You may have heard of a credit score and its effect on whether you qualify for loans, a new car, a specific job, and other ways. But you don’t quite understand how you can make it better.

Here we will show you 10 great tips to get a higher credit score:

1. Improve your payment history

The biggest thing that affects your credit score is how many missed and late payments you have. Even one late payment in the last twelve months can really damage your credit score.

The obvious solution would not be late right? A great tip is to automate all of your payments. This prevents you forgetting a payment and averting late fees, higher interest rates and forfeiting your grace period.

2. Stay below your limit

The next thing that affects your score is how much credit you are using. For example, you have a $10,000 limit and you’ve spent most of it, its unlikely you’re able to pay it off and incur a lower credit score.

Credit bureaus want you using very little of your credit available, less than 10%, but more than 0%. So, to improve this is by either paying down the debt or increasing your credit limit. Either call your credit card company and ask for a higher credit limit or pay off that debt to under 10%.

3. Have a longer credit history

The longer you’ve had a positive credit history, the higher your score will be.

To improve your credit history is to close any new accounts that you don’t need and keep old accounts open, even ones you haven’t used in a while (especially if they have high credit limits).

4. Have different types of credit

Creditors want you to have many different accounts that have been handled responsibly. Credit scores will be different for those with 5 credit cards than those that have 2 credit cards, a car loan, a mortgage loan, and a line of credit. The more mixed one will have a higher score.

There are two ways to improve this, one is to close accounts you don’t need, and open ones that will give you a positive mix of credits.

5. Reduce credit inquiries

Every time you apply for a loan or a credit card, they will check your credit report. Creditors want to see less than 2 inquiries in the last 2 years, and these credit inquiries can stay on your credit report for up to 2 years

To get a higher credit score, keep inquiries to a minimum by not opening new accounts for a while.

6.  Get authorized

Become an authorized user on other people’s accounts (such as your spouse’s).

Creditors will report to your credit report as well as the original account holder’s report. Be careful though that any negative actions by the original owner also gets reported on yours.

7. Use the “pay to delete” option

Delinquent accounts can deduct about 100 points off your credit score. If you start making payments, it doesn’t affect the negative score. Instead, ask to “pay to delete” which means to pay the creditor in full or a negotiated percentage in exchange for removing the negative credit.

Be sure to get it in writing before paying it.

8. Re-score your report

Re-score your report can only be requested by banks or mortgage brokers.

They can request your credit to undergo a rapid re-score where they recalculate your score quickly, within 72 hours. The great thing about this is that it can correct all the incorrect, negative and outdated information on your credit report.

9. Write a goodwill letter

If you usually pay on time and regularly but forgot one payment that can damage your credit by up to 100 points.

Write a goodwill letter to your creditor requesting removal of the late payment from your report. Explain what happened – failed online payment, financial hardship, lost track, and such – be polite, provide proof of error, and thank them.

10. Do frequent credit checks

Check your reports often and report any errors as soon as you find them.

Credit bureaus receive so many it’s hard to keep up, it’s your responsibility to check for charge-off errors, unpaid errors, accounts that don’t belong to you, accounts past 7 years old, wrong credit limits reported, and anything else wrong.

For more information about how to get a higher credit score, contact us.