Worried about your credit and want a few clear steps to improve it?

Our Christian debt relief programs give us insight into helping people not just with their debt, but their credit as well.

There are two things to know: You are not alone, and there are some simple ways to boost your credit score.

According to Experian’s annual consumer credit review, nearly one-third of Americans may have difficulty obtaining loans and credit cards due to credit issues.

The better your credit, the lower your interest rate on car loans and credit cards. Good credit scores will also make homeownership much easier. There are few tools more valuable in your financial tool belt than a good credit score.

Below are five simple ways to boost your credit score.

1. Get Rid of Credit Card Debt

Paying off loans, such as your mortgage, car loan, or student loans, can improve your scores, but it won’t improve your scores as much as consistently lowering balances on revolving accounts such as credit cards. Your debt-to-credit-limit ratio plays a significant role in determining your credit score.

Paying your balances down doesn’t just help your credit score either, it takes major financial pressure off! Understanding how our Christian Debt Relief programs impact your credit is important to ensure long term success.

Making big charges can damage your scores whether you pay off your balances each month or not. As a rule of thumb, keep your monthly charges to 30% or less of your credit card’s limit.

2. Be sure your credit limits are reported accurately

If your lender is showing a credit limit that is lower than your actual amount your credit score can be penalized. Most credit card issuers will quickly update this information if you make them aware of the error.

This proven and simple way to boost your credit score requires very little legwork and can make a big impact, fast.

3. Keep Using Older Cards

Quite simply, the older your credit history, the better. Continue to periodically use the credit cards that you’ve had the longest and your credit score will benefit. Don’t make unnecessary purchases or go deep into debt for this. Even an occasional fill-up at the gas station will do the trick.

4. Study Your Credit Report for Errors

When it comes to raising your credit scores, some errors are more important to fix than others.

Here’s what you should look out for. Get these items corrected if you discover mistakes have been made:

• Late payments
• Credit limits reported as lower than they actually are, as mentioned above
• Accounts listed as anything other than “current” or “paid as agreed” (such as “paid derogatory” and “paid charge-off”) if you paid in full and on time.
• Accounts included in bankruptcy still listed as unpaid.
• Negative items older than seven years should have automatically been removed from your credit report.

Follow these five simple ways to boost your credit score and you should see your score steadily improve.

5. Ask the creditor to raise your credit limits…. but be careful!

While paying down debt is one way to improve your utilization rate, another is to increase the limit. Raising your credit limit will improve the all-important gap between your balances and your available credit, which in turn will support your credit health and score.

It’s better to leave your limits where they are and achieve this goal through paying debt down. However, a credit limit uses the very same thinking to quickly raise your score.

Interested in reducing or eliminating your credit card debt quickly and easily? Our proven Christian debt relief programs will provide a customized debt relief solution so you can achieve true financial freedom.