How to Increase My FICO Score ASAP

A bad or low credit score will impact your chances of getting a car loan, credit card or mortgage. If you are approved, you may end up with a higher interest rate. Before attempting to get a loan, you will want to work to increase your FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) score, which is used in determining your credit worthiness. You can not modify your score in hours or days, but taking small measures will improve it in both the short and long term.

Instructions

1

Pay down your credit card balances. Carrying a high credit card balance will lower your credit score. Lenders will look to see that your credit card usage is less than 30 percent of your limit. If you have a credit card with a $1,000 limit, carry less than $300 as a balance. Credit card companies report your balance to the bureaus once a month.

2

Use one of your oldest credit cards if it has been dormant. A longer credit history reflects positively on you. If you haven't used a card for awhile, it is possible that the company may not have reported active usage to the bureaus, and as a result, the length of time you've had the card active is not being used as a factor to improve your score.

3

Continue to make your payments on time every month. One or more late payments will cause your credit score to drop significantly.

4

Ask for a higher limit on your open credit card, but don't use the excess. If you have a card with a balance of $250 and limit of $500, you are using 50 percent of its capacity. If you can get this limit increased to $1,000, you will only be using 25 percent of the capacity.