3 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score Quickly

Your credit profile is your portal to having a successful financial life and keeping your debt under control. You can boost your credit over a long period of time or relatively quickly.

Believe it or not, there are some easy steps you can take to raise your credit score quickly. In this article, we’ll go over some ways to do just that.

How To Improve Credit Score Quickly

The reason why your credit score may be low is because of delinquencies — bad debt or bills that you couldn’t pay. These absolutely kill your credit score because unpaid bills tell creditors that you can’t be trusted with debt.

Another thing that could ding your credit are inquiries, which is when a lender inquires as to your creditworthiness. When an inquiry is made your credit may fall a few points.

What Is A Good Credit Score?

A good credit score is one that is generally above 650 and between 600-750. Anything below 500 and you may not be able to get credit, or borrow.

Here is a scale to let you know what’s good, bad and excellent credit:

• Exceptional: 850-800
• Very Good: 799-740
• Good: 739-670
• Fair: 669-580
• Poor: 559-300

About 67% of Americans have a good credit score, according to Experian, one of the national credit bureaus.

How Long Does It Take To Improve Your Credit Score?

It takes as short as 30 days to raise your credit score, but don’t get upset if it takes two months instead. 

You didn’t get in financial trouble overnight, so likewise with this, it’s going to take some time to improve your credit. Now let’s talk about how to improve your credit fast in 3 ways:

How To Raise Your Credit Quickly In 4 Ways

You can raise your credit score quickly in a few ways:

1. Get Your FREE Credit Report

First, you need to access your credit report. As an American, you are entitled to one free credit report every year. You can get it by going to annualcreditreport.com.

Once you have your credit report, you need to look over it pretty good. You’ll be looking for any mistakes on any negative items that are on it.

If you dispute anything on your credit report, especially a collection or inquiry, the company must prove that it followed the law. If they can’t prove it (and many can’t) you can have the negative marks removed from your report.

This could raise your credit dramatically!

2. Contact Your Creditor

Believe it or not, creditors want to work with you to bring your account into good standing. If you missed a payment for one reason or another, they may be able to forgive the debt if you contact them.

Resist the temptation to call them. You should write a letter or email and get a documented reply.

If your creditor agrees to forgive the debt, your credit score could rise dramatically!

3. Pay Your Bills On Time

The best way to pull your credit out of the dumps is to make some on-time payments. This will help you build or rebuild your credit history.

Your credit history is the key to being able to borrow money from the banks or get a credit card.

4. Get A Secured Credit Card

A secured credit card is one that may require a deposit and a credit limit somewhere around $2,000. As you pay your bills on time, your credit limit grows.

Nothing tells the credit bureaus that your financial health is improving like credit card use. Of course, you’ll want to keep your credit card debt under control and don’t swipe if you can’t pay it off at the end of the month.

That’s the key: As you keep your credit card bills low, always pay on time. 

5. Boost Your Credit By Paying Your Bills

One website that allows you to build your credit quickly is StellarFi, which allows you to build your credit by paying your bills.

One of the most important things you can do is maintain good credit. If you don’t have a high enough credit score, you need to improve it — but how?

Watch this video of Milan and Home-Free USA as she gives more tips on how to improve your credit.

How Many Credit Cards Should I Have To Improve My Credit Score?

The idea that your credit can be hurt by having a large number of credit cards has some truth in it. That’s because of what’s called your debt-to-credit ratio.

A debt-to-credit ratio tells creditors how many of your borrowing power as a whole are you using up by paying your credit card bills. If you overextend yourself, the creditors will use it against you.

As for how many credit cards you need to improve your credit score, there’s no hard and fast rule. That being said, a couple credit cards in the black should suffice.

Summary

So, yes, you can improve your credit fast, but you’ll need to do three things. Let’s go over them again:

• 1. Get Your Free Credit Report
• 2. Contact Your Creditor
• 3. Pay Your Bills On Time
• 4. Get A Secured Credit Card