Your credit score is a critical piece of your financial life. If you want a good rewards credit card, you’ll need a good credit score. If you want to get a low mortgage interest rate, you’ll need a good credit score.

There are also other non-obvious places where a good credit score can help - like when you want to get a new cell phone or when you’re getting car insurance.

Your credit score is one of the most important measures of your financial health. It tells lenders briefly how responsibly you use credit. The better your score, the easier you will find it to be approved for new loans or new lines of credit. A higher credit score can also open the door to the lowest available interest rates when you borrow.

If you would like to boost your credit score, there are several quick, simple things that you can do. While it might take a few months to see an improvement in your credit score, you can start working toward a better score in just a few hours.

Most people decide to improve their credit score when they’re preparing to apply for credit or if they’ve struggled to qualify for a credit card, loan, or lease. In these instances, you want to build your credit as quickly as possible. While there’s no magic fix for poor credit, the solutions can be simple.

There are certain times when it pays to have the highest credit score possible. Maybe you’re about to refinance your mortgage. Or maybe you’re recovering from a bad credit history, and you want to get approved for a credit card. It’s always good to have a healthy score, of course.

Building credit can be a long process where good behavior helps increase your score gradually. Achieving good credit can take years, but there are a few steps you can take to give your score a boost.

These won’t work for everyone because many solve specific problems (that you may not have - which often what credit repair companies target) but review the list to see if you can take advantage of any of these ideas,

and if you’re in a place where you need to up that score as soon as possible, there are a few under-the-radar ways to speed up the process.

Pay down your revolving credit balances

If you have the funds to pay more than your minimum payment each month, you should do so. Chipping away at your revolving debt can have a major impact on your credit score because it helps to keep your credit utilization rate low. 

How quickly [your score can go up] depends on how quickly the individual creditors report the paid balance on the consumer’s credit report. Some creditors report within days of the payment, and some report at a specific time each month. Credit card companies typically report your statement balance to the credit bureaus monthly, but this could vary depending on your issuer. You can call or chat online with your card issuer to find out when they report balances to the bureaus.

The sooner you can pay off your balance each month, the better. You can also make multiple payments toward your balance throughout the month, so it is easier to track your spending, and it keeps your balance low. And although it helps to even pay off a portion of your debt, paying off the entire balance will have the biggest and fastest impact on your credit score.

How can you quickly improve your credit score?

Improving credit scores can take time, and you likely won't see a huge increase overnight. However, you can potentially speed up the process by having our revolving credit as much as possible to lower your credit utilization percentage, inaccurate things removed (especially late payments), or being added as an authorized user to someone else's old account with perfect payment history, ideally with a low utilization rate. Ideally, this is done by a friend or relative, and they do not even have to give you the card.

Increase your credit limit.

You can increase your credit limit one of two ways: Either ask for an increase on your current credit card or open a new card. The higher your overall available credit limit, the lower your credit utilization rate (as long as you’re not maxing out your card each month). Before asking for a credit limit increase, make sure you won’t be tempted to spend more than you can afford to pay off.

If you are considering opening a new credit card, do your research beforehand. How often you apply for and open new accounts gets factored into your credit score. Each application requires the card issuer or lender to pull your credit report, which results in a hard inquiry on your report and dings your credit score a few points.

“Usually, the negative impact of those factors is much less than the benefit to your score of reducing your credit utilization ratio,” Triggs says. Just make sure you don’t apply to too many credit cards over a short amount of time and send a red flag to issuers.

It’s more important now than ever to do your research before applying for new credit because issuers may have stricter terms and requirements in the wake of the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Check to see what your credit score is beforehand.

Does getting a new credit card hurt your credit?

Getting a new credit card can hurt or help your credit, depending on your situation. It can help to increase your credit mix and improve your credit utilization percentage, but it will add a new hard inquiry to your account and make your average credit age younger—both of which could lower your score. For those in the credit-building stage, adding a new credit card will most likely lower your score in the short term but lead to a stronger credit score in the long term

Fix Credit Report Errors

One way to quickly increase your credit score is to review your credit report for any errors that could be negatively impacting you. Your score may increase if you can dispute them and have them removed. 

Sometimes, banks make reporting errors that hurt your credit score. Even if you haven’t missed a payment, many consumers overlook the benefits of a periodic credit report review. If you find an error, you will need to file a dispute with the credit bureau. No error is too small to dispute. I’ve disputed incorrect phone numbers, which are correct in minutes, which led me to discover unauthorized accounts (a cell phone).

If the error affected your score, you should see a quick change once the credit bureau corrects the error.

Pay Off Cards with the Highest Balances First

In addition to limiting your future spending, work on paying off your credit cards. If you have several cards with a balance, focus on the highest card balance to reduce your credit utilization ratio.

Paying down your outstanding debt can also improve your debt-to-income ratio, which is not a factor in your credit score but is used by many lenders.

Pay Twice a Month (If Possible)

Let’s say you’ve had a rough couple of months financially. Maybe you needed to rebuild your deck (raising my hand) or had to get a new fridge. If you put big items on a credit card to get the rewards, it can temporarily throw your utilization ratio (and your credit score) out of whack.

You know that call you made to find out the closing date? Make a payment two weeks before the closing date and then make another payment just before the closing date. This, of course, assumes you have the money to pay off your big expense by the end of the month.

Take care not to use a credit card for a big bill if you plan to carry a balance. The compound interest will create an ugly pile of debt quickly. Credit cards should never be used for long-term loans unless you have a card with a zero percent introductory APR on purchases. Even then, you must be mindful of the balance on the card and make sure you can pay the bill off before the intro period ends.

30% Credit Utilization or Less

Estimated time: Varies, based on total debt and monthly payments

Credit utilization refers to the portion of your credit limit that you use at any given time.4 After payment history, it’s the second most important factor in FICO Score calculations.

The simplest way to keep your credit utilization in check is to pay your credit card balances in full each month. If you can’t always do that, then a good rule of thumb is to keep your total outstanding balance at 30% or less of your total credit limit. From there, you can work on whittling that down to 10% or less, which is considered ideal for raising your credit score.

Make On-Time Payments

If you miss your payment due dates, stop.

Your payment history is the most influential credit score factor, with a 35% weighting. Even if you can only make the minimum payment, your account remains in good standing—and you avoid late fees.

Pay Off Any Existing Debt

To reduce your credit utilization ratio quickly and improve your score, use the debt avalanche or debt snowball method to pay down existing debt:

• With the debt avalanche method, you focus on paying off your highest-interest debt first, followed by the debt with the next highest interest rate, and so on. However, be sure to make the minimum payments on any other cards in the process to avoid any penalties.

• The debt snowball method, on the other hand, focuses on paying off your smallest balances first while still meeting the minimum payment requirements for your other cards. This method is meant to help build momentum as you get a sense of achievement from paying off one card after another.
  
  

When it comes to improving your credit score, no no one solution fits all.

It’s important to remember that every person’s credit journey is unique.

Improving your credit score is a good goal to have, especially if you plan to either apply for a loan to make a major purchase, such as a new car or home, or qualify for one of the best rewards cards available. It can take several weeks, sometimes several months, to see a noticeable impact on your score when you start taking steps to turn it around.

You may even require the aid of one of the best credit repair companies to remove some of those negative marks. But the sooner you begin working to improve your credit, the sooner you will see results.