Raise Your Credit Score: 6 Key Questions If You Need a Boost

Having the best credit score can give you more opportunities, from buying the house you want to being able to land your dream job.

In addition, your credit score is used to indicate if you’re someone who can be trusted to lend money to based on your previous borrowing history.

These are six questions that people ask when trying to increase their credit score.

The answers to these questions should give you a clear path on how you can raise your credit score. 

6 Credit Score Questions That Will Help You Raise Your Score

What is a credit score, and how is it calculated? 

There are five ways a credit score is calculated, and each area has a specific weight towards your score.

Certain categories impact your score more, and other areas have less impact. To improve your credit score, focus on the areas with the most impact – payment history and amounts owed. 

Want to check your credit score? Go to this article next for more information: How to Check Credit Reports for Mistakes & What to Do About Them

Does my credit score go up every time I make a payment?

The answer to this question is yes and no.

When you make on-time payments, you will see your score increase. It’s not immediate, though. It takes about a month for you to see that score increase because your credit report is populated every month. 

Your credit score will go up when you make a payment because of the two high-impact categories – payment history and accounts owed.

When you pay your monthly statement, you’re improving your payment history (especially if you have a history of not making payments on time).

When you pay down your total amount owed, you’re improving your accounts owed.

To have the highest score in this area, you want to utilize less than 10% of your credit limit. The closer you get to that, the better your score will be. 

Does it hurt your credit to make multiple payments a month?

No! It does not hurt your credit score if you make multiple payments a month.

Again, your score is calculated each month. Once you make the minimum payment, you are positively impacting your payment history.

When you’re making multiple payments each month, you’re helping your amounts owed or your utilization ratio.

If you are able to pay down what you owe, you will have a higher score the next month because you don’t owe as much. 

How many credit cards should a person have?

It’s good to have two to three credit cards.

However, having more can negatively impact your score in a few ways. If you are tempted to use a credit card, having more than two or three cards can cause you to utilize your credit more, thus increasing your utilization ratio.

It’s better to keep that rate as low as possible.

Having too many credit cards will mostly impact the lower categories, like the length of credit history and credit mix. 

Can you raise your credit score by 100 points in 2 months?

It is possible to raise your credit score by 100 points in 2 months!

Some can even do this in one month, but it takes a lot of work.

First, you need to look at your credit score and see where it’s lacking. If you have a lower score because your length of credit history is low, it will be harder to raise your credit score. That simply takes time.

However, if your credit score is lower because of your payment history and amounts owed, then it is possible.

Make sure you pay your bills every month on time, which will help with your payment history.

Also, make sure to lower your overall balances to zero (if possible) to reduce how much you owe.

You should see an increase in your score the first month you do this, and it will continue to increase into your second month. 

What steps can you take to raise your credit score?

There are five steps that you can take to raise your credit score. They all go to the categories on how credit is calculated. 

First, focus on payment history.

This impacts your score the most. Make sure you’re making all of your payments on time and not missing any. If you forget to make a payment, set up automatic payments for your monthly minimum due. 

Second, work on lowering your amounts owed.

For example, your ratio is high if you have a credit limit of $5,000 and you have $4,000 of credit being used. Lower this by paying off your credit cards. Try to keep a $0 balance every month, which will help you increase your score. 

Third, look at your length of credit history.

This will be an average of all of your credit. If you want to increase your length of credit history, do not take out any new credit. This will lower your average. 

Fourth, focus on your credit mix.

If you want to take your score from good to excellent, make sure you are diversifying the type of credit you have. This also comes with age when you can start buying a home or car and have credit cards. 

Finally, do not take out or apply for new forms of credit.

When you apply for a credit card, your report is pulled, and this lowers your score. If you are approved, this also lowers your length of credit history. It takes two years for an inquiry to be dropped from this area, so only apply to something if you need to.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published Sep 26, 2022 and has been updated to improve reader experience.

Photo by Matthias Groeneveld