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On the road to financial wellness.

Boosting your credit score

Building credit is important as it enables us to qualify for loans to make major purchases such as new cars, homes or business loans. The health of your credit is your credit score. This number helps determine if you qualify for a loan and what your interest rate will be. The better your score, the better options you have. While improving your credit score can take time, it’s well worth it. Here are a few ways you can bring up your credit score.

  1. Pay your bills on time
    Paying your bills on time is one of the biggest contributing factors to your credit score. If you have a history of paying your bills on time, lenders can predict whether or not you would be likely to make future loan payments on time. To repair your score, make multiple payments in one billing cycle instead of once a month. This will lower your credit utilization and improve your credit.
  2. Reduce your debt
    Pay off debt and keep balances low on credit cards and other revolving credit. The credit utilization ratio is the amount of revolving credit you’re currently using divided by the total amount of revolving credit you have available. Lenders prefer to see low ratios of 30% or less.
  3. Don’t open new credit accounts to have a better credit mix
    Apply for new credit accounts only as needed.
  4. Don’t apply for too much new credit, resulting in multiple inquiries
    Having too much credit or too many credit inquiries can hurt your credit score.
  5. Dispute any inaccuracies on your credit reports
    Request your credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies and review for any incorrect information. Dispute any errors by contacting the credit reporting agency.
  6. Don’t close unused credit card accounts
    The longer your credit history, the better. Close the newer ones first if you must.

Building and rebuilding your credit usually takes three to six months of good credit behavior to see a noticeable change in your credit score. It takes a little time but stick with it. The benefits of having a healthy credit score far outweigh the consequences of a bad score.