Wipe out your credit card balances

Wipe out your credit card balances

After you establish credit If you’re trying to repair your credit Once you’ve gotten your credit established, you can’t just set it and forget it.

If you’re ready to amp up your score by 100 points or more, here’s what you need to do next. 

The fastest way to send your score shooting up is to pay off your credit card debt. Carrying too much debt drags down your credit utilization, which means how much of your total credit line you’re using. The lower your balances are, the better where your score is concerned. Ask for more credit Aside from paying down your credit you can also improve your credit utilization by asking for a limit increase. This is tricky, however, since your credit card company might want to pull your credit report before they approve you. Every time a lender checks your credit it knocks a point or two off your score so you want to avoid a new inquiry if you can.

Keep your accounts open, Once you pay off your cards you might think of just closing them for good but that could be a mistake. The older your account history is, the better your score should be so you may want to consider keeping old accounts open and active. Use your card every once in awhile and then pay it off to keep the account active. Slow down on new credit applications, Every time you apply for a new card, a new inquiry hits your credit report and your score drops by a few points. To keep your credit score from slipping too much, scale back on how often you open new accounts.

There are lots of things that can cause your credit score to tank but it’s not the end of the world. It might be an uphill battle to start but it’s possible to work your way back towards a good score if you know what to do. If you filed bankruptcy or lost a home to foreclosure, then the cause of your bad credit is pretty clear cut but it’s not always obvious. That’s why it’s so important to know what’s on your credit report. If there’s an error you missed, someone is opening fraudulent accounts in your name or your credit utilization is just too high you’re not going to be able to fix if it you don’t know about it.