A good credit score is nothing to be embarrassed about. While you still have room to improve – with hopes of reaching very good or excellent status in the future – you’ve already made solid progress.
If you have the goal of turning your good credit score into an excellent credit score, there are some key steps you can take.
1. Pay Your Bills on Time
If you’re in the habit of doing so, stick with your plan. However, if you’ve missed some payments in the past, don’t continue down this path in the future.
A missed or late payment will drag down your credit score, making it difficult to move into “excellent territory.”
2. Exercise Patience
Even though you want to improve your credit score as quickly as possible, it’s a process that requires patience and attention to detail.
The length of your credit history impacts your score, so stay the course and do all the right things over an extended period of time.
3. Review Your Credit Report
It’s common to pay so much attention to your credit score that you overlook your actual credit report. This is a big mistake, as an error on your report could drag down your score.
Get into the habit of reviewing your credit report at least once per year for errors. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact the credit bureau to file a dispute. Removing bad data from your report can result in an immediate increase in your score.
4. Reduce Your Balances
Anything you can do to reduce your balances is something to strongly consider. For example, if you have a maxed out credit card, pay it down as quickly as possible. As your debt decreases you put yourself in position to experience a credit score increase.
Just the same as your credit card, consider other forms of debt that you can payoff. This includes everything from home equity lines of credit to personal loans.
5. Limit Credit Applications
One hard inquiry after the next can ding your credit score, thus keeping you in the “good range” as you’re doing everything else possible to achieve an excellent score.
A hard inquiry can impact your score for up to one year, so you want to limit these at all costs. For example, this comes into play when you sign up for a store credit card or apply for an auto loan.
Conclusion
Turning your good credit score into an excellent credit score is easier said than done, but with the right approach you can reach your goal in the future.
It can take some time to achieve an excellent credit score, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t see immediate progress. Slow and steady wins the race!
