How to Improve Your Credit Score in Less Than 30 Days

Ready to jump in to the real estate market, but found that your credit score needs a quick boost in order to qualify for a mortgage? Follow these steps to learn the most effective ways to achieve quick improvement of your credit score.

Instructions

1

Obtain a recent copy of your credit report (from all three of the major credit reporting agencies).

2

Determine what your credit limit is for each revolving credit card account you hold (contact your bank or creditor, or review your monthly statement).

3

Confirm that the credit limits listed on your credit reports are accurate (ie, they match what you found in Step 2). If there are inaccuracies, particularly if you have a higher credit limit than what is listed on your credit report, call your card issuer and ask them to update this information.

4

Pay down your balance on each individual card so that the balance is less than 25% of the credit limit for each account. Pay online if possible in order to expedite the posting of the payment to your account.

5

If you are a consumer who pays off their balance in full each month (good for you!) make sure you do not charge more than 50% of your maximum credit limit on any given month (for any individual card), since your available credit is typically averaged over each 30 day billing cycle.

6

Review your credit report for any late payments. If you simply have a single late, and otherwise a clean payment record with the applicable creditor, call and request they remove the negative information from your report - you may find they are willing to do so, particularly if you provide your request in letter form.

7

If you have collections on your credit report that are relatively small, $500 or less, you can contact the appropriate collection agency and most likely get them to agree to remove this negative from your credit report (in exchange for paying it off, of course). Be advised, however, to refrain from sending them the money until you get the agreement in writing!

8

Check your credit report for easy errors that you can fix relatively quickly. This may include credit-related items that exceed the 7-year time limit, negatives that you can conclusively prove are not yours, or accounts that are still listed as unpaid that were included in a bankruptcy. Simply dispute these online directly with the credit reporting agency.