Hey Tullies, we finally got the time to talk about credit scores and how we were able to increase our credit score by over 100 points. So this all started late 2018 when we decided it was time to purchase a home. We spoke with a Realtor and they gave us a very basic break down of what we need, and one of those things was credit. So we downloaded the credit Karma app and what we seen was not going to make the cut. So after a lot of research and working with our Realtor these are the 5 things we did to Improved that score by almost 200 points in 6 months. Also, feel free to watch out youtube Video on how to increase you Credit Score.

***Disclaimer this is what worked for us and we just want to share our Results. We are NOT financial Advisers, we are Youtubers that want to Help you with information that we found.***

1. Know your Credit score /Know how credit works! 

So this may seem very obvious but according to Yahoo Finance 40% of Americans don’t know their Credit Score. This simple and very crucial task is very critical to helping your score because you can’t know where you are headed if you don’t know where you’re at. Credit Karma is the tool we used because it is Free (Yes, Free) and it has a nice break down that shows how credit works. Since Credit Karma only do a soft inquiry it does not effect your credit score! For More details on how credit works watch our video.

2 Dispute 

There are many reasons to dispute charges on your credit report. Anything that comes up incorrect on your credit repair should be disputed. Also you can dispute any debt that was sold to another company. Disputing credit reports may seem like hard work or confusing but Credit Karma makes it super easy to dispute charges. You can do the whole process on the App. The App also has all the option for disputing any reports with all the options for fighting the report. In 2018 when we did it we are able to dispute 1 of our charges. It wasn’t as easy to dispute because CreditKarma would only redirect you to the credit bureaus website to do it yourself.

3. Adding An Authorized User

BEFORE DOING THIS PLEASE UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS. When someone add a person as an authorized user you are giving full authority to make charges on that credit account without the Responsibility of the debt. So in other words they can ruin the Account holder’s credit by making purchases and leave the account holder responsible. I Highly recommend that you do this with a trusted individual ONLY. Once someone becomes the Authorized user that account gets a mirror image of the Account Holder. So if the account holder had the account for 5 years, never missed a payment is under 30% usage then the authorized user will see that reflect on their credit and can significantly cause an increase on their credit.

4. Pay off debt / call debt collector to bargain 

This is super simple but not easy. Paying off your debt may seem like the most cliche answer but once you start making payments (at least the minimum payment) you will notice that your credit will increase very slowly because your payment history increases and your credit utilization drops (Ideal # for credit utilization is 30% or lower). The other thing is to contact debt collector to bargain. Calling a debt collector to bargain may be frowned upon but it worked for us. I would first recommend that you dispute the charges if it was sold to a 3rd party company then if that doesn’t work contact the collector. When contacting the collector have the amount that you are willing to pay on hand because you don’t to have to try to call back once the amount is agreed upon. MAKE SURE YOU GET A RECEIPT, we had ours emailed to us. Check to make sure that it is removed off your credit (May take about a month or 2).

5. Secured credit card / Graduated 

A secured credit card is a Card that is backed by a cash deposit you make when you open the account. So in other words, if you are approved for a $300 secured credit card then you have to deposit $300 to open that line of credit. They do this just incase you are unable make the payments they have the money to pay it off. I recommend you try to get a secured credit card with the company you are banking with currently , as you are more likely to be approved. This allows you to work on your credit while the bank limits their risk. Once you are approved for the card make sure you take care of the card. Keep it under 30% usage (Recommend as low as possible) by only putting things that you pay month(for instance phone bill or light bill). Pay those back at the end of the month. After 6-12 months of this call the credit card company and ask for them to graduate your card. When your card it graduated normally they will give you your deposit back, increase your credit limit and remove any annual fee. Secured credit cards are great for people with no credit or bad credit because it gives you an opportunity to get your credit right.

BONUS Tips!!!

1. Experian Boost      

Experian boost is a nice quick and easy way to boost your score by a few points. The way the tool works is that it links to you bank account and see what you pay for on the monthly basis to use for payment history(for an example Hulu and Netflix). This Tool is Also free

2. Download Self App

The Self App is an amazing tool that allow you to pay a monthly payment for an agreed amount of time. During the time of payment they will report to the credit bureaus you payments every month. That means that your payment history goes up. Then at the end of the the contract you get the money back minus fees. Essentially you are paying yourself while building your credit. Or you can look at it as a way to save money and build your credit at the same time.

3. Do it with God 

The last bonus but definitely not the lease is doing it with God. Honestly I think this is the most important because it gives you the drive to continue. The process is a long and sometimes grueling process. For us having God in the picture helps you not give up.This gives you more of a purpose that you can fall back on. If you don’t have faith once adversity hits it much easier to throw in the towel. I would like to leave you with a verse Romans 8:28

The post 5 Ways to Increase your Credit Score appeared first on How 2 Tully.