Your credit score, or FICO score, is determined by five factors: 35 percent is made up of your payment history; 30 percent, the debt you are carrying; 15 percent, the length of your credit history; 10 percent, the different kinds of credit you use (secured debt, unsecured debt, credit cards and personal loans); and the final 10 percent, inquiries from potential creditors that request to see your credit report.
Establish Responsible Credit Behavior
The best way to raise your credit score is to practice responsible behavior. Ensure that you pay your debts on time. Even a single late payment can lower your credit score. Pay down your debts so that your debt-to-credit ratio is lower (your credit score suffers if you "max out" your credit cards or charge up to the limit available for you to borrow). Do not open new accounts, which will lower the average age of your credit history and result in excessive inquiries on your credit report. While it may take time to raise your credit score by borrowing responsibly, ultimately this is the best way to have a high credit score over the long term.
Become an Authorized Signer
If you need to raise your credit score quickly, one of the best options is to find a person who will allow you to be an authorized signer on a credit account in good standing. Ideally, you should try to become an authorized signer on a credit account that has been open for a long period of time (to raise your average age of credit), that has a high limit and a low balance (to lower your debt-to-credit ratio), and that has a history of on-time payments (to improve your payment history). When a person lists you as an authorized signer, you get the benefit of the account being listed as if it were your own on your credit report. However, you need to be responsible, and the person needs to trust you not to use the credit card in a manner that might hurt his credit.
Pay Down or Distribute Debt
Your debt-to-credit ratio makes up 30 percent of your score. The closer your balances are to the limit on your credit card, the worse your debt-to-credit ratio is going to be. In other words, if you have to borrow $100, you will have a higher credit score if you borrow $50 on two cards, each with a $100 limit, than if you borrow $100 on a card with a $100 limit. If possible, distribute your debt evenly among the credit cards you have open in order to keep your debt-to-credit ratio low. You can also ask your creditors to raise the limits on your existing cards in order to lower your debt-to-credit ratio. However, you should not ask creditors to raise your limit if they would require a "hard pull" on your credit report in order to do so, because if they check your credit report to raise your credit limit, this would result in an inquiry on your report, which could lower your score. You should also not open new credit cards in order to distribute balances, because this would lower your average age of credit and result in an inquiry.
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