What can someone do to improve their FICO Score? The most obvious and common sense answer is to always pay your bills on time.
Never become late.
The more late payments you have beyond 30-days, the worse off you'll be.
If you have otherwise good credit, and one or two late payments suddenly appear on your report, that could cause your FICO Score to drop 50 to 100 points almost instantly.
The higher your score is to begin with, the farther it will tumble when negative information appears on your report.
Just like your personal or professional reputation, it takes much longer to recover your credit score than it does to hurt it.
If your credit score has experienced a drop, what can be done to boost it up again? The best thing you can do is get caught up with all of your creditors and then begin to once again pay all of your bills on time.
If you're able to do this, you'll notice your FICO Score will gradually rise.
What can someone do to quickly boost their FICO? Make sure your account balances on revolving accounts, such as credit cards, remains low compared to your credit limits.
This will improve your score.
Paying down your card debt will help your score, plus save you money.
Ideally, you want to keep each credit card balance under 35 percent of your current limit.
For the best impact, pay off your credit card debt to zero.
The reason why it's difficult to quickly raise your FICO Score is because this number is supposed to represent your credit reputation.
If you have a history of being a credit risk, you need to show improvement over time in order to be rewarded with a higher credit score.
The FICO Score is a summary of your entire credit history, not just what's happened in the past few weeks or months.
If your score has dropped below 500, for example, it didn't happen by accident.
The low number is a result of your ongoing actions when it comes to managing your debt, finances, and credit.
One thing you can do to quickly improve your score, however, is to correct any errors on your credit report that could be keeping your score down.
Corrections can be made in as little as 10 to 30 days, assuming the corrections you're seeking are legitimate.
You can not have accurate information that is negative removed from your credit report simply by initiating a dispute.
When someone has a credit score over 800, it's because they've demonstrated good credit habits over many years.