Take 30 Minutes To Raise Your Credit Scores 40-100 Points.

Posted by Jon Ochs

Most people don’t know what their credit scores are, or understand what they mean. Knowing about your scores and having information on the three bureaus is a powerful tool you need to arm yourself with!

Here’s how it all goes …

Payment History: 35%
Payment history makes up the largest piece of your credit scoring model. It reflects how timely you make payments to your creditors.

Credit Utilization 30%:
The percentage of available credit used. Keeping your account balances below 50% of the available credit limit will maximize your scores. For the purpose of this article, this is where we will find the most room to quickly increase your scores.

Credit History 15%:
How long your accounts have been open. Longer more established accounts are more positively weighted than newer accounts.

Recent Inquiries: 10%
Recent inquiries let you know which prospective creditors have looked into your credit. Scores can be lowered by too many inquiries.

Types Of Credit In Use 10%:
How many accounts and which types. Having too many loans from finance companies (Beneficial Finance, American General, etc.) can bring down your scores.

Now that we have a little knowledge under our belts, here are the 2 things you can do in the next 30 minutes to gain some points very quickly

Raising Your Limits -
It’s often easier to raise your limits than you think it might be. You might not realize that most times, all you have to do is ask that your limit be increased and your wish will be granted. Call the customer service department of your credit card company and let them know you’re looking into transfering your balance to another card with a lower interest rate and a higher credit limit and that you’d like to keep your account with them, but only if they are willing to make the concessions you are asking for. A lower interest rate might just come with your new, high credit limit! A lower interest rate won’t help your credit scores, but it will definitely help your financial situation.

For example … Let’s say you have a credit card with $5,000 as your limit and your balance is $4,000. Your card would be 80% utilized, well over the recommended percentage of 50%-or-lower. One phone call to the customer service department of your credit card company could raise your limit to $6,500. You would now be looking at a 62% credit utilization instead, which would definitely be a positive way to impact your scores.

Lower Your Balances: Referring to the example above, your credit utilization on your card is at 62%. There’s even more you can do to improve your credit with this one account! Bringing the balance down to 50% would mean making a one-time payment of $750. And even if you can’t afford to pay the $750, you’re still better off than you were before, thanks to the new high credit limit you received from that phone call you made. If you’re trying to make a big purchase (such as a home or a car), though, you’ll wind up saving yourself thousands of dollars on your new loan as well as being granted an even lower monthly payment, if you pay down your existing accounts. The result will be higher credit scores and your loan terms will be even improved as well!

All of the tips listed above have shown to be effective and powerful in helping to achieve even better credit scores. One past result showed that these tips helped to increase the credit limit on 3 credit cards, and scores were boosted by 105 points!

If you have a good credit history and at least 3 open, established accounts on your credit report, these tips could produce fantastic results! If you have less than perfect credit or a negative credit history, a more aggressive approach might be the way to go.

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