Advertiser Disclosure

How to Boost Your Credit Score by 100 Points in 6 Months

Written by Banks Editorial Team

Updated April 22, 2021​

2 min. read​

Even small steps can yield big results for your credit score. If your credit score is “under construction,”there’s hope: You can boost your score fairly quickly and even see improvement in as little as a month. In fact, with some concentrated effort, it is entirely possible to raise your score by 100 points or more within six months or so.

Of course, everyone’s credit situation is unique, so it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact range of improvement. But if you follow these tips, you’ll get started right away on moving that three-digit score toward a “very good” or even “excellent” credit rating.

Popular Credit Score Companies
Learn about AI-enabled credit repair solutions offered by The Credit Pros and how schedule a free consultation to improve your scores.

The Credit Pros will help improve your credit score by removing inaccurate credit information from your consumer credit reports.

Experian Logo
Learn how to access your credit report and understand, check and improve your credit scores with Experian credit reporting agency.

Check your free credit report and FICO credit score, understand, manage, and improve your credit and protect your personal information.

Grain Card Logo
Learn how you can get a digital credit card in the Grain mobile app, regardless of your credit history or your credit score.

You’re more than just your credit score. With Grain, it’s possible to access a revolving line of credit based solely on your cash flow.

Pay your Bills on Time, Every Time

Why is paying on time such a big deal? Your credit card payment history accounts for a whopping 35 percent of your total credit score. Miss a payment for 30 days or more, and you could get penalized anywhere between 60 and 110 points, depending on your credit score. (It’s important to note that if you’ve got a good credit score, the penalty is harsher than if you had a lower score.)

If you have missed a payment, start making on-time payments immediately. That late payment will stay on your credit report for up to seven years, but its negative impact will fade with every subsequent on-time payment.

The easiest way to avoid missing payments? Set everything to autopay—and be sure to update your information if you switch banks.

Check your Credit Report

Nobody’s perfect—and neither is credit reporting. In fact, a report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicated that 1 in 5 consumers found errors on at least one of their three credit reports.

Mistakes like outdated info and misreported late payments could be keeping your score down. That’s why you should check your credit report at least once a year to see if there are any mistakes. If you find them, reach out to the offending bureau ASAP—you should see a bump in your score (especially if you remove a false negative item like a late payment) when the correction is made.

Popular Credit Score Companies
Learn about AI-enabled credit repair solutions offered by The Credit Pros and how schedule a free consultation to improve your scores.

The Credit Pros will help improve your credit score by removing inaccurate credit information from your consumer credit reports.

Experian Logo
Learn how to access your credit report and understand, check and improve your credit scores with Experian credit reporting agency.

Check your free credit report and FICO credit score, understand, manage, and improve your credit and protect your personal information.

Grain Card Logo
Learn how you can get a digital credit card in the Grain mobile app, regardless of your credit history or your credit score.

You’re more than just your credit score. With Grain, it’s possible to access a revolving line of credit based solely on your cash flow.

Pay More Than the Minimum Payment

Your debt utilization—that is, how much of your available credit you are actually using—accounts for 30 percent of your credit score. Aside from paying off the entire balance, your next best option is to pay more than the minimum monthly payment on all of your credit cards, and avoid maxing out your plastic.

A low-interest balance transfer may help you pay down your debt faster, but credit experts stress that moving around debt is not the same as paying it off. Your goal is to pay your debt down; a study by FICO showed that consumers with the highest credit scores only used about 7 percent of their credit line.

Keep Accounts Open and Request Credit Line Increases

Once you pay off a credit card, you might be tempted to close it to avoid accruing future debt. Bad move. Your credit limit lowers when you close a card, so if you’ve still got outstanding debt, your debt-to-credit ratio will take a hit.

Whenever possible, you want to keep that ratio under 30 percent, so until you lower that debt, keep those accounts open and in good standing—just make a small purchase every now and then and pay it off right away.

In fact, a better move is to request a credit line increase. A higher credit limit will improve your score, provided you don’t increase your debt again.

Time to clean up—and maximize—your credit score? Get started today…

Advertisement Disclosure

Product name, logo, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within Banks.com are the property of their respective trademark holders. This site may be compensated through third party advertisers. The offers that may appear on Banks.com’s website are from companies from which Banks.com may receive compensation. This compensation may influence the selection, appearance, and order of appearance of the offers listed on the website. However, this compensation also facilitates the provision by Banks.com of certain services to you at no charge. The website does not include all financial services companies or all of their available product and service offerings.
×