How do I raise my credit score?

Question

So as a teen I screwed up some, landing me 3k in debt and boasting a score of 580 :( :( so im 22 now and I really wanna fix this. what do I do?

Answer 1

I've read that a good thing to do is to always pay more on credit cards than your minimum payment.  Once your credit is in better shape, it is best to use your credit card (but not max it) and pay it off in about 3 months.  That shows that not only can you use credit, but you can handle it and manage it.  Also, don't apply for every offer that comes in the mail.  Each time you apply for a credit card, it goes against you.  If you have alot of credit cards, you may want to look into consolidating to one card with a lower interest rate.  Oh, and always pay on time.  Once you are back on track, only keep one or two cards.  The more you have, the worse it will score you.

Answer 2

buy stuff out of the catalog and pay it

Answer 3

find out the collectors info or whoever call them set up payments with them OR see if they will settle for a smaller amount. (like if you called them and said i have 2,000 that i can send you right now, will you settle?) but of course you would have to have the money to do so, they might even settle for less.

If you have credit cards go through them and pick out the ones(if any) that charge you a monthly fee and call the credit card company threaten to cancel if they don't take off the monthly fees, if they agree to take them off then keep it but if they don't then cancel it you don't need anything else to get you into debt further. canceling a lot of ccs makes you look bad on your credit.

If you don't have a credit card then get one with low interest and no monthly fees(try capital one, but dont try too many this can hurt your credit too) and use it ONCE a month then pay it all off every month ontime, your payments should start showing up on your credit quicker than you think!

fixing your credit can take a lot of time and money, but its so worth it after its done. Good Luck to you!

Answer 4

Pay off all revolving debt (credit cards, etc) with the most money going towards the cards with the highest interest rate first.  Keep the cards once you pay them off but DONT use them.  Once you do this, to keep your rate going up, DO NOT buy anything unless you can pay for it in full.  Assessing the difference between Wants and Needs is difficult at first, but you are young and have a chance to turn it around if you are careful.  Once you have all debts paid off...

Ask your employer if they have direct deposit.  If so, have them split your check 75% into your checking account, 25% into a savings account...then Dont touch your savings account.

Good luck.  :)

Answer 5

I would recommend 2 things: 1) a very low cost (possibly free) credit repair program to try to have the negative items removed. 2) I would add a tradeline program to boost your score quickly (60 days or quite possibly less). A friend in California used this and got a 120 point bump from 560 to 680. There has been a lot of disinformation by Experian saying these authorized user programs do not work. Check out the source news link for an article from July 30th that has them admitting it still exists. My friend in California went through www.totaldebtsolutionsllc.com and filled out their free evaluation form to get the ball rolling. Good luck.

Answer 6

make sure that you NEVER miss the minimum. At the very least, if you are in a rough spot and you can pay the interest + minimum every month, you will slowly reduce your debt (but this will end up being costly, always try to pay off as much of it as you can) and as long as you don't miss your payment, your score will sloooooooooowly recover.

Also, I don't know what kind of loan it was (credit card etc.) but if you have high interest, consolidate! Go to a bank (any bank, if yours says no, go to an other one, they will see this as a chance to steal an other bank's loan to you and get the interest so you have nothing to loose trying even if some banks say no) and try to get a low interest loan. Consolidating is when they transfer multiple balances (you can do it with just one also) to the new loan where the interest is lower so you can pay it faster. BEWARE for temporarily low interest because it will skyrocket after. If the bank loans fail, I know CITI has a credit card with a permenant prime + 0.9% interest (that is super freaking low). You should be looking for a loan with anything from prime + 1 to prime + 3, but not more unless you absolutely have to.

oh and 580 isint great but its not horrible either, so don't loose hope!

Answer 7

some will power, some prayer power, and a lot of, lot  of, hard work!

Answer 8

Pay ALL of your bills on time.  Don't max out your credit cards on stupid stuff that you think you need.  If you charge something on a credit card, pay it off when the statement comes in.  Pinch pennies to pay off that $3k in debt.  Live and learn.  I have been there and now know how to prevent it.  

Answer 9

pay ur bills on time

and not jus the minimum

go above and beyond