How to Increase a Credit Score at Experian

A credit score is the way to estimate the person's creditworthiness. The FICO credit score developed by Fair Isaac Corporation is a number between 300 and 850, and reflects how good your credit history is. Experian is one of the three credit reporting agencies in the U.S. that collect and summarize personal and business credit related activities. Experian can provide your credit report and score by request. The credit score is largely affected by two factors: the payment history and the amount of debt especially on revolving credit card accounts.

Instructions

1

Navigate to AnnualCreditReport.com (see Resources). Note that by the law you are entitled to get a free credit report (but not the credit score) from each of the three credit agencies once a year.

2

Click "Request Report." Then enter your name, address, Social Security number and date of birth, and click "Continue." Then select "Experian" and click "Continue." You will be redirected to the Experian website to obtain the credit report. Note that you can also get the Experian credit score for a fee ($5 to $15).

3

Check the credit report for accuracy. Discrepancies such as extra accounts or incorrectly reported late payments would negatively affect your credit score. Use the online form (see Resources) to dispute incorrect information in your Experian credit report.

4

Make credit card and loan payments on time. This is a key condition to increase your credit score.

5

Calculate the ratio between an outstanding balance and the credit limit for each revolving credit card account using the formula Ratio = 100 x balance / credit line. For instance, if the credit limit on your card is $7,000 and the balance is $4,500, then the ratio is 100 x 4,500 / $7,000 = 64.3 percent.

6

Repay your debt to bring the ratio to 30 percent or below for each credit card. Note that it is not necessary (and often impossible) to pay off all credit card debt, but reducing it as instructed is quite feasible and important for the credit score increase.

7

Avoid consolidating your debt on one credit card account. The consolidation likely will significantly increase the balance-to-credit limit ratio and hence negatively influence the credit score.

8

Avoid closing credit card accounts with a zero balance. Note that the ratio "total debt (all accounts) / total credit line (all accounts)" is yet another factor that determines your credit score. Accounts with a zero balance obviously decrease that ratio and hence increase the credit score.