Ways to Increase Your Credit Score by 100 Points

Many people think that paying off debt is the only way to build credit, but that isn’t always the case. Most of the time, paying off all of your debts and having no credit can actually hurt your credit score. The trick is to manage your debt properly to build credit scores quickly.

Can You Raise Your Credit Score by 100 Points Overnight?

While you can increase your credit score significantly and quickly, you can’t do so overnight. There are a few reasons for this. The first one is because credit scores aren’t updated every day; they’re updated periodically. It’s actually pretty standard for the credit bureaus to only update credit scores once per month. Even if you do something that will increase your credit score significantly right away, it can take a month for it to show up. 

Increasing Your Credit Score Quickly

If you’re looking to increase your credit score in a short period of time, there are a few things that you can do. While each thing may not seem super significant in itself, they all make a difference. However, your starting credit score does matter. Those with a high credit score or a good credit score are going to see a slower increase on their credit profile.

Pay Down Your Credit Cards

Having high credit card balances is one of the most common reasons for having a low credit score. This is because credit cards are a form of revolving credit. With revolving credit, you have a maximum credit limit that you can pay down and continually use. What many people don’t know, and what credit issuers don’t tell you, is that the more you use your credit card and keep a high credit card balance, the more of a hit your credit is going to take. 

Once you start paying off your high-balance credit cards, you’re going to notice that your credit rating is going to start to improve. Ideally, you want your credit utilization to sit around 30% or lower of your total limit. This is where you will start to see your optimal credit scores. 

Dispute Errors on Your Credit Report

Errors on a credit report can be one of the most common ways that your credit score can be damaged. It’s important to check your credit reports with both Equifax and TransUnion often. This is where you can find any errors. If you do find these errors, you can dispute them with the corresponding credit bureaus (credit reporting agencies). Once that is done, the errors will be removed from your credit report, and you should see your score improve. 

Make Your Payments

Making all of your payments on time is one of the best ways to both maintain and improve your credit score. Even if you can’t afford to make larger payments, making your minimum payments when paying bills every month can make a huge difference. If you’re unable to make your payments, the best thing you can do is communicate with the lender. Often, you can defer or adjust your payments so that your credit score isn’t affected. 

Reduce Your Credit Utilization

If you’re unable to make large payments in order to reduce your credit utilization, one thing you can do is increase it. You can do this by getting another form of revolving credit, a credit card or line of credit, and not using it. Having that available credit room will increase your total credit limit and decrease your overall credit utilization. 

Depending on your relationship with your current credit card company, you can always ask for a credit limit increase. This will also reduce your credit utilization by increasing the amount of your available credit. It won’t get rid of your credit card debt, though, but you can avoid a credit check by using your existing account. 

Track Your Credit Score

The best way to increase your credit score is by keeping track of it. You can do this with free credit monitoring apps like Borrowell, Credit Karma and Clearscore. Each of these apps will show you what your credit report looks like, how you can improve it, and which pieces of credit you could qualify for including credit card offers from different lenders. They will even show you how many credit accounts open you currently have. 

Increasing Your Credit Score by 100 Points in 30 days

The two most effective ways to improve your credit score by 100 points in such a short period of time are by disputing errors on your credit report or reducing your credit utilization (keeping your balance low). If there are no errors on your credit report, then reducing your credit utilization will be the most effective. 

If you have the money, the simplest thing to do is to pay down your credit cards and lines of credit until they’re 30% or lower of your total utilization. However, that isn’t always doable. If you can’t pay them down at all or as much as you’d like, then the next best option is to get a new revolving credit line. This can be either a credit card or a line of credit. Here’s an example of how it can lower your credit utilization. 

Say you currently have an $8,000 total credit limit and are using $6,500. This would mean that your current credit utilization is at  81.5%, which is high. If you get a line of credit for $10,000, then your credit utilization would change to 36.5%. This would mean that you could reduce your credit utilization by 30% by paying your credit card down by $1,100 to $5,400.

If you didn’t get the new credit line, then you would have to pay off $4,100 to get your credit card down to $2,400. While these are two different methods, they will both have the same goal and have the same effect on your credit score. 

How Long it Takes to Raise Your Credit Score by 100 Points

How long it takes to raise your credit score by 100 points really just depends on the person. Where your credit score currently sits, what’s causing it to be low, and the overall health of your credit history can all make different impacts. Realistically, it can take anywhere from a month to a few years, depending on the individual factors that you’re working with. 

For instance, if your credit score is below 600, it’s likely to take much longer to increase than if it were above 600. This has a lot to do with the factors dragging it down. In fact, the more negative tradelines on your report, the longer it will take to increase your score. This can be anything from missed payments to collections and more. They all have a negative impact. 

How much debt you owe compared to how much you’re able to pay will also make a big difference. This is known as your debt-to-income ratio. The higher this ratio is, the more of a hit to your credit score. You ideally want to keep this number at 30% or lower as well. 

How Long it Takes to Raise Your Credit Score by 20 points

Just like raising your credit score by 100, how long it takes to raise your credit score by 20 points all depends on where your credit started and what factors you need to increase. Those who have higher credit scores, like 700 and above, are less likely to increase their scores quickly. However, something as simple as paying down your credit card can increase your score by more than 20 points. 

Another thing you can do is continue to pay your bills on time. Just by doing that, you can see your credit score increase over time. If you keep your credit card balances low, then you’ll also notice more significant increases in as little as 30 days. However, it can take a few months to see an increase, even by 20 points. 

How to Get an 800 Credit Score in 45 Days

For most people, raising your credit score to 800 in 45 days is quite challenging. That said, if you’re sitting with a credit score of 750, then it’s possible. If you have a low credit score, then raising your score to 800 in just 45 days isn’t realistic. This is important because when you’re looking to improve your credit score, it’s important to have realistic goals. 

If your credit score is sitting just under 800, something as simple as lowering your utilization rate can move your credit score up to 800. If your score is sitting much lower, then it’s going to take time for your credit score to increase that much. Factors like the length of your credit history, having a good payment history and having no negative tradelines on your credit report are going to make all the difference. Even having a good credit mix is going to be important, which is really just a diverse mix of credit card accounts, installment loans, car loans and even lines of credit. 

Raising Your Credit Score by 200 Points in 30 Days

While raising your credit score by 100 points in just 30 days has happened before, it’s extremely rare to raise your credit score by 200 points in 30 days. In order to do this, you would need to have a good credit mix, low credit utilization and get rid of any negative tradelines on your credit report. It is possible, it would just take a lot of work, and you may not even see a credit jump as substantial as you would hope for. 

The most effective way to increase your credit score significantly is by showing good credit habits over time. The more consistency you show with low utilization and on-time payments, the better your credit score will be.

How to Increase Your Credit Score with Poor Credit

If you have a low credit score, improving it can be difficult since it’s challengingt to get new credit accounts and build a positive credit history. Here are a few ways that you can do this. 

Drown Out Negative History

For most people with a poor credit score, their negative credit history is what is dragging them down. Having collections, consumer proposals, bankruptcy, and even legal issues on your credit report can really drag it down. These things can stay on your credit report for a long time, too. Bankruptcy can stay up to seven years after it’s completed, a consumer proposal is two years, and collections are six to seven years, whether it’s been paid or not. 

While adding new tradelines is a great way to drown out the negative until it drops off, you can actually work with creditors to have your collections taken off of your credit report early. However, in order to do this, the deal needs to be made when you agree to pay the debt, and you should get the agreement in writing. 

Get a New Tradeline

While getting a new credit line is the most effective way to start rebuilding your credit, it might be challenging to get a lender to approve you for one. This is where credit-building products come in. These products are guaranteed approval and will report all of your positive payments to the credit bureaus. The most common type of credit-building product that we see is a secured credit card. However you can also get a credit builder loan or line of credit. 

Secured credit cards work just like traditional credit cards; however, you do need to put down a security deposit. For example, in order to get a $1,000 credit card, you then need a $1,000 security deposit. Once you have this deposit paid, you can use the card just like a traditional credit card. There will be interest, and you’ll have a payment date on your credit card bill, and your credit utilization will be tracked. Once the card is paid off and cancelled, you will get your deposit back. 

Another option to improve your credit score while adding new accounts is to become an authorized user on someone else's credit card. Lenders typically will report to the credit bureaus of both credit holders and, if the other person has good financial habits this could improve your credit without having too many hard inquiries on your report. 

Make Your Payments on Time

The simplest way to increase your score is by making on-time payments for all your bills, including phone bills and other utility bills. Missed payments can dramatically reduce your credit score. A simple way you can do this is by setting up automatic payments. 

Add Your Rent Payments to Your Credit Report

One new feature you can use is to have your rent payments reported to the credit bureaus. Every on-time payment you make will add to your positive credit history, your positive payment history and positively affect your credit score. 

Limit Your Credit Applications

While creating a mix of different credit types of different credit issuers is good, it can be a red flag to lenders if you have too many credit inquiries as part of your credit activity. Too many credit inquiries can credit negative information on your credit report, so you ideally don’t want to have more than 5 per year. Each one can reduce your score by five to fifteen points, and have the opposite effect if you’re trying to improve your credit quickly. 

Final Thoughts

While increasing your credit score by 100 points can seem complicated, the key is consistency. Consistently checking your credit score, consistently making payments by their due date, and consistently looking for ways to improve your credit history are all key factors in increasing and maintaining your credit score. 

What you do have to consider when increasing your credit score, though, is that doing so can take time. While there are some things you can do to improve it quickly, developing good habits over time is what’s going to help your credit score keep increasing and make the most notable changes. Any late payments for any billing cycle are going to impede your progress.