How to improve your credit score

To improve your credit score, pay every bill on time, keep your credit-card balances well below your limits, leave older accounts open, apply for new credit sparingly, and dispute any inaccurate items on your reports. Improvement comes from doing these consistently over time.

The five things that move your score

Your score is built from five factors: payment history (35%), amounts owed (30%), length of history (15%), credit mix (10%) and new credit (10%). The first two do most of the work.

Fast, safe moves

• Pay on time, every time. Set up autopay for at least the minimum.
• Lower your utilization. Getting balances under 30%, and ideally under 10%, of your limit helps quickly.
• Do not close your oldest card. Length of history matters.
• Space out applications. Each hard inquiry can ding you slightly.
• Dispute inaccurate items. Errors are common and drag scores down.

Where credit repair fits

If inaccurate, unfair or unverifiable items are holding you back, challenging them properly can help. That is what we do, alongside coaching these habits so the change lasts.