4 Quick Fixes for Your Credit Score

If you are trying to quickly fix your credit score, there are a number of different techniques that you can use. Here are a few quick fixes for your credit score.

1. Paying Down Card Balances

One of the best things that you can do is pay down your credit card balances. This is going to make an almost immediate impact on your credit score in some cases. One of the most important criteria when calculating your credit score is the ratio of debt to available credit on your cards. If you have a large amount of debt when compared to the available balances on your cards, this is not going to reflect positively on you. You need to try to pay down the balances to below 30 percent of your available credit limits. This is the magic number that credit bureaus utilize in order to determine if you are over extended. 

2. Use Cards Slightly

When you are using your credit cards, you are going to want to use them as lightly as possible. You should get in the habit of making smaller regular purchases with your credit cards instead of large purchases. If you can make a few purchases every month and then pay off the entire balance when your statement comes, this is going to help you significantly. The credit bureaus like to see you make regular payments and they will like the fact that your credit card balances are always low.

3. Checking Your Limits

In order to help your score, you should also get in the habit of checking your credit limits regularly. The card companies have the right to change your credit limit randomly. Therefore, you might not know that they have raised or lowered your credit limit. You might have thought that you could spend another $1000 before you got to the 30 percent threshold when really you maxed out your credit card because the limit was changed. If you want to avoid any problems, you will start checking your credit card balances.

4. Use an Old Card

Another good way to quickly boost your credit score is to use an old credit card. If you have a credit card that has been open for many years, you should occasionally make a purchase on it. When the credit bureaus calculate a credit score, they put a lot of weight into the amount of time that you have had your accounts. Therefore, if you put a small purchase on a card that you have had for a number of years, this is going to quickly boost your credit score when they recalculate it. You do not want to put a huge purchase on this credit card, but you just want to purchase something small. This way, you are not going to go above your threshold of 30 percent and you will be able to afford to pay it off when the bill comes due.