So you’re trying to take out a loan, get a credit card with a reasonable APR or trying to buy something, anything on credit, but your credit score is too low for your liking? Well, the first place to start when trying to rebuild that score is to find out what exactly makes up your credit score.

35% of your credit score is from paying your bills on time. To help improve this part of your score, start marking due dates on your calendar. This is the single largest section of your credit score. Setting up automatic bill payment is also another way to ensure that your bills are paid on time. This also keeps you from getting interest rate hikes on credit cards and loans. Someone who pays their bills on time, every time, has an average credit score of 706. Someone who pays 99% of the time on time’s average score is 658.

30% of your credit score is how much you owe. You need to make sure that you keep your balances from equaling up to 30% of your total credit line. Your credit score is partly based on the credit utilization ratio. If a credit card company ends up reducing your limit, what you owe actually becomes a larger percentage of your credit line. So, if this happens try to get in touch with your creditor and get the limit reversed to avoid a negative mark on your credit score.

15% of your credit score is the length of your credit history. In this case, someone who has had a credit history for 20 years is going to obviously be doing better than one who just graduated college. A trick to utilizing this 15% is to keep the first credit card you ever open, open. Use it a couple of times a year and pay it off.

10% of your credit score is credit expansion. Here’s a problem, when you apply for too much credit your credit score can be harmed, however having new credit accounts can also help your credit score. Open new accounts over time rather than trying all at once. This will help your credit score in the long run as long as you’re paying your bills on time.

The last 10% of your credit score is credit diversity. If you have all your credit in cards then you’re credit isn’t diverse. However, if you have a variety of credit cards, mortgage, car loans and pay the bills on time while keeping the accounts active, then you’re diversified in this aspect of your credit. The key is to keep the accounts active because not using the accounts won’t help your credit at all.

What would you give up to have a highly customized credit card?

Question:

Perhaps the real question is what kind of concessions would you be willing to make on things like APR and benefits to have a card that is uniquely you?

Answer:

I would rather have an ugly card than to have to worry about my 30% APR or not having any kind of benefits from the card. I have seen where people have to pay higher APR’s on the cards that have a cute picture of their cat or dog or kid just because the credit card company went through the “trouble” of putting a customized picture on the card. This isn’t always the case, but, like I said, I would rather have an ugly card.

So the truth is, I would not make any concessions when it comes to my credit cards and how they look. I never see my credit cards anyway because they’re always stuck in my wallet. If I’m at the gas station, I use the blue one. If I’m at the grocery store, I’ll use the red one. This is how I know my cards.

In June, PayPal started assessing a 2.9% fee on purchases that are marked goods or services to personal accounts. While their business is their own and they can basically do whatever they want, it would have been nice to know about the change prior to them just going for it.

There was an email saying that the Terms of Service had changed, but the email didn’t give any specifics. In order to find out exactly what happened, you would have had to go read the entire Terms of Service and familiarize yourself with the changes. I don’t know many people who read an entire terms of service document.

When you do most of your business through PayPal, then these fees really start adding up. In the past, with a personal account (versus a premium account), you wouldn’t have to pay fees to transfer funds from one PayPal account to another. however, now even if you do have the personal account, you will be charged the extra fee.

The issue doesn’t stem from the fact that PayPal decided to start charging for something that was previously free. The problem comes from the fact that PayPal was being deceptive about the entire process. It is rediculous to think that a company can just start adding fees for no reason and give no warning. Even when my credit card company decides to change something in their privacy notice, I get a letter along with an email. I mean, credit card companies typically REALLY want you to know what’s going on.

So, what was PayPal’s excuse? This is what they told Jared Newman, the guy who blogged about the changes:

“We didn’t want to make a huge formal communication out of this pricing change, because we weren’t really adding any fees, and we were hoping it would be a more useful experience for people.”

Wow.