Your credit score is an important metric when it comes to your financial health.
Naturally, financier’s tend to want to lend to people that are more likely to repay their debts as agreed. Financiers that go ahead and advance credit to risky borrowers will do so cautiously and will most likely give higher interest rates.
It then makes sense to ensure that you maintain a good credit score. If you have faltered along the way, there are steps you can take to improve your rating.
Here are four actionable tips to help you improve your credit rating.
1. Get a Loan-and Repay It
This sounds counter-intuitive, but is quite effective.
Financiers look at your credit score, which in part shows the loans you have taken and repaid in the past. Some do not do this.
One of the things you can do to improve your credit is to contract a bad credit loan.
Once it is granted, repay it on time as agreed in your contact. You can then request the lender to report this to a credit bureau. Positive reporting helps to improve your rating.
2. Review Your Credit Report
The starting point to improve your credit rating is checking what your existing report says.
You need to review this to identify errors of omission and commission.
You want to see if there are any debts you repaid on time that have been reported as otherwise. You also need to look at debts you have paid on time that have not been included in the report.
If any of these exist, have the amendments made.
3. Aim for 30% Credit Utilization or Less
Credit utilization speaks to the portion of your credit limit that you use at a given time.
Aside from your payment history, this is the second most important thing that is used to calculate your FICO score.
The easiest way to keep your credit utilization low is by making full payments on your credit card each month.
The rule of thumb is to keep your usage at below 30% of your available credit limit.
4. Deal with Delinquencies
If you have delinquent accounts, collection accounts or charge-offs, find ways to resolve these.
If for any reason you have accounts with missed or late payments, make a point of catching up on your payments and repaying on time moving forward. You can set reminders to ensure you make your payments a few days early.
This might not erase negative records, but it can help improve your credit score gradually.
It’s a Continuous Process
Getting and maintaining a good credit rating is a continuous process. Once you are aware of the things that help improve your score, keep making an effort to improve your rating.
In time, you can enjoy a good credit rating and everything that comes with it.
