How to Boost Your Credit Score Fast

Knowing how to boost your credit score fast is important, because your credit score impacts almost every area of your financial life. If you're planning a major purchase but your credit history doesn’t look good, you may find these tips on boosting your credit score useful.

It can take time to build up a credit score that's fallen, especially considering that you can't change past factors that impacted it. Luckily, there are strategies anyone can apply to improve their credit score quickly and escape the limitations that come with a bad score. Four easy ways to boost your credit score quickly include:

1. Reaching out to creditors if you defaulted on a payment.
2. Checking and fixing mistakes on your credit reports.
3. Taking advantage of your record of paying utility bills on time.
4. Keeping unused credit cards open.

If you want to maintain a good credit score or improve it, then pay your bills on time, whether they're for loans, rent, or utilities. Your payment history carries the greatest weight in your credit score calculation, meaning even one late bill payment can shave points from your score. There is, however, hope if you’ve had an excellent payment history but faced a problem that caused you to default once on a bill. Try contacting your creditor and asking them to remove that blot from your record. 

Errors sometimes arise in credit reporting, and they can weigh on your score. Make sure to check your credit reports from all three national credit report bureaus for any mistakes.

If you have an excellent utility and phone bill payment history, consider including that in your credit record. Adding such information can build up your credit score quickly.

If you have unused credit cards that don't have annual fees, consider keeping them to maintain a higher credit limit. A higher limit helps you keep your credit utilization low, and credit utilization is the second-most important factor in credit score calculation.

Credit bureaus will update your credit file once they receive new information from your creditors. However, creditors have their own credit reporting schedules, and typically submit reports every 30 to 45 days.

Having a good credit score has many benefits, which is why knowing how to boost it makes a lot of sense. You'll enjoy favorable terms on loans and credit cards and look better in the eyes of potential landlords and employers—all things that make your life easier!