New ways to help improve credit scores

ATLANTA (FOX 5 Atlanta) - Whether you're in the market for a new car, in need of a mortgage or even getting ready to start a new job, odds are your credit score will be a huge factor.  

Credit expert, John Ulzheimer stopped by Good Day Atlanta to talk about a new way one of the major credit bureaus is introducing that changes the way scores are calculated that could give some consumers a score bump.

The three major credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian maintain around 220 million credit reports each. Traditionally lenders and even debt collectors use the information provided by these bureaus to determine what someone's interest rate will be and if they are approved or denied credit or a loan.

But now for the first time ever, Experian is allowing consumers to add utility bills to their Experian credit reports if they use a checking account to pay the bills.

Ulzheimer talked about the potential pros and cons of consumers being able to add information to their personal credit reports.