In this article:
- 1. Understand What Factors Affect Your Credit Score
- 2. Pay Off Credit Card Debt
- 3. Become an Authorized User
- 4. Get Credit for On-Time Bill Payments
- 5. Dispute Credit Report Inaccuracies
Improving your credit score doesn't happen overnight, especially if you've made some serious mistakes in the recent past. It can take several months or even years to build and maintain an excellent credit history.
That said, the sooner you start working on your credit score, the faster you'll see results. Depending on the makeup of your credit profile, you may start seeing improvements in as little as 30 days by reducing debt balances, becoming a credit card authorized user and more. Here are steps you can take that can have a positive credit score impact more quickly.
1. Understand What Factors Affect Your Credit Score
Your FICO® Score☉ —the credit score used by 90% of top lenders—is influenced by five factors in your relationship with your creditors. Understanding each one and how much they impact your score can help you prioritize your efforts to improve your credit history:
- Payment history (35%): Your debt payment history is the most influential factor in your FICO® Score, making it the most important thing to focus on. Paying on time every month is crucial to maintaining a positive payment history. If you miss just one payment by 30 days or more, your score could drop significantly.
- Amounts owed (30%): The total amount you owe is a factor in your credit score, but this component focuses mostly on your credit utilization rate—how much of your credit cards' available credit that you're using. The lower it is, the better.
- Length of credit history (15%): Your length of credit history makes up a smaller part of your score and includes how long you've been using credit, as well as the average age of your credit accounts. Opening multiple credit accounts in a short period or closing old credit cards can significantly decrease the average age of your accounts.
- Credit mix (10%): Your credit mix indicates how well you can manage different types of credit responsibly. For example, having a credit card, auto loan, student loans and a mortgage can be better than just having credit cards. This factor is not likely to make a huge impact on your score over a short period, so avoid targeting your credit mix as a quick fix.
- New credit (10%): The final 10% of your FICO® Score is determined by new credit accounts. Virtually every time you apply for credit, the lender will run a hard inquiry on one or more of your credit reports, which may cause your credit score to dip slightly for a short time. However, if you apply for multiple credit accounts in a short period (excluding when you're rate shopping for certain types of loans), it could have a negative compounding effect.
As you check your credit score, you'll get a sense of how well you're handling each of these five factors and what you can do to make adjustments for the better.
Learn more >> The Complete Guide to Understanding Credit Scores
2. Pay Off Credit Card Debt
Your credit utilization rate changes as your credit card and other revolving credit account balances change.
If you have the means to pay down large balances in a short period—either with cash or via a consolidation loan—your credit score will be updated as soon as your lenders report the lower balance. If your utilization rate was previously high, the improvement can be significant.
Learn more >> What Is the Best Credit Utilization Ratio?
3. Become an Authorized User
If you have a family member who uses their credit cards responsibly—meaning they pay on time and maintain a low utilization rate—consider asking them to add you to the account as an authorized user.
Once you're listed as a user, the credit card company will report it to the credit bureaus, and the entire history of the account will be added to your credit reports as a tradeline. As long as the primary cardholder continues to use the card responsibly, you could see an immediate improvement.
4. Get Credit for On-Time Bill Payments
Historically, only credit accounts have been reported to the national credit bureaus. But with Experian Boost®ø, you can also add your utility, phone, rent, insurance and even streaming service payments to your Experian credit file for free to try to boost your FICO® Score.
To use Experian Boost, you'll connect your bank account and verify eligible positive payments. Once they're added to your Experian credit report, you'll be able to see the results instantly.
5. Dispute Credit Report Inaccuracies
Rarely, creditors may report inaccurate or unsubstantiated information to the credit bureaus, and if it's negative, it could damage your credit score.
That's why it's crucial to check your credit report regularly to make sure everything is accurate. If you find information you don't recognize, you have the right to file a dispute with the credit bureaus.
The credit bureaus will investigate your request and typically provide a resolution within 30 days. If their research supports your claim, the information will be removed or modified, and your credit score will reflect that change.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your credit score is calculated the moment it's requested based on the information that creditors report to the national credit reporting agencies. Creditors report information to the credit bureaus on their own timeline, but it's typically once a month. That said, some credit monitoring services may offer credit score updates daily, weekly or monthly.
According to FICO, a good credit score is 670 to 739 on its 300 to 800 point scale. However, lenders may use other criteria to evaluate your credit score and overall creditworthiness.
Your credit scores are based on information found in your credit reports, and that information can vary slightly depending on the credit bureau. What's more, there are several different credit scoring models available, and each one uses different parameters to calculate your score.
Unfortunately, no. While some steps can help your score improve faster than others, it can still take time for your efforts to be reported to the credit bureaus. If you need to improve your credit score for a loan or credit card application, it's recommended that you start taking steps several months in advance.
The Bottom Line
Although there are things you can do to improve your credit score within a month or two, it's important to prioritize a long-term strategy for building and maintaining excellent credit so you don't have to look for short-term solutions again in the future.
As you work to build credit, consider signing up for free credit monitoring with Experian to get personalized insights on how you can improve your credit and easily track your progress.
