3/8/2023
Having a low credit score closes many doors, such as access to car insurance or financing, although you also have the possibility of resorting to loans with bad credit, but at a higher cost.
Also, even if your credit score is not too low, but does not reach a certain level to be able to apply for a loan, mortgage, insurance or any other product or service that interests you a lot, it may be in your interest to increase it as soon as possible.
When you're not happy with how your credit score is doing, there are strategies that can help you improve it quickly. If you're interested in what your options are, here are our top tips on this topic.
How to raise your credit score fast?
Being in an economy like the U.S., it's not hard to understand the importance of credit scores. For many reasons, you don't always have the best score or lack the right knowledge to raise it the way you want.
Since this factor opens many doors for you, we want to give you the recommendations of our experts:
Check your history to find mistakes
First of all, you have to check your credit score on this page: AnnualCreditReport.com and you are going to request your file from each of the major bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion).
Once you have it printed or on your computer, if you find any errors, do not hesitate to send a claim for rectification.
One out of every four Americans has an error on their credit report. Among the most common errors you can find:
- Duplicate entries.
- Fraudulent entries.
- Payments made that have not been reported and are still showing as outstanding.
Claim negative entries that have already been paid
In your credit history there may be negative entries due to late payments that you have already repaid, however, it may be that the entity has not yet notified the bureaus of this fact.
In this case, what you should do is contact the entity to report that the debt has been paid off and thus eliminate this bad data from your score, making it go up immediately.
Pay before your card issuer informs the bureau
This is done by calling your bank or credit card issuer to find out the date on which they pass the payment information to the credit bureaus. This usually occurs on the closing day on your account (last day of the billing cycle), which is not to be confused with the due date of your balance.
This is so you can reduce your credit utilization ratio, which is the amount of money you are using from your total card limit, just before they report your balance.
They usually tell you to keep this value below 30%, but to bring your score up quickly, it should be 10% or less. To do this, as mentioned above, you will have to pay before the closing date so that the reported balance comes out less inflated.
Try to extend your credit limits
This formula does not work for those who have problems with overspending. The goal is to increase the balance limit on one or more credit cards to lower your credit-to-debt ratio, which is another way to achieve what we discussed in the previous section.
We do not recommend this method if your score shows a downward trend or you have missed a payment because the issuer may see it as a sign of a financial crisis.
You may be interested in: Why is my credit score going down?
All you have to do is call the financial institution issuing the card and ask for a credit increase. To speed up the operation, have a number in mind before contacting them and raise it a little if you feel that the person who attends to you shows intentions to negotiate.
Take out another credit card
If the issuer rejects your request for a credit limit increase, apply for a new card with another bank, such as those offered by Bank of America. This strategic hiring has the same purpose as mentioned above, to lower your credit-to-debt ratio.
Pay off your credit cards several times a month.
You may think you're doing great with your credit cards by paying on time every month. The catch is that the financial institution is only reporting your balance to the bureaus once a month.
If you are showing a high balance at the end of the billing cycle, it can be assumed that you are abusing the credit you have.
One way to solve this problem is to split the payments related to your credit cards. It doesn't matter if you want to use all the money to earn rewards, the idea is to pay at least twice a month to keep your outstanding balance low.
Additionally, if you make a large purchase with your credit card and then the money arrives, pay it all at once.
Become authorized on someone else's card with a good score.
The key element of this recommendation involves someone you trust a lot and who knows how to handle their money. If you have this person who can do you this big favor, you will explain that you have no intention of using the credit card, you just want them to add you to their account to raise your score.
What happens is the following: because you are an authorized user, the account will appear on your report. Also, your file will reflect the cardholder's on-time payments and (possibly) excellent utilization rate. Consequently, your score gets a big boost, so it will go up faster.
Source: CNBC
English: ¿Cómo subir el puntaje de crédito rápidamente?