Wondering what you can do to build or maintain your good credit score? Credit scores are important for a lot of things from renting an apartment to buying a car, but building a good one can seem like a real mystery.
So, here are a few tips and tricks to ensure you’re working on that great score!
Use Your Credit Like Debit
If you’re trying to establish a good credit score (or recover from a bad one), a great habit to get into is to use your credit card like a debit card. You can’t spend money on your debit card if you don’t have it, and that’s exactly how you should view your credit card.
So many people spend money they don’t have because that’s how credit cards work, right? Wrong! Yes, technically you can spend money you don’t have on a credit card, but you shouldn’t. A good habit to get into is paying off your credit card as you add to it. Don’t spend anything you can’t pay off in cash right away (or shortly thereafter)!
Pay Your Bills On Time, Every Time
This should go without saying, but I’m happy to share it again. If you want to build and maintain a good credit score, you need to pay your bills on time, EVERY TIME. Not sometimes, not most of the time, but all of the time.
It’s really easy to stack up against your credit card and run up a high bill, but they have super high-interest rates and it can be SO HARD to get out from under. So pay all of your bills all the time and keep your credit top-notch!
Set Up Direct Payments
On the same note as paying your bills, setting up direct payments is a good way that people keep up with a solid credit card.
Direct payments help to ensure that you pay your bills on time, every time. It’s a quick-and-easy process you can set up to ensure you’re on top of your bills and managing your money with ease.
Don’t Use All Of Your Available Credit
Having little or no credit available isn’t the way to go if you’re trying to build a solid credit score. If you’re trying to hit a great score, you’ll want to have credit available. That means if your card has $5,000 worth of credit available you haven’t used $4,995 of it. That’s not leaving a ton of credit available.
Keep your balances as low as possible. A $5,000 credit card with $4,000 available credit can have a seriously positive impact. Lenders want to see that you’re responsible enough to have more credit, but don’t just go spend it all.
Building Your Good Credit Score
Figuring out how to build a great credit score doesn’t have to be a mystery or overly complicated. There are a ton of quick-and-easy things you can start right now to work towards building that killer score.
How do you build a great credit score? Share your tips and tricks below!
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Tae started out as a journalist before following the money into the corporate world. But it turns out that the grass isn’t always greener and now you can find her spending most of her time writing about all the things she loves. Namely, money, travel and business with a hefty dose of self-deprecating humor. She is a podcast fanatic, blogging aficionado and loves to find new ways to turn passions into cold hard cash!