If
your planning
on buying a vehicle in a few months and want to do everything possible to raise
your credit score before you apply for a vehicle load. What are the three most
important things you can do today for a higher credit score tomorrow?
1: Clean
Up Your Credit History
Credit
scores are drawn from information in your credit history, so anything that's
wrong there will show up here. Go to annualcreditreport.com
and pull a free copy of your credit history with all three credit bureaus.
Carefully scan through each report and check it for mistakes. You will then need
to dispute any items that are incorrect.
2:
Lower Your Utilization Ratio
Click
Here and you can learn all about how credit scores are calculated. One of
factors you'll see there is called "Amounts Owed", which comprises
about 30% of your credit score. And one of the components of this factor is how
much you owe on credit cards vs. your available credit. You want to keep your
utilization ratio below 30%. So if your credit limit is $1,000 on one card, you
don't want to owe more than $300 on that card.
Knowing
this opens the door to several potential strategies.
You
could lower your utilization ratio by paying down your credit cards: that's the
ideal scenario.
If
money's tight, then you could at least shuffle your balances between cards. For
example, if you've got one card maxed out and two with small balances, move part
of the big balance to each of the other two cards so all three show less than a
30% utilization ratio.
Lower
your utilization ratio by raising your credit limits. In other words, if you owe
$1,000 on a card with a $1,000 credit limit, raising that credit limit to $3,000
will bring your utilization ratio back down to 30%. A simple call to the bank
might be all you need.
3: Use an
Old Card
If
you have an account that you've had for ages but haven't used for ages — and
is still open — use it. While still technically open, the card company may no
longer be reporting the account to the credit bureaus. Using the card will
increase the amount of available credit you show — good for your utilization
ratio. More important, the length of your credit history makes up 15% of your
credit score. So bringing a very old account back to life could help.
But
here are two things not to do. Don't open a new account —
that definitely will lower your credit score, at least short-term. And don't
close any accounts, since that would negatively impact your utilization
ratio.
These
are the fast ways to improve your credit score — at least if you consider
"fast" to be 60 — 90 days. The simplest and best way to improve your
credit score, however, is the slowest: paying your bills on time and allowing
any negatives like late payments to gradually fade away over time. At 35%,
payment history is the biggest component in your credit score.
One Last
Tip
While
things like late pays and delinquent accounts should drop off your credit
history after 7 years (and the older they are the less impact they have on your
score) there is a way to have them removed earlier. Simply ask the company that
put negative information on your report to remove it. The process isn't
hassle-free, but worth considering, especially if you're planning to apply for a
vehicle loan within a few months.