How to Increase Your Credit Score: 5 Ways to Regain Your Status as a Trustworthy

Posted by Liam Honk on March 17th, 2021

Credit history is information about you as a potential borrower, which is stored in the credit bureau. Credit history contains a detailed report on what loans you took and whether they were paid on time, and other data.

Why repair your credit?

• Loan refusal. Credit history check depends on the lender. But if there are serious delays in your credit history, even microfinance organizations will decline your loan application. There is another option: the loan will be approved, but the terms will be unfavorable;
• Difficulties with obtaining car insurance - voluntary insurance of vehicles in case of theft, potential damage, and other troubles. Here the situation is the same as with loans: your application will either be declined, or you will be offered increased rates. Trustworthy borrowers, on the contrary, can be given a discount;
• Problems with employment. Large organizations will also check your credit history when hiring you. This should be expected, for example, when applying for a materially responsible position.

Below are 5 ways to help you fix the situation if you have a bad credit history.

Method 1: Take a payday loan

Contacting microfinance organizations is an effective but not cheap way to improve your credit history. A payday loan is a small amount of money that is borrowed from an MFI for a short period (1-3 weeks). As a rule, loan amounts vary between 0 and ,000.

To improve credit history, you can get a payday loan at 1stsouth.com in Tennessee and repay it on time. The advantage of this company is that it is easy to conclude an agreement with a lender and get beneficial terms. Your application will be approved even if you have a bad credit history. You can apply for a cash advance online 24/7 with a few clicks and get a response in a matter of minutes. If approved, you should expect to get the funds deposited into your account as soon as the next day or even the same day.

Method 2: Buy goods in installments

If you are planning to buy a new iPhone, do it for the benefit of your credit history. You can read about how the installment plan works and what to look for when concluding a contract here.

When buying goods in installments, the client enters into an agreement with the partner bank of the store, therefore, such a transaction is essentially a loan. What's next: details of the transaction are reported to the credit bureau, the buyer regularly makes installment payments, and the credit history improves.

Important: some stores offer to conclude an agreement directly, that is, without the participation of a bank. In this case, the information that you took the goods in installments will not be reflected in the credit history.

Method 3: Get a credit card

Many banks offer credit cards without credit history verification.

The principle of work is as follows: you pay for purchases with a credit card within a month. Then you make up for the money spent before the grace period ends - the time at which the money on the card is used without interest. Next month, reactivate your credit card, and then pay off the debt during the grace period, and so on. Thus, the credit bureau will receive the information that you have taken a loan and repaid it without delays.

Making a credit card and paying off debts on time is not a very costly way to correct your credit history. And if you use your credit card correctly, you can even earn extra money.

Method 4: Loan refinancing

In short, refinancing involves getting a new loan on more lenient terms in order to pay off the existing one. This option is also convenient if you have several loans from different banks. In this case, the client enters into an agreement with the bank, which independently closes the loans and then opens one general loan at a lower interest rate.

The method is suitable if your credit history has not yet been damaged by delays, but everything is moving towards this. If you have a bad credit history, the chances of concluding such an agreement are lower.

Refinancing will have a positive effect on your credit history: you closed the old loan and took out a new one. This is how it differs from debt restructuring, another service offered by the bank.

Method 5: Correct inaccuracies

Problems do not always arise through the fault of the owner of the credit history. It may contain mistakes. For instance:

1. Outstanding loans. Such records appear if the lender has not transmitted information about the loan closing to the credit bureau. In this case, you will be listed as a debtor;
2. Non-existent loans. Sometimes, information about loans that you did not apply for is found in credit history. The situation may arise due to the lender's carelessness. In the worst-case scenario, it is the result of fraud.

How to change incorrect data:

• Contact the bank that caused the mistake. Banks consider such requests in an average of 30 days, after which they send new information to the bureau. Incorrect information is usually corrected within ten days;
• Write a statement to the credit bureau. When the lender does not admit the mistake, but you are sure of it, contact the credit bureau yourself. The bureau will conduct an audit upon request within 30 days. If you are right, new information will be added to the credit history, if no violations are found, the data will not change. In any case, you must be notified in writing of the results of the check;
• Go to court. Disputing information in the credit history through the judicial authorities occurs as a last resort - if the previous options did not help.