Simple Ways to Raise Your Credit Score

The first step towards building good credit is getting to know your credit report. This is obtainable free from the government bureau or at a fee from other credit bureaus such as myFICO.com. Your credit report will tell you the areas you need to look at seriously to improve your overall rating. Before thinking about improving your score, it’s important to understand the primary factors that influence your credit score. The main reason why most people have so much trouble upping their numbers is the lack of understanding about what factors affect consumer credit the most.

 There are five aspects that make up a person’s score:

1. Payment history
2. Amounts owed
3. Credit history length
4. New credit
5. Types of credit used

Your understanding in the primary aspects influencing your credit ratings will help make informed choices in the future that will help boost your score.

How To Increase Your Credit Rating

First and foremost, checking your credit report regularly is very important. This ensures that all inaccuracies on your report can be challenged and removed. Inaccuracies are usually the major causes of a low credit score.  Removing these items from your report can help your score in as little as 2 months.

In order to increase your consumer credit score, you have to obtain and use credit extended to you wisely. Just as experience in handling any job matters to a potential employer, so does experience with credit matter to a potential lender. Obtaining 1 or 2 credit cards with modest limits and paying them on time will do wonders to increase your score.

Using credit is not the same as buying something with cash, each time you place an item on your credit card, the available balance decreases, which further increases your utilization. Optimal utilization for people trying to increase their score is between 5%- 15%.

Paying financial obligations on time will also greatly influence your credit score. A good way of doing this is by automating the payments via the auto-pay option that is available on most accounts. This way, you will prevent the possibility of making payments late, which would have a negative effect on your score.

Reduction of your overall credit balances is another way of building credit. This is because reduction of your current debt ensures you have more credit available and consequently improves your credit rating from improved utilization ratios.

It is also important to avoid actions that may be interpreted as need for more credit; for example, opening several credit card or credit accounts in a short time will signal to lenders that you may be overextended and not able to manage your existing debt. It is also advisable to avoid closure of existing credit card accounts in a short time as this will also negatively impact on your credit rating.

There are insurmountable benefits in a great credit score. However, to build your score from scratch, you need to be both disciplined and patient. Taking a course in financial management will also come in handy.