With a little footwork, you can raise your credit score by yourself for free, without having to dish out any money to credit repair companies. Until recently, there was a particularly effective little trick known as a "piggyback" that would boost your FICO score fast, sometimes by a lot. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on your point of view, it doesn't work anymore. So instead I'll show you how to raise your score in the modern world, perhaps not overnight, but as quickly as possible.
Let's look at some tips for raising your score fast:
1. On time payments. This one's obvious. Even if you have delinquent accounts on your credit history, try to budget, or do whatever you have to, to begin paying all your current accounts on time. And if you can get approved for a low limit card, such as a store card, make small charges on it and pay them off.
2. Reduce your total debt. A good chunk of your FICO score is calculated by how much debt you have compared to your credit limit.
3. Keep your old credit card accounts open. This is a huge mistake a lot of people make. They sign up with a new credit card with a lower APR to help themselves get out of debt, and then cancel their old cards. But those old cards, even if deliquent, still have a long history on them and you are essentially erasing them by closing out the accounts. The longer your length of credit history, the higher your score.
4. Stop applying and applying and applying for new credit cards. The more companies checking your credit score, the lower your score. If you have bad credit and are trying to apply for a new card, try very low credit limit store cards, such as Target or Best Buy. These are generally easier to get, and if you can't get one then wait awhile before applying again.
5. Get other types of debt. I know, sounds strange to recommend debt to people trying to raise their score, but the more variety of debt you have the better your score. For instance, if you can get approved for a car loan or home mortgage, so much the better for your score as long as you stay within your budget.
Although there are a few companies can help you raise your credit score, such as Lexington Law, they generally focus more on repair your actual report and the items that appear on it. For free, you can improve your FICO score rather quickly following the above tips. Earlier I mentioned a way to do it overnight |
