9 Helpful Tips for Raising Your Credit Score

Your credit score is one of the most critical aspects of your life. You need to protect it if you want to buy a house, a car, or get a business loan.

There are some ways to increase your score and do so relatively quickly. Most changes take some time, but we’ve found some strategies that can quickly boost your score and help you on the path to financial freedom. The team at NerdWallet offers some simple ways to increase your rating and give you the score you want.

Can You Boost Your Score by 100 Points Fast?

If your score is in the “fair” or “bad” ranges, you’ll see more dramatic results by applying the tops included than if you were up near the top of the credit range. When you’re struggling with a low score, you’ll make fast gains in your score by applying these tips right away. There’s more room for improvement when you have a low score than a high one. Of course, if you already have a good score and want it to be better, you can apply these same tips and see some improvements.

1. Pay Your Credit Card Balances and Use These Cars More Strategically

It’s never a good idea to carry an entire credit card balance. If you want to see your credit score increase rapidly, you need to improve your credit utilization. The guidance given by NerdWallet is to use less than 30% of your limit on a credit card. The less you use, the better your score can be. You should use these cards every month, but you should also pay off the balances each month.

2. Become an Authorized User for a Friend or Family Member

Your friends and family can help improve your score by making you an authorized credit card user. This adds the account to your credit report, and if they have a high limit, it improves your credit utilization, which can be hard to handle when you have maximized cards. You want to ensure this credit account is reported to all three major credit bureaus to improve your score.

3. Dispute Errors on Your Credit Reports

If there’s a negative item on your credit report, it can pull your score down and cause you to pay more in interest than you should. You’re entitled to a free report from each of the three major credit bureaus each year. Obtain copies of these credit reports and dispute any errors that could cause your score to decrease. Once you deny an error, credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate and respond, which means your score should increase quickly.

4. Use a Secured Credit Card

With a small cash deposit, you can obtain a credit card and begin to use the card to improve your overall score. This type of card typically has a low limit, but when you make on-time payments, you’ll help to build your score and improve your general credit. If you’ve never had any credit, this is a great way to establish some credit and begin to have a score in the excellent range, making it easy for you to show you can make on-time payments.

5. Use Another Form of Credit

You can build and improve your credit score by using credit cards, but you can also get a loan and pay it off to build your score. Some organizations offer credit-builder loans that help you improve your score and give you an established history that has more than just a bunch of credit cards. This is another item where you can make substantial gains if you haven’t had credit in the past.

6. Add Rent and Utility Payments to Your Score

You can boost your credit score by having rent and utility payments reported to the credit agencies. Every scoring system doesn’t consider rent, but it can help in some instances. You can also use tools to boost your score with on-time payments for streaming services, phone bills, and other utility bills. You can choose the reported prices, which gives you a bit of a bonus when you apply for more credit.

7. Address Collections Accounts on Your Report

If your credit report has collections accounts, you need to address these items. You need to pay them off or report them as false if they are faulty. Once paid, you should be able to ask the agency to stop writing the debt, which can improve your score and give you an improved report. Some disputes and goodwill deletions can take a few months; this isn’t an immediate fix.

8. Pay Your Bills On Time

When trying to establish a positive credit score for the first time, you need to pay your bills on time. If you’ve fallen behind in the past, paying these bills on time in the future will help improve your overall score. Anytime you pay a bill late, it impacts your credit report. These late payments can stay on your account for 7.5 years, making it hard to get the credit you want. Paying bills on time is one of the best strategies to build a solid credit score and give you the results you deserve.

9. Request Higher Credit Limits

You can improve the utilization of your credit cards by asking for a higher credit limit on some of your cards. The higher the limit is, the more of the credit amount you can use each month. Continue to pay your credit cards off regularly and let your score go up and your limits increase. The more positive credit experience you provide, the more you’ll have a higher limit and enjoy the benefits of on-time credit card payments and higher limits.