5 Creative Hacks to Increase Your Credit Score

hacks to increase credit score fast

If you need to increase your credit score quickly, you can use several under-the-radar methods to help speed up the process. A high credit score is essential to get approved for a low-interest credit card, refinance your mortgage, or get a loan with favorable terms. Building good credit can take years. However, if you need to raise your score as soon as possible, here are some hacks to increase credit score fast.

1. Find Out When Your Issuer Reports Payment History

Call your credit card issuer and ask when your balance gets reported to the credit bureaus. It is often your account’s closing date (the last day of the billing cycle), which differs from the “due date” on your statement. If you pay your bill just before the closing date, your reported balance will be low or even zero, which lowers your utilization ratio and boosts your score.

Your credit utilization ratio is the total amount of credit you have used compared to the amount you have available. It is best to have a ratio of less than 30% overall. To boost your score quickly, keep your credit utilization ratio under 10%.

2. Pay Down Debt Strategically

If you have balances on credit cards, personal loans, and car loans, focus on paying extra toward your credit card debt to help improve your credit utilization ratio. While paying extra on your installment loans and car loans can help eliminate the debt and may save you money on interest, doing so will not affect your credit utilization ratio.

3. Review Your Credit Report and Report Errors

Obtaining free credit reports and reviewing them for errors is important in maintaining good credit. Under federal law, everyone is entitled to a free credit report every 12 months from the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. 

To get these reports, visit annualcreditreport.com, the only federally-authorized website for free credit reports, and follow the prompts to request your reports. Once you have received your reports, carefully review them for any errors or inaccuracies, such as incorrect personal information, accounts you don’t recognize, or late payments you know you made on time. If you find errors, you should dispute them with the credit bureau(s) in question to have them corrected.

4. Raise Your Credit Limits

Raising your credit limit on one or more cards can lower your utilization ratio, but only if you don’t use the newly available credit. Call your credit card company and ask for an increase to your credit limit if your current credit score is reasonably healthy.

5. Add Different Credit Types

Diversifying your mix of credit types may help boost your credit scores. Your credit mix accounts for 10% of a FICO score, but it can be enough to push someone from good to excellent credit. However, this strategy should be used cautiously as it is more suitable for long-term goals and not for quick credit score boosts. 

It’s essential to remember that these hacks to increase credit score fast won’t work if you miss payments or have a downward-trending score. Keeping credit card balances low and paying bills on time and in full is important. Remember that carrying a balance is not necessary to build good credit, and doing so can lead to debt.

Tio Rico provides flexible personal loans of up to $1,000 that can be utilized to pay bills and safeguard your credit, regardless of whether you have the title for your vehicle. You can receive cash in just thirty minutes. To begin obtaining a flexible personal loan that can assist you in improving your credit, apply online.