How to Increase My FICO

Fair Issac and Company provides a credit scoring system to many different businesses. The FICO score is the same credit score used by a vast majority of lenders in the consumer credit market. You can improve your FICO scores through a variety of methods, with some giving you quick boosts to your score and others taking place over a longer period.

Instructions

1

Establish a variety of credit accounts. Account diversity raises your credit score slightly and is affected by the type of credit accounts that you have. Credit cards, store cards, installation loans and mortgages count as different types of loans for credit diversity scoring.

2

Reduce your revolving credit balances. Revolving credit utilization is calculated by the percentage of credit limits that you are using compared to your overall credit limit. If utilization is high, it can have a large effect on your credit score.

3

File a dispute with credit reporting agencies over any account you do not own, accounts with incorrect information and negative accounts older than seven years old. Accounts you do not own and seven year negatives can be removed through the dispute process. The credit reporting agencies provide phone, mail and online credit dispute options for consumers.

4

Pay off collection accounts that are accurate. Open collections can be looked upon unfavorably if a loan officer performs a manual review of the account. Open collections may also be periodically updated by the collection agency, making the collection appear as though it is a new collection. Some collectors may agree to a pay for delete arrangement, where you pay the collector the debt and the entry is removed from the credit report.

5

Pay your credit accounts on time. The average length of your credit accounts and overall credit history length is another major factor in FICO scoring. When you pay bills on time over a consistent period, you establish credit worthiness under the algorithm.