10 Things to raise your credit score

A low credit score can be a real burden; it can keep you from securing the best interest rates on loans and credit cards or can keep you from getting extended credit at all.  If your credit score is lower than it could be and you’d like to bring it back up to where it could be here are ten tips that could help you.

Number one – Get a copy of your credit report and examine it closely.  More often than you might expect, errors can be present on these reports that will affect you negatively.  Just getting a copy of your report won’t raise your score on its own, but by being aware of what is present on your report you will be in a better position to control it.

Number two – attack the problems that you find on your credit report.  The earlier you address and fix any problems that you find, the better off your credit score will be.

Number three – don’t miss any payments.  One of the most important things you can do to get your credit score up, is to pay your bills – and pay them on time.

Number four – keep your accounts open as long as possible.  By closing credit accounts, even if they are paid off and go unused you run the risk of decreasing the average length of your credit history which could, in turn, lower your credit score.

Number five – ask for an increase in your credit limit.  This is something that seems almost too good to be true, but just by making this simple request you can raise your score.  An increase in your limit will put you farther away from being maxed out, which could help to raise your score.

Number six – pay more than the minimum monthly payment.  By paying more than the minimum monthly payment you ensure that the overall debt will go down, rather than the bulk of your payment going exclusively toward interest.  The lower you make your debt, the higher your score can get.

Number seven – avoid filing for bankruptcy.  A bankruptcy will do nothing good for your credit score; in fact it could very well have it in the dumps for more than half of the next decade.

Number eight – don’t open any new accounts.  Opening new accounts when you don’t really need to lowers the average age of your credit history and puts unnecessary inquiries into your credit report.

Number nine – have a good mix of accounts.  Show potential lenders that you are capable of managing revolving credit accounts (credit cards) and installments loans.

Number ten – try to keep your debt to credit ratio low.  You don’t necessarily want to pay off every credit card completely, but you want your balances to be low.  Keeping your balances at around twenty five percent of your total available credit will show potential lenders that you really now how to manage your credit.

Raising your credit score isn’t something that you can do overnight, it takes time and commitment to do properly.  By following the procedures detailed above, you will over time see a change for the positive, and then if you continue to follow the procedures you can maintain the good score that you’ve been able to reach.