How To Get A 700 Credit Score In 30 Days

Building And Maintaining Good Credit Is A Lifelong Endeavor

If your credit score isn’t where you want it to be, building it can have a huge positive impact on your ability to get affordable credit and even cheaper auto and homeowners insurance rates. But once you achieve your goal, you may be tempted to focus less on your credit score.

Even after building credit is no longer a priority, it’s important to continue to practice good credit habits to maintain your positive history. With Experian’s free credit monitoring service, you can get real-time updates when information on your Experian credit report changes. You’ll also get free access to your FICO® Score powered by Experian data and your Experian credit report.

As you keep track of your credit score and the information that informs it, you’ll be in a better position to make adjustments as needed to keep your credit score in tip-top shape.

How Often Is Your Credit Score Updated

Services that show you your credit score may advertise that they update your score every month or even every week, but that doesn’t mean the credit report information your score is based on has necessarily changed.

Your credit score is calculated the moment it’s requested based on the information that creditors report to the national credit reporting agenciesExperian, Equifax and TransUnion. to the credit bureaus on their own timeline, generally once every 30 to 45 days. They may not report to all three bureaus, or if they do, they may not report to all three at the same time.

So while your credit score based on data from Experian may have been updated based on recent reporting, that may not be the case with credit scores based on data from one of the other two bureaus.

That said, if you have a lot of accounts with multiple creditors, you may be able to get an updated score several times throughout the month as each reports to the credit bureaus.

Also, the amount your credit score changes will be based on the new information from your creditors. Some credit score factors have a bigger impact on your score than others.

How Long Does It Take To Get A Good Credit Score

To build a credit score from scratch, you first need to use credit, such as by opening and using a credit card or paying back a loan. It will take about six months of credit activity to establish enough history for a FICO credit score, which is used in 90% of lending decisions. FICO credit scores range from 300 to 850, and a score of over 700 is considered a good credit score. Scores over 800 are considered excellent.

Dont expect a spectacular number right off the bat. While you can build up enough credit history in less than a year to generate a score, it takes years of smart credit use to get a good or excellent credit score.

VantageScore, another type of credit score, can be generated sooner than your FICO scores. Your FICO credit score is the one to watch over the long term. However, to make sure you are on the right track when starting, your VantageScore can indicate how your actions reflect on your new credit history.

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Dont Close Any Card Accounts

When you are new to credit and building a score from nothing, time is your friend. Even if a year from now, you have a card you no longer want or use, keep the account open unless it charges an annual fee. The length of your credit history directly affects your FICO score, so the longer your accounts are open, the better your credit score.

How Do I Get My Credit Score From 750 To 800

5 Habits To Get 800+ Credit Score

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How Many Points Can A Credit Score Go Up In A Month

For most people, increasing a credit score by 100 points in a month isn’t going to happen. But if you pay your bills on time, eliminate your consumer debt, don’t run large balances on your cards and maintain a mix of both consumer and secured borrowing, an increase in your credit could happen within months.

Check Your Credit Reportson A Regular Basis To Track Your Progress

No matter where you turn for your credit check-in your bank, or one of the major consumer credit bureaus its important to keep an eye on your credit. And if you find any mistakes or inaccuracies, we can help you file a dispute. If your dispute is approved by the credit bureaus, you may see the error corrected as soon as within 30 days, which can help raise your credit scores.

Read Also: How Much Does A New Credit Card Affect Credit Score

Top Ways To Raise Your Credit Score

There are several things you can do in the short-term to try and better your credit score.

Improving your credit utilization will likely have the quickest impact. This could be through paying down debt, upping your credit limit or opening a new credit account. Additionally, there are a couple other things you can do to start your journey to an increased score, including the following:

How To Prevent Your Credit From Becoming Stagnant

If you are trying to improve your credit but are noticing it is remaining stagnant, or even if you’re not sure where to start and feel that you need guidance, it might be time to hire the help of one of the three best credit repair services.

Some credit repair service companies include Novae Money, Lexington Law, and Ovation by LendingTree. Even if you have a credit score stuck at 750, it is possible to bring that score up in a short period.

• No guarantee it will be effective
• No credit counseling

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Remove A Collection Account

People with a 780 credit score do not have any collections or other major derogatory items on their credit report. If you do have a collection account reporting on your credit report, you should try to get the collection deleted.

Do NOT just pay a collection. A paid collection usually doesnt help improve your credit score! Instead, negotiate a pay for delete IN WRITING with the collector. Only when you have a written agreement should you pay a collection account, and then work on getting the account deleted.

Avoid Pay For Delete And Late Payment Adjustments

There are some suggestions for how to improve your credit score in 30 days that, while they look interesting, are less than reputable.

Pay for delete and late payment adjustments are two credit cleanup methods where borrowers ask debt collectors to report information that may not be entirely true to the credit reporting bureaus.

Pay for delete is a process in which a borrower offers to pay the debt they owe only if the creditor will remove the negative account history from their credit report.

Late payment adjustments also known as goodwill letters are letters written by borrowers to lenders asking them not to report late payments.

Both these methods might be a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act , which requires fair and accurate credit reporting.

According to the FCRA unfair credit reporting methods undermine the public confidence, which is essential to the continued functioning of the banking system.

Accounts in collections and late payments stay on your credit report for seven years. If you pay off an account in collections, it should be reported as paid collection. If its not, ask your debt collectors to send a letter stating that the debt has been paid in full.

Even if your creditors follow through with pay for delete or late payment adjustments, theres no guarantee it will occur in 30 days.

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Credit Pitfalls To Avoid

Once youâve done the work to earn a 700 credit score, youâll need to keep up with the good habits that helped you get there in the first place. Yet sometimes knowing what not to do is just as important when it comes to maintaining good credit.

Here are 5 credit pitfalls to avoid so that you can be on your way to a 700 credit score.

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Increase Line Of Credit

Call your credit provider and ask for a credit increase. Make sure to ask you they can do this without adding a hard inquiry to your credit report.

Hard inquiries can drop your score a bit, but it can be a give and take situation.

Sometimes you have to take the hit to get what you are really after, in the case its a higher limit on your card. In other cases its a mortgage or some other type of creditor checking your history.

Try to avoid the hard inquiry by asking each card provider their policy and pick the company that doesnt need to do a credit check 1st.

Increasing your line of credit allows you do keep a balance the same but lower your debt to credit ratio, which accounts for 30% of your FICO score.

Your credit limit goes up but your balance doesnt move, which then lowers your credit utilization .

Become An Authorized User On Someone Elses Account

If youre new to credit and cant qualify for your own credit card, becoming an on someone elses account can be a great way to get started. But its a double-edged sword: If the person who owns the account has healthy credit, it can help you establish a positive credit history over the long run. On the other hand, if they miss payments or carry high credit card balances, that could also reflect poorly on you. Thats why its important to pick someone you trust who has a longer credit history and higher credit scores than you do, and who overall has a positive credit history.

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Get More Credit Accounts

One common cause of a low credit score is a thin credit profile. That means you dont have enough activity in your credit report for lenders to have confidence in you.

If youre a recent college graduate who didnt take on student loan debt or credit card debt in college, youll probably have this issue. The best way to address this is to open up a new account. This can be a credit card, credit builder loan, personal loan, or mortgage.

The positive effects of acquiring multiple new accounts are two-fold:

• Adding new accounts increases the diversity of your credit mix
• Building a positive payment history with multiple credit accounts has a more significant impact than just one account

It can be hard to qualify for new credit when you have a low credit score or no credit history. To be successful,target more accessible accounts. A good way to get started can be a secured credit card or a .

A secured credit card requires an upfront cash deposit, usually equivalent to its credit limit. Theyre much easier to qualify for since the lender can keep the deposit if you fail to pay your balance.

A credit builder loan follows a similar strategy. The lender will hold onto the loan amount until the final payment goes through. Once the loan balance and interest are fully paid off, the funds are released to the borrower.

Whichever accounts that build credit you choose to open, make sure you can afford them. The last thing you want is to overextend yourself and miss a monthly payment.

My Credit Score Is 550 How Do I Raise It

You can do several things to raise your credit score, including disputing false information, paying off collection accounts, and lowering your percentage of credit used. If you haven’t got your credit report yet, you can get it from all three credit bureaus – Experian, Transunion, and Equifax for free. Free copies of credit reports are available either through their websites or through AnnualCreditReport.com.

Now that you know where your credit history stands, let’s get started and find out what you may need to do. Here are some ways to help you raise your credit score depending on different factors:

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Use Your Secured Credit Card Sparingly At First

As you get used to using credit, youll want to use your card sparingly at first.

Dont rush in and begin charging items until you get a grasp on what you can truly pay back.

You dont want to end up with a revolving balance you cant afford to pay off every month, and you definitely dont want to pay interest on your purchases!

The Bottom Line About Building Credit Fast

When youre working to fix your credit, it takes good behavior over time. However, lowering your utilization rate by paying down existing debt, getting a new credit card or requesting a credit line increase on an existing card can provide the quickest credit score boost.

Any late payments and debts sent to collection should be handled promptly otherwise, theyll just cause more pain once they hit your credit reports. Its also wise to review your credit reports on a regular basis. in order to spot errors that might be dragging down your credit score.

Knowing what actions to take that can help improve your credit score and being a responsible borrower can boost your chances of increasing your credit score by 100 points or even more.

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Dispute Inaccurate Credit Report Information

It doesn’t happen often, but it’s possible for your credit reports to contain inaccurate or even fraudulent information. If you find something that you don’t recognize on your credit report from one or more of the three main credit bureaus , you can dispute the item with the credit bureaus.

The dispute process typically takes about 30 days, and if the bureaus find your claim to be correct, they will remove or modify the disputed item, which could help your credit.

Improving The Average Age Of Your Accounts

The part of this category that you can easily use when raising your credit score is the average age of your accounts.

Lenders tend to see people applying for loans or credit cards as a risk factor since it implies that they need financial help. Banks and credit card issuers also like loyal customers because they can make more money out of the relationship.

Put simply, this part of your credit score is simply the length of time each of your loan and credit card accounts has been open, divided by the number of loans and credit cards you have. The higher the average age, the higher your score will be.

You can score the most points in this category by avoiding applying for new loans or credit cards unless you need them, as each new account will reduce your average age of accounts.

This advice also applies to the last factor that influences your credit score.

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Get Credit For Rent And Utility Payments

Rent reporting services can add your on-time rent payments to your credit reports. Rent payments are not considered by every scoring model VantageScores include them but FICO 8 does not, for example. Even so, if a would-be creditor looks at your reports, rent records will be there, and a long record of consistent payments can only help.

Experian Boost also can help, but in a more limited way. You link bank accounts to the free Boost service, which then scans for payments to streaming services and phone and utility bills. You choose which payments you want added to your Experian credit report. If a creditor pulls your FICO 8 using Experian data, you get the benefit of that additional payment history.

Impact: Varies.

Time commitment: Low. After initial setup, no additional time is needed.

How fast it could work: Boost works instantly rent reporting varies, with some services offering an instant “lookback” of the past two years of payments. Without that, it could take some months to build a record of on-time payments.

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