure that the account shows it has been paid on time. Then they setup another payment so that they can work to reduce their debt. By doing this they are sure that their payment is on time so that their credit history will reflect that. Then they can take the time to review their credit card statement, dispute anything that incorrect and decide how much more they can pay so that their principal balance gets reduced.

Making payments on time and getting their credit card balance below 30% of their credit limit is critical to getting a good credit score. Those individuals that don't make their payments on time or have used too much credit are giving themselves bad credit. Bad Credit will cost you thousands in interest and may keep you from having the job, home or car that you want.

So review your options and make sure that your payments are made on time. This one positive step will help your credit score each and every month that you pay on time.