How to improve your credit scores: 7 tips that can help

Doing the things you want to do. Seeing the places you want to see. Living life with a little less worry and a little more freedom. The flexibility that comes with higher credit scores can make decisions about money a little easier. 

So when setting financial goals, you might want to think about ways to improve your credit scores. While increasing your credit scores may not happen overnight, financial literacy and these tips can help you start moving in the right direction.

Key takeaways

• Monitoring your credit can give you an idea of your creditworthiness and a chance to check your credit reports for errors.
• Making payments on time, keeping credit utilization low and avoiding unnecessary credit inquiries can help you improve your credit scores.
• Focusing on good credit-building habits, rather than quick fixes, can help improve your credit over time.

There are plenty of benefits to having good credit scores. Good score might be considered when it comes to lending decisions, among other things. Here are a few examples of what a good credit score might get you:

• Lower credit card interest rates
• Better credit card approval odds
• Better insurance rates
• Higher credit limits
• Good terms on utility services

What’s a good credit score?

There’s no set answer to what a good credit score is. It depends on where a score comes from, who calculates the credit score and who’s judging it. Lenders set their own credit policies and standards to determine creditworthiness. That means that what credit-scoring companies like FICO® and VantageScore®, or anyone else, considers “good” may not be the same. 

However, there are a few factors the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says make up a typical credit score:

• Payment history
• Total debt and outstanding balances
• Amount of credit being used—or credit utilization
• Types of credit accounts or loans—or credit mix
• Length of credit history
• New accounts that have been opened

Using credit responsibly and practicing good financial habits can help you get and maintain a good credit score. 

Building credit takes time. But there are a few ways you may be able to steadily improve your credit scores.

1. Review credit regularly

First things first—you’ll likely want to get an idea of where your credit stands. Mistakes may not be common. But if they’re on your credit reports, they could negatively impact your credit scores, so it’s important to monitor your credit reports for errors. 

There are a couple of ways you can check your credit reports and credit scores. You can visit AnnualCreditReport.com to learn how to get free copies of your credit reports.

In addition, you could also use a free credit-monitoring tool, such as CreditWise from Capital One. CreditWise helps you discover key factors that impact your VantageScore 3.0 credit score. And it can also give you alerts from two of the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion® and Experian®, when there are important changes to your credit reports.

2. Keep credit utilization ratio below 30%

The percentage of total available credit you’re currently using can impact your credit scores. This is sometimes called your credit utilization ratio. 

Paying only the minimum amount due or maxing out credit cards can keep your credit utilization high and negatively affect your credit score range. The CFPB recommends keeping your credit card utilization ratio below 30% to show creditors that you’re managing your credit responsibly.

3. Pay your bills on time

There are two main categories of consumer credit: installment loans and revolving credit. 

Car loans, mortgages and student loans are examples of installment loans. In general, the monthly payments on installment loans are fixed month over month. Once the loan is paid back in full, the account is closed permanently.

Revolving credit accounts may include credit cards, home equity lines of credit, and business or personal lines of credit. Revolving credit allows borrowers to access credit up to a certain limit. It can be used and paid down repeatedly for as long as the account remains open and in good standing. 

Information from both types of credit accounts can affect credit scores. And making on-time payments each month could help you build credit and improve your scores. On the other hand, late or missed payments could make your credit scores drop.

Setting up reminders on your phone or computer—or setting up automatic payments—is one way to help ensure you remember to make payments by your due date.

4. Make payments on past-due accounts

Payment history is an important part of your credit report and can impact your total score. Here are some factors that make up payment history information:

• Number of times that past-due items appear in your credit report
• How much money you owe to delinquent accounts
• How long overdue your payments are or have been in the past

This is why catching up on accounts that are past due may help your credit score, even if you have existing late payments on your credit report. Paying down debt can result in a lower credit utilization ratio and total debt. In turn, this can improve your score. 

Keep in mind that you may see temporary dips in your score as you pay down debt. And paying off debts that are in collections doesn’t guarantee a score increase. 

5. Limit hard credit inquiries

When you apply for a new line of credit or credit card, it can trigger a hard inquiry, which can impact your credit scores. Having too many hard inquiries on your credit reports—especially in a short period of time—can lower your scores. Be sure to keep that in mind if you’re thinking about applying for a new credit card or another type of loan.

Hard inquiries might occur when you apply for a new:

• Credit card
• Loan or mortgage
• Cell phone plan
• Apartment lease
• Job

6. Consider applying for a secured credit card

If you’re having trouble getting approved for credit, a secured credit card might be a good place to start. Secured and unsecured cards work in much the same way. But secured cards typically require a security deposit to open an account.

New credit inquiries can cause your credit scores to dip temporarily. But credit cards are one tool that can be used to build credit. Responsible use of credit cards, like paying your bills on time every month, can help improve your scores. 

7. Beware of promises of quick credit score fixes

A quick fix for your credit scores sounds enticing. But be wary of credit repair services that claim they can boost your credit scores quickly. Most of the time, repairing your credit scores is going to take time. 

If you’re looking for help managing your finances, you could consider credit counseling services or other credit card debt relief options. 

How long it takes to repair bad credit depends on your individual circumstances. Your current scores, the factors that are affecting your scores and more all go into how long it takes to repair bad credit. 

If an error on your credit reports is dragging your scores down, you can dispute the error with the credit reporting agency. Unless the reporting agency considers your dispute frivolous, it has to investigate, usually within 30 days.   

If bankruptcy or delinquent payments are the reason for lower scores, it might take a little longer to repair. But most things won’t impact your scores forever, and the effects of negative factors may lessen over time.

Improving your credit scores can lead to great things. In fact, you can start right now—learn more about monitoring your credit and then get to work trying to raise your credit scores. And you can consider applying for a credit card for fair credit as you work toward building stronger scores.