4 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score
When it comes to being an adult in this modern world, it’s important to be able to create a good credit score for yourself. Without a high credit score, you aren’t able to be approved for loans to buy a house, or even rent an apartment without a favorable number behind you.
Therefore, knowing what it takes to bring your score up won’t only make it easier for your financial future, it will help you avoid massive amounts of debt, and being trapped paying high interest for the rest of your life. When it comes to improving your score and taking control of your credit, here are the best tips which will help you along the way.
Stop Applying For More Credit Cards
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to improve their score is assuming that the more cards that they continue to apply for, the more their score will go up. The opposite is true, however. When you continuously apply for new cards you are showing lenders that you aren’t in a stable financial position.
Each time that you are asking for more money from a lender, you are hitting your credit score with what is referred to as a hard inquiry. The more hard inquiries that you have, the more your score will be negatively affected.
Always Pay On Time
One of the biggest contributing factors to your score is how good you are at paying your debts back. If you pay late or miss a payment altogether, you will get a derogatory mark on your credit score which will last years and years.
Make sure that you set up reminders on your phone to remember to pay these on time. Otherwise, many people also opt for auto payments which debit the bill amount from your account automatically each month without you having to do a thing.
Pay More Than The Minimum Due
If you pay only the minimum due each month you will eventually pay much more interest than you would have had you paid more. Try to pay as much as you can each month so that you can pay off your debt faster and avoid all of the interest that piles up.
Paying the minimum due may save you more cash in pocket in the present, but you will end up spending and losing more money in the long run by paying less.
Don’t Use More Than 30% Of Your Total Credit Allowance
Try to keep your total credit usage under 30% at all times. When you are over this amount lenders are nervous about your reliability and capability of paying off new loans.
