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13 Clever Ways on How to Raise Your Credit Score Fast (Tip # 6 is the Secret Sauce!)

We are talking super quick fast jump on your score

(See tip 6 below for some real secret sauce)

All right hold onto your bootstraps because we are going to go into another gear, and we are going to do it quickly.

There are many reasons that consumers might want to raise their credit score quickly. They may be in the market for a loan, or they may need to purchase a car, maybe even a house.

Whatever the reason, just make sure you read on, we think you will really like what you hear!:

Follow the steps that we are laying out here, and we guarantee that you will be able to raise your credit score very quickly.

1. Simply Ask

You’d be surprised how this little strategy actually really works.

If you don’t ask you don’t get.

What you have to lose?

If you’ve run into debt problems, lost your job, just simply messed up, or for whatever reason you have fallen behind. Simply reach out to your creditors on the phone and tell them your situation.

Now of course not in all cases will this get the job done, but in some cases, it will.

If you have a late blemish on your credit report because you were really late, simply call the creditor, and tell them the reason that you were late, and politely asked to see if they can remove the late mark.

If you really owe them money and are late, you can tell them your situation and ask if there are any options for you.

Negotiate with them

Sometimes you can negotiate and sometimes they will take a deal where you can make a payment that is less than what is actually owed.

You can ask them that if you make the payment with them right now over the phone, will they remove it from your credit report. It is not a common strategy but we’ve done it ourselves and we’ve seen it work.

2. Raise your credit limits

This is another situation where all you have to do is call and ask your creditor. Assuming that you’re not on bad terms with your creditors, you can usually get this done.

By increasing the credit limit on your account, your utilization ratio will improve immediately.

Example: If you have a credit card with a $2000 credit limit and you owe $1000 on it, you would be using 50% of your available credit.

A utilization rate ratio this high hurts your score.

If you call your creditor and asked them politely to raise your credit limit, and you have a decent to very good payment history of late, your chances of getting approved will be higher.

We have found that if you give them a reason, it increases your chances slightly

For example, you could tell them that you are in need of making a purchase and you don’t want to over-utilize your current balance to your current credit limit ratio, it might help your chances.

If they double your credit limit to say $4000, your utilization ratio just went down to 25%.

And guess what?

As long as you don’t use that part of that credit limit:

your credit score will go up!

So call every one of your creditors today, and see if you can get two or three or four or more raised, and within about 30 to 45 days when they report the changes to the credit agencies, and it gets updated, your score should be higher!

A really smart tip is coming up:

One that doubles your chances of getting a credit line increase.

Many credit card companies allow you to ask for an increase online. So if you don’t want to jump on the phone you can try online first, and if you get an increase amazing, if you don’t, you can simply try calling.

This actually increases your chances because you get to try twice.

When you are asking for a higher credit limit, they will usually ask you what your income is.

And you know you are making yourself some money right? So tell them about it. (What we are trying to say here, is that some people inflate their salaries just a little bit because creditors really don’t check it. (We are just making a note here, we are not telling you to do this.)

What we have done before is we’ve counted our spouse’s salary added it to ours and came back to them with a higher grand total of our income.

What we are trying to say here is that we used our household income, which increased our chances. And they did not check or verify.

What are we really saying here?

Just do it!

3. Ask for more than you need or want

Another cool tip is to always ask for more than you really need on a credit line increase. Online, they will usually ask you what you would like to raise your score to. So if you have a $3000 limit and they let you ask for it 10,000, ask for it.

A common problem that people make is only asked for a $1000 increase in and that’s exactly what they get.

But if you ask for $10,000 and you get $6,500, you’re still happy. If you only get a $1000 increase, you’re still happy because that’s all you’re going to ask for anyway.

It’s just learning how to play the cards that you are dealt a little smarter.

4. Experian Hack

Experian has this new thing called Credit Boost, where they advertise that you can improve your credit scores instantly for free.

And does it work?

Yes, it does. Better for some people than for others. The average hike in your score will be around 10 points, but some people see jumps as much as 25 points.

How does Experian Credit Boost work?

You have to sign in to Experian.com, and the first thing they have do is link your bank account(s). They then look to see if you are making on-time bill payments that show positive payment history. If you do and if you allow them to add these to your credit file, you get a quick boost. It really literally takes a few minutes to do.

5. Check your credit reports for any erroneous information and dispute them 

If you find any erroneous information, like accounts that aren’t yours, simply quickly dispute them with the credit bureaus.

We do not recommend disputing online. It’s always better to do it through the mail.

Need help or do you want to expedite the process of raising your score? Try Sky Blue!

6. Dispute EVERY item on your credit report (Secret Sauce Included Here)

Didn’t we just say this above? No, we didn’t. The first step is to look for erroneous information and dispute it.

This step is to dispute every single item.

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, all of the data that is reported on a consumer’s credit report must be 100% accurate.

And that means everything: 

It is your right by law to make sure that they are providing 100% accurate information about you.

That includes all of the following.

If anything is slightly wrong or inaccurate whatsoever on any of these items, they must be removed.

Account person’s name
Account number
The credit limit on the account
The highest amount borrowed
Current balances on your cards
The account status
The date the account was opened
The date the account was last active
The date of the last payment made
The status codes
Any consumer comments

Super powerful Strategic Tip:

(Here’s the Secret Sauce Below)

Here’s an easy way to quickly prove that the information is wrong on your credit report.

Pull all three of your credit reports. Compare each line item above on all three reports.

For example, look at the current balances on one of your cards that is in bad terms.

Chances are, due to the time that these reports are updated, all three credit bureaus will have a different balance for one of your accounts.

So for this strategy were going to assume that your Macy’s Amex is out for collections and is showing as a negative derogatory item on all three credit bureaus.

Example

The balance owed on your Macy’s Amex on Experian might show as $2700
The balance owed on your Macy’s Amex on Transunion might show as $2650
The balance owed on your Macy’s Amex on Equifax might show as $2743.45

Well, guess what?

Two of these balances are obviously the wrong balances, and maybe all three. And that is your grounds for dispute. If you’re really slick you can make a digital photo showing all three showing different data with the same dates or in the same timeframe.

You now have proof positive that your information is not 100% accurate.

By law and according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that Macy’s Amex account information needs to be removed from your credit report.

And guess what again?

When that negative item that was just removed gets updated (taken off) of your report, it will make your credit score go up!

7. Piggyback on a spouse’s back or on a friends back

We are sort of half kidding here.

What we really mean is have a spouse or friend add you as an authorized user on their card.

You don’t actually have to use the card and if they are not fully trusting of you they do not have to give you the card.

But getting your name added to their card will give you an automatic boost to your score because you have more available credit to you. Just make sure that their utilization ratio is not high on the card because that could hurt you.

If they have a $10,000 limit, and they’re only using $1000 (10% utilization ratio), your score will go up as soon as it gets reported to the credit bureaus and they see that you are an authorized user.

Learn more:

Adding authorized user to credit card

8. Open a new account

This strategy depends largely on your current situation. If you have decent credit and you think you can get another credit card, opening a new account will help you because you will increase your available credit by however much of a credit limit they give you.

Your score will drop a little bit initially because of an inquiry but if you get a good credit limit it’ll offset the small drop pretty quickly.

Try to look for credit cards that are easier to get. Some store cards are a little bit easier to get than bank cards.

Tip: Try to open 2 accounts on the same day. The inquiries won’t temporarily hurt your score any more than trying to open just one account.

A. You have just doubled your chances of getting approved!

B. You just might get approved for both and you will have a bigger more overall credit limit, which will raise your score!

9. Open a new joint account

If you do not have good credit and the chances of you getting another credit card are slim (or if you were denied), you can ask a friend to co-sign on an account with you.

If that is not possible, you can skip this strategy.

Tip: We do not recommend trying more than 3 times to get (preferably on the same day), because if you try too many times and are denied credit, your score will drop which is counterproductive to what we are trying to do here, :)

10. Make your payments on time 

If you’ve been late recently with a payment it will hurt your score. If this has happened to you and you were late recently, try to call the creditor and ask them if they can have it removed from your report. Give them a good reason why you were late, and chances are they will remove it.

Usually, if you are sincere and show that it was important for you to call and ask for forgiveness, they will remove  it for you.

Then as you move forward, make sure to make all of your payments on time.

Note: if you are a few days or a week or two late, chances are that they did not report it to the credit bereaus yet. You can ask them if they have reported it when when you call.

They usually only report when you are around 30 days late.

But do not that that for granted as a grace period. Some creditors will report even if you are just a few days late.

11. Pay down your debt 

Pay down your debt as aggressively as you can. Try to pay off your highest balances first because those are the ones that are hurting your score the most. If you are really in need to raise your score quickly to get a loan and you have a lot of debt, this can be very difficult. Avoid spending and adding a higher balance to any of your other cards.

Maybe you can get a quick loan from a family member or friend so you can pay down some of your higher balances.

12. Do not close any of your credit cards accounts 

This will not exactly raise your score right now, but it will help ensure that your score does not go down if you close an account.

The age of your credit history is an algorithm in the scoring model. So if you have any long-standing accounts, keep them open.

13. Reinstating your account

This strategy is not for all situations but it works great if you’ve either had your account just recently closed by your creditor of if your creditor has charged off your account (but has not sent it to collections yet). This also works if you have some money to pay down the debt.

The strategy is simple 

Simply call your creditor and ask them that if you make a payment right now in full on the phone, will they open your credit card and report it to the credit agencies. Sometimes the creditor will be willing to do this.

If they are, it might be a good idea to get it in writing.

If they are not willing, try sending a letter to your creditor with the same offer. This gives you two shots instead of one.

It costs you nothing (but a stamp) to try.

If you do not have the time to work on these strategies, you could hire a professional credit repair company to do these things for you.

See our list of trusted credit repair companies that will get the job done for you.

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How to remove a bankruptcy off of your credit score.