JoshYour credit score is a really important number, especially if you’re looking to purchase something with credit, wanting a new credit card, or hoping to refinance some of your loans. If your credit score is low and limiting what options are available to you, then you’re going to want to focus on ways to improve that number, quickly. Here are my top 4 ways you can quickly improve your credit score:
1. Using Tradelines
If your credit score is really low, or you just don’t have much time to wait, this is one of the best ways to bump up your credit score quickly. Basically someone with a great credit history allows you to be an authorized user on their account, without the ability to access their credit cards. This means that their credit history also becomes yours, allowing yours to jump up quite a few points. This is generally a service you pay a small fee for, but the impact on your credit score can be really remarkable. There are many affordable AU tradelines allowing you to boost your credit score without spending a fortune or waiting too long.
2. Paying Off Your Balances Each Month
You may think that paying your balances off each month before their due date is enough, but the truth is that may not cut it. It depends on when your credit card company reports to the credit bureaus, and that can be quite a few days before your balance is due. Many people suggest that it can be a good idea to pay your balances off a few days before the due date to increase your chances of having a $0 balance on each statement, but I actually suggest something different. If you can, pay your credit cards off more regularly. It will mean that your credit utilization is lower at any time during the month. I personally pay mine a few days before it’s due and about two weeks before then, so a total of twice a month.
3. Check the Accuracy of Your Credit Reports
It’s a good idea to regularly get a copy of your own credit report and to check over it, to ensure that there are no errors impacting your credit score. There are plenty of small errors that can crop up and add up to a big difference in your credit score. Some examples of things you may be able to spot by regularly taking a look at your credit score include payments being flagged as late when they were not, identity theft, duplicate accounts and even old negative information that should have been deleted. Spending a few minutes every few months to check over your credit reports can make a big difference. Here is how you can dispute errors made on your credit account.
4. Don’t Necessarily Ditch Unused Credit Cards
Credit utilization is a large part of your credit score, so having a larger limit that you don’t use, or having another card with a large limit that’s unused can do a lot to improve your credit score. You may want to look into the annual fees of the credit card to ensure that you’re not spending too much on something you’ll hardly use, but if the card is a low fee card, it might be worth keeping around. Another alternative is to actually get a larger credit limit on an existing card as a way to improve your credit utilization.
Having a higher credit score can really change what options available to you financially. Hopefully these tips help you make some positive changes to your credit score so you can achieve your financial goals.
