Author: Shannon Hannes
Your credit score is a crucial indicator of your financial health. It depicts your credit responsibility to lenders. Additionally, obtaining loans with lower interest rates is much easier if your credit score is higher.
If your credit score isn’t where you’d like it to be, you may raise it using some effective techniques.
Although it can take a few months to see results, you can improve your score immediately.
We’ll provide you with some advice in this article to assist you in boosting your credit score.
Let’s get started!
Be strategic about paying credit card balances
Your credit utilization is the percentage of your current credit limit. Generally, using less than 30% of your credit card limit is advised; the lower you use, the better. People with good credit tend to use less than 7% of their credit limit.
Additionally, you should maintain a low credit balance because your credit score is dependent on your credit balance when the card issuer reports it to the credit bureaus.
To keep your balance low, you should pay off your balance before the billing cycle expires. You can easily achieve this by making multiple payments before your billing cycle expire.
Additionally, a quick approach may be to lower your credit utilization as credits are often scored based on utilization.
Here are some tips to help you implement this strategy:
- Make a note in your calendar to sign in and make payments.
- To be informed when your balance reaches a specific amount, you can add alerts to your credit card accounts.
1. Pay Bills on Time
One of the best strategies to raise your credit score is to pay your bills on time. Additionally, late payments may appear on your credit records for 7.5 years. Call your creditor immediately if you are more than 30 days late with a payment.
Make sure to make the payment as soon as possible, and inquire if the creditor will think about not reporting the late payment to the credit bureaus. Even if the creditor refuses to do that, paying up as soon as possible is imperative to your credit health. Your credit score suffers every month your account is marked.
As the most crucial scoring element in both the FICO and VantageScore credit scoring systems, on-time bill payment has a substantial impact on raising your credit score. This strategy can be effective depending on how many payments you’ve missed and how recently. Fortunately, the effect of late payments diminishes over time, and increasing the number of positive credit accounts can help accelerate the
Here’s how to prevent missed payments:
- To avoid missing payments, set up account reminders.
- Consider setting up automatic payments to cover the bare minimum.
2. Use a secure credit card
Consider getting a secured credit card to help you improve or rebuild your credit. A secured credit card is backed by a cash deposit, which means you pay it upfront, and the deposit amount is often equal to your credit limit. You can use it like a conventional credit card, and timely payments will help you improve your credit score.
However, this strategy will most likely benefit you if you are new to credit or have a bad credit history and wish to add positive credit history while mitigating prior mistakes. This method may also take several months to yield results or changes.
Nevertheless, the goal isn’t to obtain another credit card; this can help increase your credit score depending on the depth of your credit. Instead, you want to establish a track record of maintaining low balances and paying on time.
Here’s how to choose a secure credit card:
- Choose a secured card that reports your activity to the three major credit bureaus.
- Consider alternate cards that do not require a security deposit.
Summary
Rebuilding your credit score can take time, depending on the depth of your credit. However, several strategies can help improve your credit in a few months. For example, keeping your credit utilization at about 30 percent or less, paying your bills on time, and using a secure credit card. Most importantly, the earlier you start working towards a better score, the better.