As you make your financial plans, you have to factor in the place of a good credit score. You can have an excellent credit score, a good credit score, a bad credit score, or a poor credit score. You can either move up or down this credit score ratings depending on the knowledge you have. Whether you work as a private individual or a corporate body, there are several opportunities that you can leverage to increase your credit score.

If you are here to find out ways to improve your credit score, then you are in the right place. At Velocifin, we work to help our clients improve their credit score and stand a better chance at improving their credit score. In this article, we shall be providing you with helpful tips that can help you improve your credit score from a bad one to an excellent one.

1. Determine What Your Credit Score Is

You cannot work on improving your credit score if you don’t know what your credit report is. Request for a copy of your credit report and carefully analyze it. If you are a beginner at this, you may need to seek the services of a professional to help you analyze the report and ensure the figures are correct. Your credit report lets you know what your credit score is and if you need to take steps to improve it.

2. Find Out If There Are Any Errors

Do not just look at your credit report for the credit score alone, also check to see if there are any errors with the information provided it. Errors can harm your credit score and limit your access to loans and other services. Where an error is detected in your credit report that affects your credit score, take steps to immediately report such error. Not reporting this error on time can affect its correction and make it take longer time than expected.

3. Do Not Make New Credit Card Purchases

Credit utilization is very important in improving your credit score. You have to take steps to drastically reduce your credit utilization rate. A high credit utilization rate negatively affects your credit score while a low credit utilization rate improves your credit score. While it may be difficult to do away with credit card purchases in its entirety, you must take reasonable steps to limit it as much as you can. Always refer back to your credit score to determine the current state of your credit utilization rate. This will help you know whether or not it is safe to make new credit card purchases.

4. Offset Your Debts

You cannot improve your credit score by accumulating more debts. The more debts you accumulate, the more it becomes difficult for you to pay up the debts at the specified time. Instead of taking more debts, you should work towards offsetting your existing debts. The more you can offset your debts, the faster you can improve your credit score. When lenders look at your credit score and see how well you offset debts, it gives them confidence in your ability to pay your loan back if granted one.

5. Do Not Apply For New Credit Cards

When you are working to improve your credit score, you are in a credit repair mode and you shouldn’t be applying for new credit at that point. Lenders always perform a hard inquiry on your credit report when you apply for new credit cards. Hard inquiry causes a review of your credit report and can harm your overall credit score. The number of accounts you have to your name and the number of hard inquiries that have been conducted on your account make up a percentage of your credit score.

6. Talk To a Professional

Many individuals find it difficult to improve their credit score because they want to do it alone. With the right understanding, you can improve your credit score yourself. However, what happens if after you do all you know to do the results aren’t forthcoming? There is no point being hard on yourself trying to do this when you can speak to a professional.

Seeking professional help to improve your credit score makes the process faster and better. You will not only be guided on what to do, but you will also know what to avoid. At Velocifin, we have a team of professionals who can provide you with the best advice and guide to improving your credit score.

7. Speak To Your Creditors

Your creditors can be of tremendous help to you at improving your credit score. They do not always seem like the best option, but some of them have temporary programs that you can subscribe too. If there is a possibility of missing a payment, you can discuss with your creditors to reach an agreement on making progress. These agreements can help you sort out outstanding balances and improve your credit score.

8. You Need To Exercise Patience

Improving your credit score might take a lot of time even if you have engaged all the helpful tips you know. With all of these, patience is also very important to calculate and increase your credit rating. You will have to monitor your credit report every week and month to be sure the changes you are making is reflecting on the report. Do not just exercise patience on your report, you should also stay consistent at paying your debts, avoiding new credit cards application, and keeping unused cards open.

You should be in a constant state of repairing your credit score and proving to lenders that you can pay back loans if your application is granted. This is not a one-time activity but a process that involves a mix of activities many of which have come as tips above. Some of these tips might not immediately improve your credit score to the tune you want it to get to. You will have to exercise a lot of patience and keep engaging these tips because sooner or later, they will yield positive effects.