What’s your credit score looking like these days?
If you ever want the best lending power, or if you’re in the market for a new house or car, you definitely want to know the answer to this question.
Getting a handle on your credit is one of the most important life hacks you can learn.
If you’re trying to get your credit back on track, start with these credit score hacks.
1. Get a Secured Credit Card
A secured credit card is your best friend when you’re trying to rebuild your credit.
With a secured line of credit, you use cash to determine the limit. The credit company holds your deposit and uses this amount as your line of credit. However, it works just like a real credit card, and reports to credit bureaus — which allows you to boost your score.
Most banks offer secured credit cards as an option for people looking to improve their credit.
Secured cards aside, you can also open a line of credit with a card intended to help people with poor credit. Many people use the First Access Visa Card as such an option.
2. Request an Increase to Your Line of Credit
You’d be surprised at what you can get if you just ask.
Many financial institutions will take a look at your record and gladly offer you an increase if you’ve been a good steward over your credit. Having a company trust you with more credit is a surefire way to improve your score overall.
3. Start Filing Disputes on Your Credit Report
Knowing your credit score and the information on your credit report is half the battle.
When you get a copy of your credit report, you might see some matters that seem inaccurate. It’s important that you dispute these matters as soon as possible.
The sooner you dispute, the quicker this can be removed from your credit report. The process of filing a dispute is pretty straightforward, and can usually be done with the same agency that provided the credit report.
4. Use Your Credit and Promptly Make Payments
In order for your credit to flourish, you have to actually use it.
Many people sit on their credit lines, only to find that their score never improves. Keep your ratio low, but be sure that you’re actually using the line of credit.
Even if you simply use it for paying your bills, before promptly paying your bill, it’s better than not using the credit card at all. Be sure that you stay on top of your credit card payments as well, so that large balances don’t roll over into multiple billing cycles.
Make Use of These Four Credit Score Hacks
When you put these four credit score hacks to use, you will quickly find that your credit score will begin to improve. This is great for your financial life and will give you the top-notch credit score that you have been looking for.
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