The Least Sexy Way to Raise Your Credit

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One of the best ways to improve your credit score is simply to pay your bills on time. This is absurdly simple but it works very well, because nothing shows lenders that you take debts seriously as much as a history of paying promptly. Every lender wants to be paid in full and on time.

If you pay all your bills on time then the odds are good that you will make the payments on a new debt on time, too, and that is certainly something every lender wants to see. According to the FICO scoring model, up to 35% of your credit score is based on your paying of bills on time, so this simple step is one of the easiest ways to boost your credit score.

Pro Tip: The most important thing to remember when trying to schedule your credit card payments is the “statement date”, not to be confused with the “Payment Due” date.

What's the difference?

The Payment Due date is the date your bill is due to your creditor.

The Statement Date is the date they actually report your payment to the major credit bureaus (not all credit cards report to all three). So even if you pay your cards prior to the Payment Due date, you will get more credit for making those payments prior to the Statement Date (especially if you are trying to keep your balances below the recommended 15% of the maximum available).

Paying your bills on time also ensures that you don’t get hit with late fees and other financial penalties that make paying your bills off harder. Paying your bills in a timely way makes it easier to keep making payments on time. Of course, if you have had problems making your payments on time in the past, your current credit score will reflect this.

It will take a number of months of repaying your bills on time to improve your credit score again, but the effort will be well worth it when your credit risk rating rebounds!

If you need a professional to help coach you through it, we provide regular tips and coaching with either of our services at at kromacredit.com.