Are you sitting back wishing you had a better credit score? Credit is a crazy thing in this world. Without a good credit score, you will have a harder time financing things like a car or a house, but it’s hard to build your credit score if you don’t finance something or charge things on credit. It’s a never-ending circle. I know some people don’t want to have any debt at all, but the truth is that some people absolutely need good credit for career purposes in addition to buying a home or a car.
So yes, credit is quite important in this day in age. If you are trying to figure out how to get yourself into the good credit category, here are 7 tips for raising your credit score:
- Check your credit report. Order a copy of your credit report and check it for any discrepancies. If you find any, be sure to dispute them.
- Keep your balances low. With your credit cards, you need to keep your utilization down. I have found the magical numbers to be 30 and 9. Your total utilization needs to be below 30% of your overall available credit, but ideally it should be below 9%.
- Pay off debts. If you have balances on your cards, be sure to pay them off instead of charging more.
- Keep cards open. If you no longer use a card, don’t close it, just leave it be. The longer you “age” your credit, the better your score will be.
- Pay off any collections. Be sure that you don’t have any collections hanging out there, if you do, make arrangements to pay them off.
- Don’t apply for anything and everything. Credit inquiries hurt your score, oftentimes just a little bit, but the more you apply for credit, the more inquiries you have. Plus, new accounts bring down your credit age which can lower your score as well.
- Set up calendar reminders. Set a calendar alert for yourself to remember to pay your bills on their due dates to prevent any missed payments.
