The average credit score in the United States is 673, just shy of what experts consider a “good” score.
And that’s not a very pretty picture.
A lot of people are struggling to pay down debt and rebuild their credit score after years of student loans, credit cards and unpaid bills have destroyed it.
If you’re in the same boat, here are seven smart steps you can start taking right now to raise your credit score faster.
1. Figure Out What You’re Dealing With
Business owner Kenneth Bain raised his credit score 234 points in just seven months.
His first step? Finding out exactly what kind of debt he had.
Which companies do you owe money to? Which (if any) of your debts are in collections? What are your minimum monthly payments on each credit card or loan?
Bain found this information by signing up with Credit Sesame.
The app shows your balance on any unpaid bills, credit cards or loans. It also offers personalized tips to help reduce your debt and raise your credit score.
Through Credit Sesame, Bain found some old bills tainting his credit report, even some that were paid off. He cleared those marks to improve his score.
Once he started tracking his rising credit score and watching his debts dwindle, it started to feel like a game — one with a seriously important goal.
He told us, “I literally checked my credit every day, two to three times a day.”
2. Consolidate Your Debt
It’s not uncommon to get crushed by credit card interest rates north of 20%.
If you’re in that boat, consolidating and refinancing your debt might be worth looking into.
One of our favorite refinancing resources is Even Financial. It can help you borrow up to $35,000 (no collateral needed) to pay off your existing debts and compare interest rates from several lenders.
If you decide to consolidate your credit card debt, be mindful about closing your old accounts. The age of your accounts could affect your credit score, so having only new debt could hurt.
Closing cards also reduces your available credit, which can hurt your score.
As long as your cards don’t charge an annual fee, keep older ones open and active for up to 10 years to strengthen your credit history.
3. Protect Your Identity
What if you work hard to pay down all your debt and you’re totally responsible with your credit going forward…
…Only to take a hit because of identity theft?
We know you don’t want to risk all your hard work.
Identity theft ruined writer Jamie Cattanach’s credit score. She was able to get it back over 700 with a lot of elbow grease, but the experience has made her extra-cautious about her finances.
A free service like TrueIdentity helps you avoid this situation by keeping a watchful eye your finances. It sends alerts by email, phone or text if someone tries to apply for credit in your name.
As Cattanach says, “Before driving face-first into a total credit nightmare with someone else at the wheel, you might as well keep tabs on your stuff — especially if you can do it for free.”
4. Apply for More Credit (No, Seriously)
When she was leaving a bad relationship that ruined her credit, financial advisor Michelle Kuehner told us, “Taking out share secured loans … was the easiest way I knew (to rebuild my credit). Within a year and a half my credit had been repaired.”
When you’re dealing with an already-poor credit score, creating new debt is probably the last thing on your mind.
But it can actually be helpful.
Different factors (payment history, credit age, credit inquiries, and others) are weighted differently into your credit score. Credit usage accounts for a whopping 30%.
If your credit usage is zero, even if you clear the rest of the negative marks from your credit report, it’s still hurting your score.
Opening a credit card, using it regularly for things you’d buy anyway — like groceries or gas — and paying off the full balance each month can raise your credit score without costing you money.
If you can qualify, we recommend signing up for a cash-back rewards card like the Barclaycard CashForward™ World MasterCard®. It gives you 1.5% cash-back on every purchase — basically a discount on everything you buy.
If you can’t qualify for a rewards card, try a secured credit card, similar to the secured loans Kuehner used. You’ll pay a deposit and get a low credit limit, like $200.
Just make sure you shop around. You want a lender that reports to the major credit bureaus and doesn’t come with exorbitant fees.
5. Sell a Bunch of Stuff
If you want to aggressively pay down your debt, start getting creative about how you make extra money.
Got too much junk sitting around at home? Sell it online.
You can make some quick cash and transform your space into something a little more Zen.
Our editor Matt Wiley and his fiancee were inspired by The Minimalist Podcast to take a second look at all the junk they had lying around.
“The podcast raises the question, ‘Does this add value to my life?’” he explains. “If not, why keep it?”
Wiley decided to dig into the massive CD and DVD collection he’d amassed since college. It was collecting dust in a cabinet, so he decided to sell everything on Decluttr.
That way, they could literally add value to his life… to the tune of over $50.
Decluttr pays you for your old CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, video games, gaming consoles and other electronics.
To sell other types of clutter, these are our favorite sites:
- letgo: You can sell almost anything on this app.
- Bookscouter: Use this site to sell your old books.
Depending on what’s sitting in your garage or closets, you could pocket a few hundred dollars selling it off. (If you can sell enough to empty a storage unit, your savings could be in the thousands!)
6. Rent Your Spare Room
If you want a more consistent influx of extra money without a ton of extra work, turn a spare bedroom into a money-maker.
By listing their spare room on Airbnb (among other money-saving efforts), Ryan Deitrich and Kelsey Swagler paid down nearly $50,000 in student loan and credit card debt — and saved enough money to buy a sailboat.
Airbnb lets you connect with visitors who need a place to stay while they travel to your town. It saves them money over a hotel, and it lets you earn money from unused space.
Plus, the app lets you rate and vet users to ensure guests coming into your home are safe. It also handles the payment, so you don’t have to have that conversation with guests.
7. Choose Which Debts to Repay First
Overwhelmed by a laundry list of loans and credit card payments? We know it can be tough to make progress when you’re staring down a mountain of debt — or even a mighty molehill.
You might have heard conflicting advice about the best way to pay it off. That’s because different methods might work better for different people and situations.
The two most common approaches to paying off debt are called the debt snowball and debt avalanche methods.
The debt avalanche method says to pay off your debt with the highest interest rate first. Those are most likely your credit cards. Doing that can save you a ton of money over time.
The debt snowball method says to pay off your debts with the smallest balances first.
You may pay more in interest in the long run, but this method allows you to eliminate debts from your list more quickly. That can also help motivate you to keep working at it and make your laundry list less overwhelming.
Which method you choose is up to you, as long as it works.
Most likely, you’ll have to get creative to invent a plan that’s just right for you. Take this stay-at-home mom, who used a hybrid snowball-avalanche method to pay down $64,000 in credit card debt in just two years.
Your Turn: What steps are you taking to raise your credit score?
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The post 7 Creative Strategies These Real People Used to Improve Their Credit Scores appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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