5 Simple Strategies to Boost Your Credit Score Fast
How Can I Boost My Credit Score Faster? You can boost your credit score quickly by making all payments on time, keeping your oldest accounts open, disputing inaccurate information on your credit report, diversifying your credit mix, and strategically managing credit utilization below 30%. Consistent actions like these, supported by tools for automation and monitoring, often yield noticeable improvements within 30-90 days.
Many people don’t realize it, but your credit score plays a major role in your life. Maybe one day you’d like to buy a house or a brand new car. These purchases require you to have decent credit. Even if you don’t plan on making any large purchases any time soon, it’s still smart to monitor your credit now. Sometimes, unexpected things happen or a major life obstacle is thrown your way. These are the times you’ll thank yourself for maintaining good credit. Here are five simple strategies to boost your credit score fast:
1. Make All Your Payments On Time
This one may seem obvious, but one of the best ways to improve your credit score is to make all your payments on time. In fact, no strategy for improving your credit will be effective unless you make on-time payments. Late payments severely bruise your score and can remain on your credit report for up to seven years.
Keep all your accounts up-to-date to avoid being marked as delinquent. Even if your account is behind already, do your best to bring it up-to-date as soon as possible. Every month your account is late further hurts your credit. A good way to ensure you’re making all your payments on time is through customized automated payment schedules. With AutoPayPlus, you can match your bill payments to your paychecks by setting biweekly or weekly automated payment schedules to avoid late payments. Set it and forget it!
2. Keep Your Oldest Account Open
This trips up a lot of people. Why would I keep an old account open that I no longer use? Your score is largely influenced by the length of your credit history, which is established over a number of years. In other words, the age of your oldest account and the average age of all your accounts play a huge role in boosting your credit score. It’s best never to close your oldest account. Instead, keep it open and use it for a small, recurring expense to keep it active. Closing accounts, as well as opening a number of new ones in a short period of time, can negatively impact your credit score rather quickly.
3. Dispute Inaccurate Information on Your Credit Report
Inaccurate information on your credit report can take a negative toll on your score, especially if you’ve been the victim of identity theft or another form of fraud. Maintaining a healthy score relies heavily on credit monitoring, which can be done through various services. AutoPayPlus members have access to their Transunion® credit reports so they can view and monitor their credit scores regularly.
If you notice fraudulent charges, a high balance or late payments you don’t recognize when viewing your credit report, you have the right to dispute it. Disputing inaccurate details on your credit report results in an investigation by the credit bureau that can take over a month to resolve. Once it’s resolved, the negative information will be removed from your credit report and will no longer impact your score.
4. Diversify Your Credit Mix
Having multiple credit accounts in good standing will boost your score, especially if they’re different types of accounts. For example, someone with a credit card, an auto loan and a mortgage all in good standing has a better credit mix than someone with only three credit cards. Not only does it diversify your credit mix, but it increases the available credit you have overall, which has a large influence on your credit score.
5. Use Credit Strategically
Another good way to boost your credit is to strategically manage your credit utilization. Just because you have $5,000 available credit doesn’t mean you should use all of it at one time. Instead, follow the 30% guideline. Try to use less than 30% of your total credit line at any given time. Your credit utilization and how much is available for you to use is a major player in determining your credit score. Keep your credit utilization below 30%, and pay down any cards that are above that figure. Financial concierge services like AutoPayPlus can help you pay off debts faster, which reduces your credit utilization and boosts your credit score in the long run.
FAQs:
How does credit utilization affect my score and how low should it be?
Credit utilization is a major factor in your score. Keep it below 30% of your total available credit (lower is better). Pay down balances strategically to reduce utilization and see fast score gains.
Should I close old credit accounts to improve my score?
No. Keep your oldest account open. The length of your credit history heavily influences your score, and closing old accounts can shorten your average age of accounts and hurt your score.
How do I remove inaccurate information from my credit report?
Review your credit report regularly (AutoPayPlus members have TransUnion access), identify errors or fraud, and dispute them with the credit bureau. Successful disputes remove the negative information and improve your score.
Why is making on-time payments the most important strategy?
Payment history is the biggest factor in your credit score. Late payments can stay on your report for up to seven years and severely damage your score. Consistent on-time payments are essential for any meaningful improvement. Automating fixed recurring payments with AutoPayPlus is the easiest way to maintain good credit history.
Can diversifying credit types improve my score quickly?
Yes. A healthy mix of credit accounts (e.g., credit cards, installment loans like auto loans or mortgages) in good standing demonstrates responsible credit management and can positively influence your score.
Here at AutoPayPlus, we know firsthand how critical a healthy credit score is to your financial security. That’s why we’ve partnered with TransUnion® to provide our customers with their first 12 months of free credit monitoring with monthly score updates, quarterly credit snapshots and two annual credit reports. Click here to learn more about how AutoPayPlus can help you boost your credit and unlock financial freedom.