Easiest Way to Improve My Credit Score

Examine your finances and credit history to determine the easiest way to improve your credit score. For example, people who aren't deeply in debt can raise their scores by using their credit cards, but people who have maxed out their credit limits should focus on paying down debts to raise their scores.

Payment History

According to the Experian credit reporting company, late payments have a major negative effect on consumers' credit scores. Therefore, the easiest way for late payers to improve their scores is by consistently making payments on all accounts on time. There are many types of credit-scoring models, but they usually base the majority of scoring on a person's payment history. For example, payment history makes up 35 percent of Fair Isaac Corp.'s FICO score, which is the largest percentage given to all factors that the score is based upon. The Experian website indicates that recent, on-time payments can raise your score because scoring reflects payment patterns over time, and more emphasis is placed upon recent information.

Credit Card Debt

People who have a lot of credit card debt can boost their scores by reducing or stopping their credit card usage for a while so they can pay down or pay off their balances. An MSN Money article titled "Raise Your Credit Score to 740" says consumers who keep their credit utilization in check can raise their scores. That essentially means you should regularly use as little of your available credit as possible. The article recommends that consumers use less than 30 percent of their credit card lines at all times to improve their credit scores. According to MyFICO.com, 30 percent of your FICO score is based on the amount of debt you have.

Credit History

The easiest way for people who aren't deeply in debt to raise their credit scores is by using their credit cards. The MSN Money article notes that credit scores show how well people have managed the credit lines and loans they already have, and that history is used to predict how they'll manage new accounts. Therefore, creditors and lenders can't be sure how responsible you'll be with a new credit or loan account if you haven't established a repayment history or you haven't used credit cards for a long period of time. People who stop using credit and loan accounts altogether eventually won't generate credit scores.

Considerations

The Experian website reminds consumers that the length of time it takes to improve a credit score varies, especially if consumers' credit reports have many negative notations. Late payments and other negative notations in your credit file affect your credit scores until they reach a certain age, although their impact lessens as you accumulate a more positive credit history. In any case, late payment information remains in credit files for seven years, bankruptcies stay in files for 10 years and unpaid tax liens remain for 15 years.