Five Quick Ways to Raise Your Credit Score
Are you looking to increase your credit score in the fastest way possible? We know you want to act quickly (after all, time is money!) and it can sometimes seem overwhelming to sort through all of the information out there to decide what to do first. To simplify things, here are five top ways to raise your credit score within 60 days, some of them as simple as making a phone call:
- Use goodwill letters to remove late pays – This is one of easiest and fastest ways to increase your credit score, although it might take 30 days for it to have any effect. First, order your credit report and find any late pays that are within the last two years AND that are for companies with whom you still have a relationship today (For example, a current credit card that you still use but have paid late in the past). Call them or write them a letter explaining why you were late and ask them to remove the late payment. You would be surprised — most of these companies will do it if you give them a good, plausible reason why you were late. For them, it’s good customer relations.
- Increase your credit limits – This is done by calling your credit card company and asking for higher credit limits. What this will do is lower your current debt-to-credit ratio, raising your credit score. Again, you would be surprised — a lot of credit card companies will raise your credit limits quickly without checking your credit reportand then report this higher credit limit to the credit agencies within 30 days.
- Remove inaccurate, negative information. Look at your credit report and make sure all the negative items are really yours and are accurate. If anything does not look right, then go ahead and dispute it. Also, make sure the “date of last activity” is correct. Remember that negative items have less of a bad effect on your score after 2-3 years, so you want to make sure these dates are accurate and have not been “re-aged” to more recent dates. Also, make sure these dates are the same from all three credit bureaus.
- Add yourself as an authorized user on the account of a friend or family member who has a good credit score. With their permission, of course! This method has been abused in the past and as a result credit scoring companies have vowed to stop using this as a factor in credit scoring. In reality, we have found that the credit scoring companies have not yet updated their programs to account for these statements. In other words, this method still works as of today.
- If you have high debt, create a plan to pay it down. If you have have debt levels and you are close to being maxed out on your credit cards, figure out ways to reduce your debt. I know, I know … you might be thinking, “If I could quickly and easily pay back all my high debt, I wouldn’t be on the web seeking financial advice!” But as hard as it can be, we can’t stress the importance of this enough. See if you can borrow money from a friend or familiy, pay down your debt, get a new lower interest credit card, and then pay your friend or family member back. If you have the cash, simply paying down the debt will increase you credit score if you can get down to anywhere near 30% utilization. For example, if you owe $1000 to Credit Card XYZ, pay off at least $700 as soon as possible. Obviously, the less debt you have, the better, but at least get to this ratio.
By following the tips above, you can find ways to raise your credit score quickly and without much work. These tips also let you focus your efforts on the (sometimes little) things that make a big difference in your credit scores. Time is precious and raising your score quickly is important — so be efficient in your efforts rather than spending time doing things that have no real effect!
Jason,Thanks for the information. I just read ‘Five Quick Ways to Raise Your Credit Score’. Number 4 states: Add yourself as an authorized user on the account of a friend or family member who has a good credit score. With their permission, of course! This method has been abused in the past and as a result credit scoring companies have vowed to stop using this as a factor in credit scoring. In reality, we have found that the credit scoring companies have not yet updated their programs to account for these statements. In other words, this method still works as of today. I have completed this several months ago. Does this have a negative affect on their score? How do I use this fact to improve my score? Do I need to write a letter to the credit reporters? I heard letters attached to the credit report is a bad idea. What is correct?Chris
Chris,
At this point there is no negative affect on their credit score as long as you don’t use the credit and create negative items. It has no affect on their score, but will help yours. The credit scoring companies have said they want to change this practice, but in reality it takes a long time to change those models. You are correct about the letters – we don’t recommend adding any statements to your credit report because they will never get read, but could harm you.
Good luck in raising your credit scores!
I am a Realtor so I have roller coaster pay periods. I would love to boost my credit score so that I can buy investment property. Another property came on the market today and I had to let it slip away..AGAIN. My credit score is a 520 due to hospital bills, student loans (none in default) and late payments on my furniture bill. I end up making balloon payments but that does nothing for my credit score. I am giving myself one year to get it right..starting today. What is the very FIRST thing I should do.
Jason,
Thanks for the information posted on Sep 5 at 12:26PM. I do not understand how the card reporting agencies know that I am on another persons credit card. Only their social secrity number is on their card. When the credit agent does a search on me what tells them I am an authorized used on another persons credit card?
Chris
Chris,
As long as they credit card company asks for your social security number, then it will be attached to your credit report. If the card company only asks for a name (like amex does) then you will NOT get any credit for their good credit. Hope this makes sense,
Jason
Hello thanks for putting this information out there. I have bought the credit bible…. Was enrolled at Lexington Law which did absolutely nothing for me. But would like to ask you to address Judgements and Charge Offs. How can you raise your score with these. I had three credit cards and have paid off the balances to zero. sitll use all three monthly and pay balance to zero. Have around 20000.00 available credit even though I have delinquent accounts. So what else can be done? Thank you for any help you provide…..
Lisa,
I am not sure of your exact question, but I will try and answer what I think you are asking. If you have charge offs, but they are paid off already, it is very difficult to do anything about them. You can try and dispute them again, however its best to negotiate for removal of charge offs BEFORE you pay anything off. After you have paid it off, you dont have any neg leverage.
Do you have late payments on your credit report? If they are recent, you might want to try and use goodwill letters to remove them.
What is the purpose of paying charge offs if it doesn’t help your credit score?
how will I get a credit line at bee retired and never applied for credit in the past? I bought a house cash and I always deal with cash. I am trying to get a home line of credit, but I have no creadit history. What can I do? I have apply for different credit cards but I always get dinie because I never had any thing to my name>
Thank you for the info of increasing my credit score. I have no late payments but I am quite near the limits on my charges. I called and Capital One increased it w/o pulling my credit report but the others wanted to pull a credit report, so I said no. Also, I have student loans which comprised of five different loans and I think I should consolidate them. How do school loans affect your credit score? Thanks
Jason, thank you for sending your 5 ways to improve credit scores. I did want to attest to your advice regarding
“goodwill” letters. I have been able to successfully remove and/or negotiate negative items on Chris’ report by “utilizing letters” with an even more positive response when I am able to address the letters to a named ACCT. REP from collection agency letters.But I have (2) questions. One of the negative items that I was able to negotiate to a paid as agreed and its negative removal was froma collection agency who acquire the debt from ORIGINAL CREDITOR. But the original creditor is still reporting this item at the then balance that was sent to “collections”.Since this has been paid by settlement to the collection agency -can I get the ‘original” creditor to remove the negative reporting as the bill is now considered paid?
My second question is regarding an account that was charged -off. After passing hands wth several collection agencies which I attempted offers to negotiate settlement I was informed that it has now been sent back to the “original creditor” , who has now added $ 400 to the charge-off BALANCE and has also brought the date of activity to present time even though the original “charge-off” date was appx. 4 years ago.Canthey increase the balance after it has been charged-off? Thank you for allowing me to comment and informationis greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Linda
I need to know five way to Raise my credit score
Your site has been so very helpful! I got my credit report for the first time and was very surprised. There was one error and an old account that went to a collection agency. I haven’t heard from the store or the agency in two years and thought I had paid it. I cleared up the error and am disputing the other matter. I just lost my one and only major credit card because I did’nt use it. My parents will put me on their cards as an authorized user if I can tell them how to do it and reassure them that it won’t hurt their credit. What must they do to add me? They are out of state. Do they need to call the CC companies or fill out paperwork? I need to fix may credit fast! Thank you so much!
Jason, I see in response to Chris, you have stated that becoming a co-applicant will not lower the other applicants credit score, but only help mine. The other person thinks they were rejected from a line of credit because of the addition of me. Could this be true? If I am removed from the card, will the points I gained on my credit score be removed?
Thanks, Jim
I have found that my credit card company has increased my APR and the finance charge has made it impossible for me to make a payment for more than the minimum payment. This does show that I make payments on time on my report but it also shows that I have that outstanding balance. Would it be wise for me to call this card company and negotiate a payoff?
I have one late payment on my suntrust acct.,and I called them to ask can they take it off do to lack of work, and I was told that they could do that. So, what should I do next?
My car was just reposessed (volutarily) and I desperately need a car. My credit score is 456. Where should I go?
i need to raise my score 25 points ASAP..!!!
HOW DO I DO IT??????
I was hoping to find a comment or answer to Grant’s question.
Oh, and Anita’s too. This would help answer my questions. Thanks
what is the method of someone placing you as an authorized user? My cousin has excellent credit how can he make me an authorized user on his accounts?
I was told by a credit agency that they can not agree to take off the credit collection reported to the credit agency if I agree to pay them and that this would be unlawful.
Secondly… I paid the original creditor the full amount after disputing the bill…I should have sued the doctor for malpractice but that is another story. I was also sent to collections.. CBC And they put on my credit report, “settled for less then amount due.” It was their fee that they are referring to as settled for less then amount due, less than twenty-five bucks! I paid the original creditor in full. How can I get this off my report? They refuse and are being very nasty about it holding firm to their ground reciting laws.
CreditWhoas-
This is not true and is a negotiating tactic. The collection agency has bought your debt for pennies on the dollar. They can remove anything that they control, whenever they want. Credit agencies are not government agencies, and anything can be removed or added by any company reporting on your credit report. I suggest you wait 30 days and ask them again – tell them you have the cash (40% of original amount) you owe and are willing to settle right away. I bet you their story will change.
For part 2 of your question, dispute the bill with all three credit agencies and attached a copy of the check that you paid off. Mail all three letters certified mail, and make sure the credit agencies get back to you in 30 days. You have evidence that the amount was paid in full.