6 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score

1. Dispute credit errors

The easiest one is to start by looking at your credit report and check for any errors. If any error is found and corrected (that will take time) you can see an increase in your credit score.

2. Pay off debt

This represents 30% of your credit score, so make a plan to start paying off that debt to raise your credit score.

3. Pay bills on time

All of your bills, small or big, will have to be paid on time, and any type of bills like rent, utilities, student loans or other types of loans, credit cards, etc. This one can be tackled in many cases by activating automatic payments or just simple calendar reminders a few days before the due date so you can pay on time.

Late or missed payments remain negative in your credit report for seven years.

4. Keep credit card balances low

Try to pay more than the minimum if you can, but overall try to keep your balance low. This factor is one of the most common causes of a low credit score.

5. Don’t close unused accounts

You might think that closing unused accounts are good but it increases the credit utilization ratio, at least if they’re not costing any annual fees, you can leave them open even if they’re unused

6. Avoid excess inquiries

Applying for a credit creates a hard inquiry on your credit report and too many hard inquiries impact your credit score. Hard inquiries will remain on your report for two years.