Want to Raise Your Credit Score in the Next 30 Days? Take These 4 Steps

Love it or hate it, your credit score affects some of your biggest life decisions: buying a car, owning a home or, really, making any big purchase. Heck, it can even affect what you pay on your monthly bills.

But maybe your credit score isn’t where you want it to be… Don’t worry. There are some simple steps you can take to improve it within the next 30 days.

4 Simple and Quick Ways to Improve Your Credit Score

The factors that determine your credit score include: 35% payment history, 30% accounts owed, 15% length of credit history, 10% new credit and 10% credit mix.

In case you’ve neglected that little three-digit number — or have struggled to improve it — we’ve rounded up some of the simplest ways to improve your credit score.

So the goal here is to make these simple moves today, so you can see improvements in your score tomorrow (or, like, a month from now).

1. Remove Errors From Your Credit Report

Did you know your credit score could be inaccurate? One out of five credit reports has an error, according to a study by the Federal Trade Commission.

To keep a closer eye on your credit, get your credit score and “credit report card” for free from Credit Sesame. It breaks down exactly what’s on your credit report in layman’s terms, how it affects your score and how to address it.

Because it simplifies everything, you should be able to spot any errors. For instance, if you find an “unpaid” credit card balance that you know you paid or a bill in collections you know never existed, you can dispute the incorrect information and raise your credit score.

James Cooper, a motivational speaker, raised his credit score 277 points in six months using Credit Sesame. Now he talks to high school students about the importance of having good credit and uses what he’s learned through Credit Sesame as a blueprint for his lessons.

2. Let This Company Handle Debt Collectors

Debt won’t kill your credit score. In fact, borrowing money can actually help it — as long as you’re making payments on time. If you don’t? You risk the account going into collections.

If you’ve been getting phone calls and mail from debt collectors, look into Collection Shield 360, a free credit repair service that helps people clean up their credit reports and deal with collection agencies. It will contact your debt collectors to have negative marks on your credit report removed, among other steps to improving your credit.

The service helped 31-year-old server Tabatha Pankop deal with lingering bills from T-Mobile, Bright House Networks and Verizon. Her credit score jumped up nearly 200 points in just a few months, enabling her to move into a better apartment and start looking for a townhouse to buy.

3. Consolidate Your Debt — and Lower Your Interest Rate

If you have credit-card debt and feel like you can’t make any progress toward paying it down — ahem, no thanks to high interest rates — you might want to look into refinancing your debt.

Here’s how it works: Take out a personal loan with ideally better interest rates and a better term, and use that to pay off those lingering overdue bills.

A good resource is Fiona, a search engine for financial services, which can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. If your credit score is at least 620, its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 3.84% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

Once your overdue bills are wiped off your credit report, you can make  more manageable — and on time! — payments toward your loan, which will help your score.

In addition, that new personal loan will help improve your score because you’ll have varied your credit mix as well as opened a new credit account — both are major factors in your score.

4. Use the Right Amount of Credit

After your payment history, your credit-utilization ratio has the highest impact on your credit score; it makes up 30% of it.

Your credit utilization refers to the amount of credit you’re using versus your limit. For example, if your credit card has a credit limit of $8,000 and you’ve racked up a $2,000 bill, your credit utilization rate is 25%.

The goal is to stay under 30%, but the lower, the better.

To keep your credit utilization rate low — and your credit score high — keep your spending down and pay your credit card bills as soon as possible.

When It Comes to Credit Scores…

Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder

There are a number of ways you can improve your credit score, but as long as you simply understand what impacts your score, you can determine just how you can improve it.

Getting your credit score and “credit report card” for free from Credit Sesame will help break down exactly what’s on your credit report in layman’s terms, how it affects your score and how you might address it.

And remember: Your credit score can update as frequently as every day; however, it’s more realistic to expect changes to appear on your report in about 30 days. Additionally, if you’re using Credit Sesame, it shows your updated score every 30 days.

The key? Be patient, but get to work today, so you can start seeing those improvements in 30 days.

Carson Kohler ([email protected]) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

This article originally appeared on The Penny Hoarder