How to Increase Your Credit Score Rapidly

Your credit score is based on a number of factors, including the length of your credit history, your payment history on credit accounts, the variety of types of credit you have, and the amounts owed in relation to the amount of credit available. Although the payment history portion of your credit score requires many years of timely payments, you can make rapid changes to your credit score through other areas of your credit history.

Instructions

1

Don't apply for new credit. Credit inquiries other than those automatically generated for pre-approved credit offers and those you make on your own account reduce your credit score. If you are shopping for a loan, make credit inquiries over a short period of time, as they will be scored as one inquiry rather than many.

2

Call your credit card issuers and ask if they can give you a credit line increase without running a credit check. Increasing your available credit will lower the percentage of it that you are currently using and likely increase your credit score. However, if the credit card issuer needs to check your credit report first, this will lower your credit score in the short term.

3

Pay off as much of your credit-card debt as possible. Try to get the balance on each credit card to less than 30 percent of its credit line. If you have credit cards you are not using at all, consider transferring some of the balance from a card that is almost maxed out to your other cards to get each of them to below 30 percent of their limits. Ideally, keep all of your credit cards at 10 percent or less of their limits, according to CNN Money.

4

Obtain free copies of your credit reports from the Annual Credit Report website (see Resources). Check that the credit line reported for each of your cards is accurate and ask credit card issuers to correct any errors.

5

Look over errors such as accounts that do not belong to you or erroneous reports of late payments. Dispute errors through the processes outlined by the credit bureaus. If you need faster results, work with a rapid rescoring agency to remove errors within just a few days. Rapid rescoring agencies correct errors quickly through direct contact with the credit bureaus. Ask your mortgage lender or broker about rapid rescoring if you are trying to increase your credit score before applying for a loan.