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Increase your credit scores up to 200 points with these credit improvement tips.
If your credit scores aren’t as high as you would like them to be there may be a way of increasing them. Depending on the issues in your credit reports, you may be able to increase your credit scores by as much as 200 points by following these simple credit repair tips.
Consumers with scores in the 500s will benefit the most but, everyone, even those with scores in the 700s should see an increase in their credit scores by following these quick tips.
1. Pay down your credit cards
Your credit card utilization, also known as your balance to credit limit ratio, accounts for a very large part of your overall credit scores. According to FICO, in order to maximize this portion of your credit scoring algorithm, your credit card balances should be as low as possible but, not 0. The average credit utilization for a consumer with a FICO Score of 780+ is 5.8% ($58 balance / $1,000 limit).
Work on paying your credit cards down as low as possible, without paying them off completely. IF you can get to 30% – great, 20% – even better, 10% – better still, 5% – you’re a rockstar.
Pay down your credit cards and watch your credit scores increase.
2. Request credit limit increase
Another way of lowering your credit utilization is by increasing your credit limits. If you have a card with a $400 balance and $500 credit limit your credit utilization is 80%. Paying down your balance to $100 decreases your credit utilization to 20%, which increases your credit scores. But, if you don’t have the funds available to pay off your credit card, requesting a credit limit increase can give you the same effect. Using the same example, if your balance remains $400 but, your credit limit is increased from $500 to $2,000 – your credit utilization drops to 20% and your credit scores increase just as much as if you paid down your credit cards.
3. Authorized User
If you have a friend or relative who has a long and positive payment history with no late payments and low credit utilization, you can be added to the account as an “Authorized User” and have the account report on your credit reports. Depending on your credit, this new account may help to decrease your credit utilization, increase your length of credit history, and maybe even fill out your mix of credit – increasing your credit scores.
4. Secured Credit Card
If you lack revolving credit (credit cards) and having an authorized user account added to your credit reports will help but, if you can’t find someone to help you out consider opening a secured credit card to establish some positive payment history and increase your credit scores.
5. Inquiries
If you have more than 4 inquiries reporting in your credit reports, they are most likely lowering your credit scores. Disputing the inquiries worked in the past but, most credit bureaus will tell you to resolve the issue with the creditor who pulled your credit report directly. Contact each of the credit furnishers who are reporting inquiries in your credit reports and request that they provide you with documentation proving their permissible purpose for pulling your credit reports or remove the inquiry from your credit. If you don’t have the time to do this yourself you can hire a credit repair service like CreditFirm.net to contact the creditors on your behalf.
6. Pay your bills on time
The best way of increasing your credit scores is by putting together 6 months of perfect payment history. Pay your bills on time every month and your credit scores will increase.
7. Improve your payment history
If you have derogatory information reporting in your credit reports you can work on removing it by disputing inaccurate, misleading, and unverifiable information with the 3 credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). But, don’t stop there, if the credit bureaus verify an account as accurate – submit a method of verification request, if you have a collection account – submit a request for debt validation, if there is a charge-off reporting – submit a section 609 request, if there are late payments reporting – send some goodwill requests, submit investigations through the CFPB, OCC, etc… work on removing as much derogatory information as possible and as the negative items are removed, your scores will increase.
If you need help to work on removing the derogatory information from your credit reports you can hire a credit repair service like Creditfirm.net to do the work on your behalf.
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