If your credit score number is lower than you would like it to be, we can show you how to improve credit score in just a few quick steps.
Pay Down Your Debt
Decreasing your “credit availability to credit use ratio” on all revolving charge cards to under 25% of your credit limit is the easiest way to improve up your credit score. In otherwords, if you have a $10,000 credit limit on a credit card, you need to keep your balances under $2.500. Credit scores can really take a hit if your account balances are above the 50% credit limit.
Get A Visa Secure Card
Secure cards look like any other credit card offered by your bank or credit union. But the difference is you actually deposit funds into your secure card account. The good news here is that your secure card account is reported to the credit bureaus. This way having a good track record on the account will certainly help improve your credit score.
Apply For A Small Personal Loan
Using your savings as collateral on a small personal loan is a great way to get positive information going into your credit file. These are low interest loans that are paid back in months rather than years in most cases.
Use Retail Store Credit Cards
Retail cards have smaller credit limits and are pretty easy to get. If you behave and pay your bills on time or even better, payoff those balances every month, your credit score has nowhere to go but up.
Keep Your Existing Credit Accounts Open
Accounts with a long history are always better than accounts with short histories. Never close an old account when opening up a new one.
MyFICO Credit Score Damage Points
- 30-days late: 60-110 points
- Debt settlement: 45-125 points
- Foreclosure: 85-160 points
- Bankruptcy: 130-240 points
- Maxed-out card: 10-45 points
How To Improve Credit Score
Start today by getting your free credit report. You need to know just what is in your credit report file before you do anything else. We recommend that you order your credit score at the same time as well. Make sure that the information from each credit reporting agency match up. Important things to look for are wrong social security numbers, wrong addresses (current and past), unauthorized account inquiries, past employers, and any late payments.