You’ve checked your credit report recently, and you’re not too excited about your score. You want to bring that number up to a higher category. How can you accomplish that? Here are four easy ways that you can boost your score.
1. Diversify Your Credit
Your credit score is determined by a few components: payment history, credit history, utilization, new credit and credit mix. A credit mix means the variety of credit that a consumer has. The better credit mix that you have under your name, the better your score will be.
A good credit mix proves that you can handle different types of borrowing methods (revolving, installment, and open credit). Take a look at your accounts to see what you’re missing from your blend.
A quick way to diversify your credit is to apply for a personal line of credit. Click here to see what’s a personal line of credit and how is it different from other borrowing options. You can easily apply for a line of credit online. If you get approved, you could draw funds from your account within a business day. There’s no need to wait for results.
2. Correct Your Report
Take a closer look at your credit report. Do you see anything wrong? A mistake might seem like nothing, but it could be bringing down your credit score and affecting how lenders see you as a borrower. Here are some examples of common credit report errors that you could see on your own report.
What if you do see something that’s wrong? You’ll have to dispute the error and see if you can get it fixed as soon as possible. Collect proof of the error and contact the credit bureau. If you want fast results, contact the bureau over the phone or through their online chat.
3. Don’t Miss Your Bills
One late bill payment won’t hurt your credit score. A lot of late bill payments will. Your payment history has a significant effect on your overall score, so you will have to get in the habit of making those payments on-time from now on.
Making this change doesn’t have to be a trial. You can use bill monitoring apps to help you keep track of upcoming deadlines so that you don’t let a payment slip your mind. You can also automate your bill payments through your online banking. Whenever the bill is due, the funds are taken directly out of your account. It’s that easy.
4. Pay More than the Minimum
One habit that you should break right now is only making the minimum credit card payment every time your bill comes in. Doing this only prevents you from missing a payment and racking up late fees. It will not help you chip away at your outstanding balance. While sticking to the minimum won’t directly lower your credit score, it will make it harder to handle your card’s debt load and keep your total credit utilization low.
So, try your best to pay more than the minimum whenever your bill is due. Or pay more than once a month.
You don’t have to overhaul your personal finances just to get a better credit score. These easy changes can give your number a nice boost.
