Can I Increase My Credit Score Up 100 Points in Three Months?

Setting a goal to gain a certain amount of points on your credit score is a great way to motivate yourself, but shooting for 100 points or any particular number cannot happen in the credit scoring system in the United States. There are so many variables in the Fair Isaac risk model that not even a professional statistician could predict a 100-point gain, especially in three months. However, you can eventually get those 100 points with enough time.

Identification

It is impossible to say if you can increase your credit score by 100 points in three months because each case is unique. Even with the details of a credit report, predicting any type of gain is difficult because the Fair Isaac Corporation holds the patent on the FICO algorithm. The fastest way to gain points would be to successfully dispute falsely reported negative items on your report. Negative items usually carry the most weight, so removing them tends to have the biggest effect on the FICO algorithm. A debt settlement, for instance, takes up to 125 points off a score.

Other Ways

Paying down credit card debt could get you halfway to your goal of 100 points. A maxed out credit card can take up to 45 points on a starting score of 780, according to Bankrate. If you have thousands in credit card debt, you will likely receive an even larger score increase, because total debt load counts for 30 percent in the FICO model.

Considerations

Fair Isaac designs it FICO model to make it harder to gain points as your score increases. Thus, if you had a score of 500, it would take less time to increase to 600 than from 600 to 700. Time is an important factor in credit scoring, because negative items only decline in impact as they get older. You should see a score increase over three months without any negatives, but probably not enough to make a jump of 100 points.

Tip

Since nobody can tell you how to gain 100 points in three months, it is better to pay at least the minimum on all bills every month and carry as little debt as possible -- the two most important factors in the FICO equation. Eventually, you will gain 100 points, but this might not occur in three months.