3 Simple Steps to Increase Your Credit Score

Improve your creditworthiness

Tunji Onigbanjo
3 min readSep 25

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Photo by Jungwoo Hong on Unsplash

Your credit score is a critical factor that can significantly impact your financial well-being. Whether you’re looking to secure a mortgage, get a credit card with favorable terms, or even land a job, having a healthy credit score is essential. Fortunately, improving your credit score doesn’t have to be a complex task.

In this article, we’ll explore three simple steps you can take to boost your credit score and achieve your financial goals:

1. Understand Your Credit Report

2. Manage Your Credit Utilization

3. Make On-Time Payments

1. Understand Your Credit Report

Before you can start improving your credit score, it’s crucial to understand what factors influence it. Your credit report is a detailed record of your credit history and financial behavior. It includes information about your credit accounts, payment history, outstanding balances, and any negative marks, such as late payments or collections. Obtaining a copy of your credit report is the first step.

You’re entitled to one free credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — once every 12 months. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to access these reports. Reviewing your credit reports regularly is essential, as it allows you to identify errors, fraudulent activity, or any negative information that might be dragging down your score.

Carefully review each entry on your credit reports for inaccuracies. Common errors include incorrect personal information, accounts that don’t belong to you, and late payments that were reported incorrectly. Dispute any errors you find with the respective credit bureau to have them corrected.

2. Manage Your Credit Utilization

One of the most significant factors affecting your credit score is your credit utilization ratio. This ratio measures how much of your available credit you’re using. To improve your score, you’ll want to keep this ratio as low as possible.

To calculate your credit utilization ratio, add up the balances on all your credit cards and divide that…

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