How To Raise Your Credit Score In 30 Days?
A credit score is not set in stone. If your credit score is not perfect, you can remedy the situation and improve your credit score with a few intelligent moves.
Maybe you are in a hurry and wondering how can I raise my credit score in 30 days.
The good news is that you can improve your credit score in 30 days with these tips.
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How to Improve Credit Score in 30 Days? 13 Ways to Get it Done.
Repairing your credit score in a short time is not easy. Even with the best measures to improve your credit score, the credit boost will be small.
Raising a credit score is different for everyone, i.e., new people on the market, people with bad credit scores, and people with good credit scores who want to improve it further.
These are 13 of the most effective ways to raise your credit score in a short time. Some methods might be more effective for some people than others. The impact depends on where you are currently in your credit score journey.
1. Check Credit Report and Dispute Errors
The journey of raising your credit score starts with checking your credit report.
Your credit report has all the details about your credits, payments, bills, etc. it also tells you how to repair your credit score.
Get a free credit report from AnnualCreditReports. Look into it closely, spot errors, and report the errors and inaccuracies to the credit reporting agencies including FICO, Equifax, and Experian.
When you get the errors, misstatements, and inaccuracies removed from your credit report, it gives an instant boost to your credit score.
2. Make a Big Debt Payment
Your credit, when compared to your income, makes a difference in your credit score. Making a big debt payment or paying off a big chunk of your credit will help you quickly improve your credit score.
3. Lower Your Credit Utilization Rate
Your credit utilization rate is the percentage of credit you use versus the total credit available.
When you use credit sparingly, it shows that you can responsibly use it. The ideal credit utilization rate is less than 10%. However, if you can keep it under 30%, it will still improve your credit score.
You can lower your credit utilization rate in the following ways.
- Pay your balances twice a month
- Get a higher credit limit
- Keep old credit accounts open
- Reduce your spending if you can to give a quick boost to your credit score
4. Become an Authorized User
You can improve your credit score with a piggyback ride over a family member or friend’s good credit.
When you become an authorized user, you share a credit card with the original owner. If they have a good credit score, you will benefit from that.
5. Dispute Negative Authorized-User Records
Just as sharing a credit card with a high credit score account can help you; bad use of the shared credit card will also damage your credit score.
When you see harmful use of authorized-user records, dispute it with credit reporting agencies and get it removed.
6. Ask for a Higher Credit Limit
Asking for a higher credit limit works best when you already have good credit and want to improve it further.
Request a higher credit limit from your creditor. If they approve your request, this higher credit limit will instantly decrease your credit utilization rate and better your credit score.
7. Ask For Late Payment Forgiveness With A Goodwill Letter
When there is a little dent in your credit score, which is a factor in your low credit score, you can get it fixed with a Goodwill Letter to the creditor.
Many credit issuers will be willing to forgive your one mistake and remove it from your credit history.
Writing a goodwill letter to the issuer will make your request official. The best use of a goodwill letter is before a bad record appears in your credit history. However, it is also helpful to request it after a bad record.
8. Get Caught up on Past-Due Payments
Search for the bills and payments you have missed. Make a payment for the missed bills as soon as possible. The sooner you clear your bill, the lesser will be its destructive effect on your credit score.
Paying your past-due and outstanding bills helps you more in the long run.
9. Pay Off Debt Rather Than Continually Transferring It
Debt transferring may work well for a few times but continually doing so will do more harm than good.
FICO suggests that paying the overall balance on your credit cards will help you raise your credit score in short term and make a big impact.
10. Shop For New Credit Over A Short Time
When you are looking for a new credit line, do it strategically watching how FICO will handle your new credit requests.
When you make requests for a new credit line with different vendors, they will pull your credit report to determine the interest rate for you.
Making these requests in a short time tricks FICO into thinking that you are comparing your options for a new credit line, instead of trying to open many new credit lines. This, in turn, helps you raise your credit score.
11. Have A Mix Of Credit Types
When we look at FICO’s credit score, it seems to prefer the customers who have a mix of credit lines like credit card loans and installment loans.
While opening too many credit lines may harm your credit score, having some variety in your credit types helps your credit score.
12. Get A Secured Credit Card
A secured credit card is a sure shot at improving your credit score. A secured credit card is built with the sole purpose of building your credit score.
Recommended Resources: Learn how to build credit with a credit card
Getting a secured credit card is tied to a security deposit. You will have to spare some money for the purpose but the return on value is excellent. Also, your security deposit is returned to you when you pay the loan or upgrade your card.
Looking for Best Credit Card?
We recommend this list of the best business credit cards to help you choose the best credit card for your credit-building goals.
13. Use Experian Boost
Experian boost is a service from Experian that lets you count smaller payments like utilities, phone, internet, or cable towards your credit history.
When you are pressed against the wall and trying to figure out how to raise your credit score in 30 days, Experian Boost can help in some capacity.
Nonetheless, it is better to take advantage of all the factors you can to raise your credit score in 30 days as this is already a challenging task.
Related Article: Is 750 a good credit score?
Pro Tip: Interested in understanding business credit scores, read our guide on what is a business credit score.
Can I Quickly Fix my Credit Score?
Your credit score is determined by a combination of factors. The most impactful factor is your credit history.
Your credit history shows how responsible you are with money. If you have paid most of your bills on time, your credit score is bound to be high.
Some credit repair companies may claim to fix your credit score in a short time, say in 30 days. However, they can’t do anything that you can’t do yourself.
These are the major factors in your FICO credit score calculations. Some factors can be improved quickly but others can’t be fixed quickly.
- Payment History (35% of the credit score)
- Credit owed (30% of the credit score)
- Length of credit history (15% of the credit score)
- Credit Mix (10% of the credit score)
- New Credit (10% of the credit score)
Payment history is not something you can change in one month. However, you can raise your credit score by working on other factors.
Mostly, the credit repair companies dispute negative information on your credit report. If that negative information is factual, it is unlikely that they can get it removed.
Here is how we recommend you do it.
- Credit owed, make big payments to decrease credit owed
- Length of credit history, don’t apply for many new loans or credit cards as it will decrease your average credit length
- Credit mix, try to add a mortgage, auto loan, or installment loan to your credit mix
- New Credit, a new credit improves credit score, adds to the credit mix
Need a loan but have bad credit?
A high-risk personal loan is an unsecured loan given to a person with bad credit.
Building and Maintaining Good Credit Is a Long-term Goal
Building a good credit score takes time; maintaining your credit score takes conscious effort. You will need to plan for raising your credit score, and you will need to stick to it.
A good credit score lowers debt costs and insurance costs. It also helps you get a mortgage, auto, and other loans at a low interest.
Once you have achieved a good credit score, maintain good credit habits. Think strategically, spare a few hours on a Sunday afternoon and figure out how the credit score works. It is easier to maintain a good credit score when you have planned for it.
Here are some good credit habits that can help you build and maintain a good credit score.
- Pay bills on time
- Keep credit utilization low
- Don’t close your paid-off credit cards
- Be cautious in opening your credit cards or credit lines
- Develop an emergency fund
- Monitor credit reports at least once a month
Looking to Build Business Credit Fast?
If you are a small business and need to build business credit, check out this useful guide on how to build your business credit fast.
FAQs:
While it is challenging to make significant improvements to your credit score within 30 days, there are some actions you can take to start the process. Focus on paying bills on time, reducing credit card balances, and disputing any errors on your credit report.
Paying off credit card balances in full can have a positive impact on your credit score. It reduces your credit utilization ratio and shows responsible credit management. However, keep in mind that other factors, such as payment history and length of credit history, also affect your score.
Closing unused credit cards may not always improve your credit score. In fact, it could potentially harm it by reducing your available credit and increasing your credit utilization ratio. Consider keeping the cards open and using them occasionally to maintain a positive credit history.
The time it takes for credit agencies to update your credit score varies, but it typically ranges from one to two months. However, keep in mind that some changes, such as paying off a large debt or resolving a collection account, may have a quicker impact on your score.
Yes, disputing inaccuracies on your credit report can potentially raise your credit score. If you find any errors, such as incorrect account information or fraudulent activity, contact the credit reporting agencies to have the inaccuracies investigated and corrected.
