5 Things You Can Do Today To Improve Your Credit Score This Year
Having a good credit score can save an individual hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetime. There are countless reasons why someone should strive for credit success.
Someone with a good credit score will be able to get better interest rates on loans, mortgages, auto loans, and everything else in the financial world. However, not all of us have perfect credit.
Credit mistakes follow us for a lifetime, so if someone has done damage to their score, they need to repair it actively. On top of this, if someone has no credit history or minimal history, they need to pursue increasing it actively.
We’re going to share some tips for how to increase your credit score so that you’re set up for financial success throughout your life.
Knowledge is Power
In order to fix your credit score, you need to know what it is. Once a year, you can pull your credit score once a year completely free.
Pull your credit and figure out where it’s at and why it is there. Making payments on time, having multiple loans and credit cards, and keeping them low-balanced will help your score.
On the other hand, missed payments and high credit card balances will hurt your credit.
Set Up Free Credit Monitoring
Many banks offer free credit monitoring to their members. They will monitor your credit score and alert you when it changes.
This is useful because your score will take a hit if you check your own credit too often. Call and check with your bank about their credit monitoring program.
If they do not have one, think about how important the service is to you. Inquire if they plan to add one, and if not, think about switching banks if it is possible.
If it’s not possible, don’t worry. You can still fall back on the free annual check.
Pay Off Debt and Credit
Missed payments are one of the most significant contributing factors to low credit scores. High credit utilization is another one.
Pay off whatever you can to lower your current utilization, and ensure that you have all of your payments paid off. It would help if you were level with the ground before you could start climbing up, after all.
On top of this, make sure that you have any inaccurate items removed from your credit history. False missed payments are more common than you may think, so make sure you’re not a victim.
Tag-Along
You can be added to an old credit account as an authorized user. This will allow you to reap the benefits of an account with perfect payment history while not lifting a finger.
You can ask friends or family to add you to their account, and they won’t even need to give you a card to use. Credit repair companies can connect you with strangers willing to do this, but this can be costly.
Start Building
Now that you’ve got everything you need to level your credit score, it’s time to go up. Payment history and credit utilization make up 65% of your credit score.
So, one strategy to improve your credit score fast is to put as many bills as possible on your credit cards. This assumes that you will pay off your credit card in full every single month.
This is the fastest, most reliable way to build your credit, and after a year of consistency, you will be in a much better spot.
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