You can’t improve your credit score by 200 points overnight, but you can take steps toward improving it. It’s going to take some time before you see a significant improvement in your credit score – especially if you’re starting from zero – but we have five steps for you to follow if you want to successfully improve your credit by a couple hundred points.
5 Steps to Take to Raise Your Credit Score
The best thing you can do to improve your credit score is build a positive payment history. While it can take time to increase your credit score by 200 points or more, these five tips can help you accomplish your goal:
- Understand your credit – Understanding why your credit score is where it is can help you figure out what you need to do in order to improve it.
- Check your credit score and reports – From there, check your credit score and credit reports. You’re entitled to a free copy of your credit reports every 12 months from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. You can request them by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com. To check your credit score, see if your bank or credit card company offers free access to it. If not, you can go to www.myFICO.com and get your FICO credit score for a small fee.
- Pay off any debt – If you have high balances on any of your credit cards, reducing the amount you owe also increases your credit score.
- Make all your payments on time – Your payment history is the biggest factor that makes up your credit score. If you pay all your bills on time, you should see your score improve.
- Consider adding credit – Adding a line of credit can actually help you improve your credit score. The key is to make sure you manage it successfully. Make sure you can financially handle another line of credit – whether it’s a credit card or auto loan.
How a Bad Credit Car Loan Helps Your Credit
Looking at step five, adding a bad credit car loan can actually help you improve your credit. These loans are offered at special finance dealerships that work with subprime lenders.
These lenders use your credit score to qualify you, but they also consider additional factors such as income and residence stability. Each lender has different specific requirements, and you typically need to bring in documents to prove income, residency, and more.
Finding one of these special finance dealers isn’t easy, but you don’t need to drive around town looking for one – we’ve got that part covered for you.
Consider Getting an Auto Loan
When you’re ready to finance a vehicle and help raise your credit score, Drivers Lane wants to be your guide. We work with a large network of special finance dealerships that have the lending resources available to help people in many types of credit situations.
We can get the process of connecting you to a local dealer started after you fill out our no-obligation auto loan request form.
