There are lots of situations where having a high credit score is beneficial. These include times when you need to take out a loan and need favorable terms and interest rates, or when you are applying for some types of insurance. It may be that you have a low credit score and want to refinance your mortgage or get approved for a new credit score. In these situations, you have to find ways to improve your credit score as soon as possible. Here are a few ways you can speed up the process and improve your credit score in 30 days.
Lower Your Credit Utilization Ratio
Your credit utilization ratio is the amount you have used on your credit card compared to your credit limit. You might have a ratio for a single card or an overall credit ratio if you use several credit cards. You should always aim for a ration of lower than 30%. For better results, you should always aim for a utilization of about 10%.
It is important to remember that your utilization ratio will not have an impact on your credit score if you pay off your credit cards before the reporting date. So, do call your credit card provider and ask them when the reporting date is. Once you have this, ensure that you pay off your credit cards a few days before the reporting date. By doing this, you will ensure your balance is reported as zero or close to it. The credit bureau will then use this balance to calculate your credit score which will lead to a boost in its rating.
Micropayments can be very helpful in helping you keep your payments up to date. Instead of making one large payment, you can make smaller payments throughout the month so you can keep your credit card balance down and have very little to pay at the end of the month.
Pay Your Bills and Debts
Late payments on your bills are one of the biggest factors that affect your credit score. Also, late payments can stay on your credit reports for up to seven years. If you think you will not be able to pay your bills in less than 30 days after the due date, call your creditor as soon as you can. You can then explain why you are late on your payments and ask if they can consider not reporting the missed payments to the credit bureaus.
Even in cases where the creditor agrees to not report you to the credit bureaus, it is still important to keep your account current. Once they decide not to report later payments, you should come up with a plan to pay all late bills and debts as soon as possible. Showing positive movement in your account by paying the late bills and debts can help minimize the damage and help improve your credit fairly quickly.
Dispute Credit Report Errors
Credit report errors could be keeping your credit score down. Fixing them can help improve your credit score quickly.
Every consumer is entitled to a free credit report from one of the major credit bureaus every 12 months. Once you have it, you should go through it to check for any mistakes such as payments that you made on time that were marked late, or hard credit checks that you did not authorize.
Once you have identified all the mistakes, dispute them to have them removed. If there are more than a few errors, you can hire a credit repair company to dispute them for you. If you hire the right company, they will help you start improving your credit score as soon as possible.
Ask for a Higher Credit Limit
This one is one for those who do no not have problems with overspending. The idea here is to ask your credit card issuer for a higher credit limit. If they can raise your limit and keep your expenditure and payments at the same level they were before, your utilization ratio will go down.
You should also not try this if you have missed any payments with your issuer or have a credit score that has gone down in the past few months. This is because both of these can lead the lender to think that you need the extra credit. If the issuer thinks you are having some cash flow problems, they can actually decrease your limit. So, ensure everything is just right before asking for the limit increase.
Open a New Account
If you have problems getting a credit card issuer to raise your limit, you should consider applying for a new card from a different issuer. If the card has a high enough limit, it could help improve your utilization ratio because your utilization ratio will be based on all the cards you have.
One thing to note is that applying for many credit cards in a short period could actually hurt you. There are two main ways this can happen. One, lenders will think that you are about to go on a spending spree now that you have a lot of credit in your hands. This can make it harder to apply for other types of credits such as loans.
Second, applying for a new credit card means that the financial institution will have to do a hard credit check on you. Every time one of these checks is done, a few points are deducted from your credit score. Because these hard credit checks stay in your credit reports for a very long time, you might end up having a hard time borrowing or accessing a new line of credit in the future.
Having a high credit score is beneficial in many ways and this is why you should do everything you can to ensure your credit score is not only high, but that it remains high. You should pay close attention to any issues that are leading to a lower credit score or factors that can help you improve your credit card in a short period.
