How to Improve Your Credit Score in 30 Days

In thirty days you can do a lot of things. You can create a new healthy habit or break an old bad one, you can read a really big book or write a really short one, you can even gain or lose about five pounds, and you can also begin to improve your credit. Below are some guidelines to follow that will show how to improve your credit score in 30 days.

The quickest and most effective way to affect your credit score is to make down payments on your debt. Your debt to credit ratio is 30% of your credit score, next in importance only to credit history, so reducing the amount of total debt accumulated versus how much available credit you have is the most efficient and effective way to reduce your FICO score. If you aren't able to pay the balances down, the next best thing is to divide and conquer. Divide the balances more equally among your credit sources if possible so that no one card is maxed out but they are all as low as possible. The best standard is to use no more than 50% of your available credit at any given moment. This shows prospective lenders, employers, landlords, and others that you are able to have credit without incurring outrageous debt and that makes you seem a very good risk.

The next thing you can do to advance your credit improvement mission is to obtain a copy of your credit report. You can get a free credit report once a year by law from the "big three"; Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The official website, www.annualcreditreport.com will explain how to attain this document.

When you have your report, which can as quick as minutes if you choose the online option, it is important to study it closely for errors. Is everything listed on your report related to your credit and not someone else's? Are there any negative comments that are in error? Are all the paid in full and satisfactorily closed accounts reported as such? Is any of the information outdated or incomplete? Most negative account information can stay on your credit report for 7 years, some as long as 10 years. It is important for you to know how long each piece of information can legally stay on the report and when it must be dropped so that you can follow up on anything that should drop but hasn't. Any erroneous information can and should be disputed. Remember to be professional and courteous, and to document everything. This process can take some time but your disputes have to be addressed and investigated.

Finally, begin making on time payments right away. Your credit history is the most important factor in your credit report and creating a new history is vital if your old one is less favorable. Discuss any missed or late payments with creditors and simply ask them if they would be willing to remove any negative remarks so long as you continue to pay on time. Your creditors are people and if you are honest and brief in your summation they may be willing to oblige your request.