What Should You Avoid When Raising Your Credit Score?

Filed in archive Debt Consolidation on June 7, 2010

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When you have a bad credit score, establishing a good credit score is important. This is especially true if you want to get some new credit soon. If you are in a hurry to raise your credit score, however, then you also may be prone to make mistakes that could actually "reward" you with an even lower score. Here are a couple of things you want to avoid while you work to raise your credit score.

One mistake that you want to avoid is to open a number of new credit cards in order to lower your debt-to-credit ratio. The problem with this is that it will easily be seen on your credit report and will most likely raise some flags.

A similar strategy often used is to close some credit cards. While this will limit the amount of credit you do have, it can easily work against you. MyFICO states that credit scores are affected by the longevity of your credit history. If you take the longer existing accounts and close them, the result will show a shorter credit history and give you a lower credit score.

The best way to raise credit score, says MyFICO, is to simply pay down the debt. While doing so, you want to make sure of two things. The first is to always pay on time, and the second thing is to always pay at least the minimum amount.