Raising my FICO Score

The rewards of raising your fico score directly impact your wallet: You will qualify for more loans and will be offered better interest rates. Here are some things you can do to raise your FICO score, which in turn, helps you lower your interest rates on loans (and more) and saves you money:

Correct blatant mistakes. Review your reports from all three credit bureaus for accuracy once a year as well as several months before applying for a loan. Changing a mistake on your report takes time.

Pay your bills on time. This makes up a whopping 35% of how your FICO score is calculated.

Reduce your credit card balances. A heavily weighted factor in your FICO score is how much money you owe on your credit cards relative to your total credit limit.

Raise your credit limit. A large portion of your credit score is determined by calculating how big your monthly bill is compared to the maximum amount of credit you can use. To make this debt-to-credit-limit ratio look even better, call up your credit card issuer and ask for the limit on your card to be increased. If you have been paying your bills on time, they will do it.

See Also: FICO Scores
FICO Scores: How important are they?

Return to the Transfer Tips Main Page

Return to the Balance Transfers Cafe Home Page