Increase Your Credit Score

A credit score is likely not a topic you want to think about or discuss openly.  Credit is part of our everyday lives. It used to be a score to determine if someone was a good risk for lending money to.  It has now transformed and can affect one’s ability to get a mortgage, credit card, lower insurance rates, rent a house, and many other things.

Here are 5 things you can do to increase your credit score:

1️⃣ Make payments on time

• Payment history is the biggest factor for a credit score. Make sure payments are made on time. Set a reminder each month or, better yet, set up an Auto-Payment to avoid any missed payments

2️⃣ Keep credit usage below 30%

• If your utilization rate goes above 30%, then you could get a lower score. Based on those with exceptional credit scores, their usage is in the single digits.

3️⃣ Keep older accounts open & get delinquencies off your report

• The longer you have a credit profile on your account, the better.
• Get delinquent accounts paid off and stop reporting negatively. Delinquent and past-due accounts can stay on a credit report for up to 7 years. Paying off old debt may increase your score.

4️⃣ Limit requests for new credit

• The more requests for credit you have, the more it hurts your score. Try to keep requests to two or less per year.

5️⃣ Monitor your credit profile

• Federal law allows each person to get a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus.
• Enroll in a credit monitoring service. Most credit card companies will have this included in their benefits and will notify you anytime your credit score changes and will tell you why. These are only an estimate of your credit score, but it is better than not knowing at all. 

Did you know you can help your children get a head start on building their credit profile?

Add them as an Authorized User on one of your credit cards. This gives them the ability to take credit for all the payments you have with this credit card and will begin reporting on their credit. You don’t even need to give them a credit card, just keep making payments on time and keep the utilization low. They will benefit from all the work you have done.