Improve Your Score
6 Tips To Easily Improve Your Credit Score
If you're looking for ways to boost your credit score, check out these useful tips on how to improve your credit to help reach your financial goals. Your credit score plays an important role in your ability to borrow money, get a credit card, buy a car, or even rent an apartment.
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1
Keep Your Credit Utilization Low Keeping your credit utilization low is often one of the fastest ways to improve your credit score. Ideally, you want to keep your credit utilization as low as possible — below 30% at a minimum, and below 10% for the best results.
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2
Become an Authorized User Another straightforward way to improve your credit score is to become an authorized user on a friend or family member's account with a strong payment history and low utilization.
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3
Pay Your Bills on Time Paying your bills on time is one of the most important factors in determining your credit score. On-time payments make up a whopping 35% of your score. Set up calendar alerts or automatic payments to stay on track.
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Check Your Credit Report A single error on your credit report could get in the way of your score. Once you have your reports, confirm basic information is correct and look for mistakes — then dispute errors immediately with the credit bureaus.
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5
Keep Older Accounts Open Your older credit accounts may signal your reliability to the credit bureaus. Your credit history makes up about 15% of your credit score, so it may help to keep older accounts open, even if you're not using them.
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6
Don't Apply for Too Much New Credit Each application for new credit could trigger a hard inquiry, taking a hit of up to 10 points. Too many hard inquiries at once can be a red flag for lenders. Spread out your credit applications over time.
