Raise My Credit Score - The Easiest Way

It is within your reach, with just a little effort to raise your score.  It's not as hard as you think to raise credit score.  By raising your score, you will be in a better position to get credit cards and loans with standard rates.  In the following paragraphs, you will find the steps to take to raise your score and get these better rates from lenders and credit card issuers.

Get your credit report: You need a copy of your credit report so that you can check for any erroneous information that may be harming your FICO score.  If any information is wrong, you must contact the credit bureaus immediately to let them know of the error(s) and to find out what is necessary to get the information corrected.  There are three primary bureaus this credit report should come from, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  Another option is Fair Isaac at https://myfico.com, the company that originated the credit score.

Each of these companies will give you a somewhat different score, but they will generally move in the same direction, so if one raises your score, most likely the other bureaus will too.  By removing this invalid information, you have taken the first step to raising your score.  Note that once you have notified one of the bureaus, that bureau is required by law to notify the other bureaus.

Keep Old Accounts: It used to be that you were better off closing old accounts.  Now the scoring method has changed and this could actually end up lowering your score because this lowers your total available credit.  By lowering your total credit available, it lowers the gap between your total charges and balances and your total available credit.

This is especially true if you cancel your oldest credit cards since this shortens your credit history.  If you want to cancel some of your cards to reduce the risk of identity theft, the good news is that it will only lower your score a little bit.

Pay your bills in a timely fashion: Your payment record is weighted to give your recent payment record more influence than you older payment record.  At 35% of your overall credit score, this is one of the main factors credit bureaus consider when they calculate your score.

By missing only one payment, you can lower your score by up to 100 points – enough to knock you out of contention for a good score.  So pay your bills on time. This is the most important way to raise your score.

Reduce Your Debt: The difference between your total credit available from all your credit cards combined is the number the credit bureaus use when calculating this part of your credit score.  They do this because loan officers like to see a big difference between the total credit available and the amount you owe.  Surprisingly, lenders don’t care whether you carry a balance or pay off your credit card balances every month.  When the credit card companies report your balance every month, they don’t include whether this is a carried balance or a balance that has only been charged this month.

So the only way to raise your score is to charge less each month and to reduce the balances that you carry over from month to month.

Avoid Bankruptcy:  Bankruptcy is the absolute worst action you can take for your FICO score.  It can lower your score by as much as 200 points.  A bankruptcy remains on your record for ten years.  This makes you appear to be a higher risk borrower and lenders will charge you higher interest rates as long as this stays on your record.  Bankruptcy should be your last resort.  You should first go to a reputable credit counselor to help handle your bills.  This will give you the opportunity to actually raise your score over time rather than destroying your score for years to come with a bankruptcy.