<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Simple and easy steps to improve your low credit score</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">If you are constantly getting denied for credit cards or loans and aren’t having good interest rates for financing, there’s a chance that your credit score must need a boost. Improving your credit score is not an easy task. You must follow some effective tips that can help you start and keep improving it along the way.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">The credit score range generally looks like this:</span></p>
<ul style="font-weight: 400">
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Excellent Credit: 750+</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Good Credit: 700-749</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Fair Credit: 650-699</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Poor Credit: 600-649</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Bad Credit: below 600</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Initially, before improving your credit score, you need to know about the components of your credit score. Practically, most of the lenders and credit card companies prefer to follow the FICO scores. You will find five components that’ll create a FICO score:</span></p>
<ul style="font-weight: 400">
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Your overall payment history</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">How much credit currently used</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Length of your credit history</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">New credit lines</span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Type of credit accounts or credit mix</span><span style="font-weight: 400"><br />
</span></li>
</ul>
<ol style="font-weight: 400">
<li style="font-weight: 400"><b>Your overall payment history</b><span style="font-weight: 400"> &#8211; Your overall payment history takes part in the largest percentage of your score, at 35%. Your payment history will include your on-time or </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">late payments and the ratio of both. Certainly, more on-time payments will give you a positive boost and every late payment can hit your overall score. So, from now on make on-time payments for </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">all of your credit card debts and loan payments.</span><span style="font-weight: 400"><br />
</span> <span style="font-weight: 400"> </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><b>How </b><b>much credit currently used </b><span style="font-weight: 400">&#8211; Your </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">credit usage indicates the number of your overall debts, the amount you owe on each of your accounts, the number of your accounts with </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">balances, your remaining balance on loans and your utilization rate </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">(the amount of debt you have vs your overall credit limit). Your credit usage influences 30% of your overall credit score.</span><span style="font-weight: 400"><br />
</span> <span style="font-weight: 400"> </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><b>Length of your credit history</b><span style="font-weight: 400"> &#8211; It includes 15% of your FICO score. The longer you can maintain your credit accounts responsibly, it’ll help you to build a good credit score. That’s why it is advised to keep old credit cards active even after paying off the debts.</span><span style="font-weight: 400"><br />
</span> <span style="font-weight: 400"> </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><b>New credit lines</b><span style="font-weight: 400"> &#8211; It makes up 10% of your score. When you apply for a new loan or credit card, it’ll have a short-term impact on your score. It is because lenders or credit card companies will verify your whereabouts by pulling the </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">credit report before giving you approval. The process is called</span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">“hard inquiry”. On the other hand a “soft inquiry” doesn’t have that much impact, for example &#8211; when you are pre-approved by a lender. </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400"><br />
</span> <span style="font-weight: 400"> </span></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><b>Type </b><b>of credit accounts or credit mix</b><span style="font-weight: 400"> &#8211; It can also influence 10% of your FICO score. When lenders verify </span><span style="font-weight: 400">your credit report, they would want to see different kinds of credit</span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">accounts in your portfolio. It’ll make them happy as they will consider you as a highly potential customer who has a reputable history of managing multiple credit accounts. </span></li>
</ol>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">So, if you have a good mix of revolving accounts, such as credit cards, and installment </span><span style="font-weight: 400"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400">loans, which include student loans, auto loans, and mortgages, you are the one they are looking for. With a great mix of credits and regular payments, your credit score will rise within the next few months.</span><span style="font-weight: 400"></p>
<p></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">So, now you know the components, you just have to follow some simple steps given below to find a score you are dreaming about.</span></p>
<p><br style="font-weight: 400" /><b></b></p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400">Steps to improve your credit score</span></h2>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400">1. Check the accuracy of your credit report</span></h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">The first step to improve your credit score is to make your credit report clean and without any error. You have three credit reports, one from each of the</span> <span style="font-weight: 400">3 major credit bureaus</span><span style="font-weight: 400">: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">As your credit score is based on the data listed on your credit reports, it’s very important to make that data accurate. If you notice any mistake or discrepancy in your credit report, you should immediately inform the credit bureaus about that.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">You can get a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com, the government-mandated site run by the major bureaus. If you find an error on all three credit reports, you’ll have to dispute it separately with each credit bureau.</span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400">2. Pay your bills on time</span></h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Your payment history influences 35% of your score, remember? So, your last good payment history is usually taken as a good sign of your future payments.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">You can provide a positive boost to your credit score by paying all your bills on time. Paying late can negatively affect your credit score which you might want to avoid.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">If you&#8217;re behind on any payments, pay them asap. Late or missed payments will be listed as negative information on your credit report for seven years, but as soon as you pay them off, their impact on your credit score will decline over time.</span><b></b></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400">3. Pay off your high-interest debts as soon as possible</span></h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">The number of debts you have can heavily affect your credit score. Your total debt taken will be listed in your credit report. The number of credit accounts you are associated with will also be taken into consideration. Your outstanding balances on credit cards and loans are also considered and compared to the total credit available. This is how your debt-to-credit ratio is determined. Your credit score will get a boost if your credit ratio is higher.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">How to do that? Simple! Pay off your debts as soon as possible. You can take out a personal, low-interest loan and pay off high-interest debts. Opening a new loan can lower your credit score for the short term, but once you pay off all the credit cards with bigger credit limits, your credit score may get a rise. Make sure you do not close old cards with high credit limits.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">If you are having issues with paying off your debt, you may opt for a</span><a href="https://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/elimination.html"> <span style="font-weight: 400">debt elimination program</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> and get rid of annoying debts, once and for all.</span><b></b></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400">4. Clear up any collection accounts</span></h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">You should contact your debt collector listed on your credit report. Ask them to stop reporting the debt to each major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). In return offer them full payment. Just make sure to get that in writing before you make payment. Collection accounts are bad for your credit score, so wipe then off asap.</span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400">5. Open a secured credit card</span></h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">In a secured credit card you may deposit into a checking account that “secures” the line of credit the bank or lender is providing you. You can opt for a secured card with bad credit and add a new account with positive payment history. It will help show creditors you’re back in business.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">If you default on the payments on a secured credit card, then the deposit you made initially will be used to cover the balance on the card.</span></p>
<h3><span style="font-weight: 400">End notes</span></h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Regularly checking your credit report and credit scores are very important if you want to improve your score. Removing errors or wrong information is another crucial thing that you should remember. Whatever you do, do not let your credit utilization ratio to rise.</span></p>

Simple and easy steps to improve your low credit score
