Do you wish you could improve your credit score by 100 points? Your credit score is one magic number that could have either a positive or negative impact on your financial life. Finding it through a credit report and grasping the ways in which it can be improved is, therefore, a very important task. Improving your score by 100 points can be easily achieved by adopting these three measures from now on – paying outstanding debts on time, lower utilization of debt and maintaining a longer credit history. The first step in improving your credit score is understanding what your credit score is:
Tips to Improve Your Credit Score by 100 Points Quickly
A credit score is a crucial metric used by almost all lenders — including credit card and mortgage companies – when they are in the process of lending money to you. Having a good credit score will increase your chance of getting approved for credit cards and loans, in addition to the lower interest rates on those credit instruments. Besides the financial institutions, the credit score will also affect other aspects of your life, such as renting a car or an apartment or to some extent even getting a job. Your credit score is, therefore, a critical figure to enjoy the benefits of the social structure and to lead a smooth life.
The top tier of the credit score is from 750 to 850 points. Any score above 700 points is considered good. Ideally, you may want to stay above 700 in any circumstances. Scores below 650 are deemed as bad and below 560 as very bad. Factors that have a significant impact on your credit score are your payment history, credit history length, debt utilization rate, credit mix, and frequency of new credits.
Good Payment History Can Help Improve your Credit Score by 100 Points
Your payment history contributes to about 35% of the credit score. On time payments of all your loans will boost this section of the score, while late payments could impair the score severely. Recent delays carry more weight than the old ones. For instance, a late payment mark in the last few months will reduce your score significantly than a similar mark five years ago. The second most important factor is your debt utilization rate, which contributes to 30% of the score. Lending companies prefer clients with low utilization rate, ideally less than 25%. For instance, if your credit card limit is $50,000, it is safe to keep the balance below $12,500.
The Importance of Credit History
The length of your credit history accounts for 15% of the score. Keeping a long credit history is always beneficial and therefore closing your old accounts is not advised. The last two factors — credit mix and new credits — contribute to the remaining 20% of the score. Financial experts advice to maintain a different type of credit accounts such as car loans, credit cards, installment loans, etc. They also suggest refraining from opening new accounts, which is an indication of greater risk and it will impact your score negatively.
If you’re not sure of determining your credit score based on the above five factors, you can use this online credit score calculator to find where you stand in the credit tiers.
Three Keys to Improve Your Credit
Once you have estimated your credit score, it is now time to find ways to improve the score as fast as possible. We suggest you the following three actions to improve your credit score by 100 points — paying outstanding bills on time, lowering your debt utilization rate and maintaining a longer credit history. These actions can be implemented immediately and quickly results in a better score.
Paying off old accounts is always the best measure to improve your credit score. By paying all the outstanding debts on time, you are offsetting the old negative delinquent marks with the new positive ones. Moving ahead, try to payout the debts in such a way that your account remains below 25% of the approved credit limit. To achieve this, use your credit card less or pay off the outstanding amount as soon as possible.
Always maintain a longer credit history and update the credit history from time to time. Even though you’ve not used your old accounts in a while, do not close them, as it would negatively impact your credit score. All the three methods mentioned can be finished today with immediate impact on your score.
To wrap up, your credit score plays an important role in your financial and even in your daily life. It is crucial therefore to be aware of the factors influencing your credit score and to find ways to improve it. By following our simple suggestions like paying off bills on time, utilizing debt to the minimum and maintaining a longer credit history, you can improve the credit score by 100 points in a short time. Monitoring your credit can help you gain control of and improve your credit score.