20 Smart Moves to Boost Your Credit Score Fast

Your credit score mostly determines your financial situation; boosting it can open doors to better loan terms, reduced interest rates, and employment possibilities. This article lists 20 clever ideas for rapidly raising your credit score. These few actions can make a great difference whether you want to quickly raise your score or begin from nothing.

Tricia Quitales
February 11, 2025
6 min read

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You can significantly raise your credit score in a short period of time rather than years by using a few clever and basic ideas. Including paying off current debt, fixing mistakes on your report, and making timely payments, this article lists 20 quick activities you can take to rapidly raise your credit score. Being proactive and consistent can help you improve your credit and take advantage of the financial gains a better score offers.

1. Check Your Credit Report for Errors

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Mistakes on your credit report could lower your score. Check your credit report often for mistakes; challenge any you come across. Correcting these errors will help your score rise right away.

2. Pay Your Bills On Time

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Your credit score consists mostly on payment history, so timely payments are quite important. While on-time payments help develop a good credit history, late payments may seriously lower your score. To keep on target, schedule reminders or automated payments.

3. Pay Off Outstanding Debts

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One of the best strategies to raise your score is to cut your debt load. As they can be the most expensive, concentrate on initially paying off high-interest debt. You can increase your credit use and general score once you pay off outstanding debt.

4. Keep Your Credit Utilization Below 30%

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Using your available credit percentage is known as credit usage. Maintaining it under 30%—and ideally much less—will demonstrate to lenders your credit-worthiness. To reduce this ratio, try clearing balances or requesting credit limit increases.

5. Settle Any Collections Accounts

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Paying off your bills from past-due will greatly increase your score. Although it could take time for the revisions to show, a better credit report depends on clearing these records. To have the account off your record, consider negotiating with the creditor for a “pay-for-delete” agreement.

6. Increase Your Credit Limit

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Seeking a larger credit limit will help lower your credit use ratio. Should you cut back on your spending, lenders will immediately view you as less dangerous. Ask your current credit card companies for an increase instead of creating new accounts.

7. Pay More Than the Minimum Payment

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Making minimal payments on your credit card bill will keep you in debt. Paying more than the minimum tells lenders you are dedicated to pay off what you owe and helps you rapidly clear your debt. This will raise your credit score and help you manage your credit use better.

8. Keep Old Accounts Open

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Your credit history counts toward your score, and closing past accounts may lower your score. To keep a longer credit history, keep accounts open even if you hardly use them often. If you must close an account, try to close more recent ones first.

9. Avoid Opening New Credit Accounts

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Whenever you apply for new credit, a hard inquiry appears on your record, which can momentarily drop your score. Unless absolutely required to prevent too many questions, avoid opening new accounts. Keep fresh applications to a minimum if you want to rapidly boost your credit.

10. Use a Secured Credit Card

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A secured credit card will help you establish credit, whether your credit score is low or nonexistent. These cards call for a deposit, which functions as your credit limit. Making regular payments and using the card sensibly will help raise your score over time.

11. Consider a Credit-Builder Loan

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Designed especially to help individuals raise their credit ratings is a credit-builder loan. You borrow a tiny sum from an account and pay it back. Once you pay back the loan, your credit record shows it as a good note.

12. Dispute Inaccurate Late Payments

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On your credit record, discover any erroneous late payments; challenge them. You should take care of things right away since one late payment might reduce your score. Correcting mistakes will guarantee that your credit report shows just proper data.

13. Become an Authorized User on Someone Else’s Account

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Ask a friend or relative with good credit to add you as an authorized user on their account. Adding their great payment history to your own will help raise your credit score. For best results, ensure they have little credit use and a decent payment history.

14. Avoid Maxing Out Credit Cards

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As it raises your credit use ratio, maxing out your credit cards might seriously lower your credit score. Use no more than 30% of your credit, and pay off bills immediately. This will help you maintain your excellent standing score.

15. Make Multiple Payments During the Month

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Making several small payments throughout the month can assist in controlling your credit use. Your stated balance will be less if you pay off some of your debt before the billing cycle finishes. If you spend a lot of money in one month, this is particularly useful.

16. Negotiate for Better Terms

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If your credit card or loan’s interest rate is high, contact the lender to work for a lower rate. Even a little drop in interest can save you money and speed up debt pay-off. This can improve your credit use and payment history, which will raise your score.

17. Avoid Late Fees

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Late fees could damage your credit score and add to your debt. Plan automated payments or create a budget to ensure you never miss a due date.

18. Use Balance Transfer Offers

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Consider using a balance transfer offer to move high-interest credit card debt to a card with 0% interest. This will save you interest charges and enable you to pay off the debt sooner. Ensure the debt is paid up before the month starts to help you avoid significant expenses.

19. Check Your Credit Score Regularly

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Check your credit score often through your bank or a credit monitoring agency to keep you updated. This will enable you to monitor your development and observe how varied behaviors affect your score. Early discovery of mistakes or dishonest behavior helps you stop damage to your credit.

20. Limit Hard Inquiries

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Applications for credit cards or loans are among the hard queries that could lower your score. One question is usually not a significant concern, but too many in a short period of time will drop your score. Apply for new credit strategically to minimize pointless requests.