How to Improve Your Credit Score

How to improve Credit score

Your payment history is the most important factor for your credit score.

To improve your payment history:

• always make your payments on time
• make at least the minimum payment if you can’t pay the full amount that you owe
• contact the lender right away if you think you'll have trouble paying a bill
• don't skip a payment 

• Don’t go over your credit limit. Borrowing more than the authorized limit on a credit card can lower your credit score.
• Try to use less than 35% of your available credit. It’s better to have a higher credit limit and use less of it each month.

The longer you have a credit account open and in use, the better it is for your score. Your credit score may be lower if you have credit accounts that are relatively new.

To control the number of credit checks in your report:

• limit the number of times you apply for credit
• get your quotes from different lenders within a two-week period when shopping around for a car or a mortgage. Your inquiries will be combined and treated as a single inquiry for your credit score.
• apply for credit only when you really need it

Hard hits versus Soft hits

Hard hits are credit checks that appear in your credit report and count toward your credit score. Anyone who views your credit report will see these inquiries.

Examples of hard hits include:

• an application for a credit card
• some rental applications
• some employment applications

Soft hits are credit checks that appear in your credit report but only you can see them. These credit checks don't affect your credit score in any way.

Examples of soft hits include:

• requesting your own credit report
• businesses asking for your credit report to update their records about an existing account you have with them

Your score may be lower if you only have one type of credit product, such as a credit card.

It's better to have a mix of different types of credit, such as:

• a credit card
• a car loan
• a line of credit

A mix of credit products may improve your credit score. Make sure you can pay back any money you borrow. Otherwise, you could end up hurting your score by taking on too much debt.