Credit Help: How to Improve Your Credit Score, Fast

Your credit score is a vital part of your financial health. A high score can get you better loan rates and much more. A low score can make almost anything money-wise difficult. Here are some ways to quickly boost your score.

Pay on Time

One of the biggest factors in FICO and VantageScore credit scores is payment history. Paying your bills on time, every time goes a long way to getting your score as high as possible. The longer you pay your bills on time, the better your credit history will be. The key is not to miss payments by more than 30 days. After 30 days, those missed payments can be reported to the credit bureaus and your score will go down. Set up auto-payments to help you never miss a payment.

Check for Errors

Make sure you are regularly checking your credit report to see if there are any inaccuracies. This could be payments made on time that was incorrectly marked late, someone else’s bad credit appearing on your account, and more. If there are any inaccurate items, report them to the credit bureaus immediately.

Pay Down Debts

Keep your credit utilization ratio — the amount of revolving credit you’re using divided by the total credit available to you — as low as possible. That means paying down debts and hopefully paying off your credit cards in full every month. Another way to keep that ratio low is to ask for a higher credit limit on your credit card. That will add more total credit to your portfolio.