4 Ways To Raise Your Credit Score

Having a high credit score is a big goal for the majority of people.  If your credit score is low, it can cause all sorts of issues if you ever try to buy a car or rent or purchase a house.  So how does one improve or raise their credit score? Here are a few tips to help you do just that.

Pay Off Debt

If you have a ton of credit card debt, then your FICO score is automatically going to be lower.  The more you owe, the lower it gets. It takes all of your lines of credit into account, and it sees how your current debt stacks up to how much you can borrow.  If you don’t have much wiggle room in this ratio, your score will fall. So the best thing to do to raise your credit score is to pay off most or all of your owed debt.  Paying off credit cards in full will definitely give your score a boost.

Time Your Payments Correctly

Creditors report your balances to the credit bureaus once a month.  If you pay your bills right at the due date, your score could be lower.  This is because the report to the credit bureau goes out well before the due date, usually around the time the billing cycle ends.  So if you make a large payment, or pay the card off in full, it’s not reported until the next month if you pay it after the report has been made. The lower your balance, the higher your score.  Therefore, you need to make a payment before the report is made. To find out when your creditor sends the report, you can check out your personal credit report, or call your creditor directly and ask them when they send it off, then plan your payments accordingly.

The Piggyback Method

If you are a person with little to no credit to their name, then you can boost your score with a method called “piggybacking”.  Find a person (parent, spouse, etc.) who you know has good credit, and have your name added to one of their accounts. In a month or so, you will have a good credit score because they have a good credit score.  Now, this methods takes a lot of trust between both parties, so make sure you use it responsibly.

Dispute, Dispute, Dispute

Always dispute any information on your credit report that is wrong or untrue.  When you have something negative or wrong on your report and it goes into dispute, it is suppressed from your credit report until it is resolved.  This results in an immediate boost to your credit score. If the dispute is resolved in your favor, then the boost will be permanent. So it’s always important to keep track of your credit report and report any fishy information.

These are just a few ways to boost your credit score quickly.  Keeping a low debt balance and managing your money responsibly is what will keep it on the high end permanently.  If you aren’t regularly keeping track of your credit reports and credit scores, now is a good time to start. It will help you on your path to financial success.

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