A higher credit score can be a good way for you to open up more opportunities for your family. With a higher credit score, you can make sure that your family has access to better credit cards, better options for loans, and even better housing opportunities. However, it can be difficult to move from a lower credit score to a higher credit score. Here are a few free ways that you can improve your credit score for your family.
-
Dispute Errors on Your Credit Report
Every year, the three major credit bureaus are required to give you a free copy of your credit report. Your credit report includes all sorts of information about your credit score, including inquiries, reports of payment, and reports of late or missed payments. If you notice that any of these seem incorrect, you can dispute it as an error; the creditor has to provide evidence or remove it from your report, which may increase your score.
-
Request a Higher Credit Limit
A higher credit limit can increase your credit score because it can reduce your credit utilization. Credit utilization is the amount of your available credit that you’re using at all times; experts recommend that you keep it below 30% for best results. If you can request a higher credit limit, you’ll be able to use the same amount of credit while having a lower credit utilization; $3,000 of debt is less impactful at a $10,000 credit limit than at a $3,000 credit limit.
-
Keep Your Accounts Open
When you’ve paid off a credit card and you don’t use it very frequently, you may think about closing the credit account. However, this actually might not be the best option for you. That’s because part of your credit score has to do with the average age of your accounts; closing a credit account that you’ve had for a long time will actually reduce your credit score. You can keep it higher by keeping those accounts open.
-
Use Experian Boost
If you want to turn your day-to-day bill payments into a credit score boost, you can use Experian Boost. This tool imports your bank account information and scans for bill payments, like rent, water, sewer, and similar bills. Then, it allows you to utilize your bill payments as payments that would typically be reported to a credit bureau. That means your credit score could immediately go up by a fairly significant amount.
Conclusion
Familial credit scores are an important part of building a great life for your family as a whole. If you don’t have a great credit score right now, you might be wondering how you can build a much better credit score for your family. These four things are all great ways to improve your credit score without having to spend a single penny. You’ll be happy that you followed these steps when you notice the positive improvement on your credit.
