Collect your financial details. Create a spreadsheet of you incomes and your debts as well as your available lines of credit. This can be either from your credit cards or a line of equity from your house. In an ideal world the best way to improve your credit score would be to pay off your debt. Nonetheless, if you’re just not in the greatest position financially then you need to transfer part of the balance to other cards to spread the burden.
Step 1
Spread your debt. It is far better to carry a little debt on all your cards or all your lines of credit than to have all your debt be all in 1 location. Carrying a high credit card balance reduces your score. Try to maintain credit card balances below fifty percent of your limit for every card.
Step 2
Once you get your credit score up a little from spreading your debt, apply for far more cards. Yes, this sounds like a bad idea, but if you’re responsible than all you are doing is increasing your access to credit. Creditors like to see that you have access to funds and if you have a lot of credit cards with little balances then your debt to accessible credit ratio is low. Lenders like that so your credit score will go up.
Step 3
Raise your income. If you raise your income then your debt to income ratio will improve for lenders. This is especially important when trying to purchase a home. It may not directly raise your credit score, but it will give you a far better chance at much more credit which will then raise your score.
Step 4
Take care of loose ends. Begin paying your bills on time, sign up for automatic bill pay if you have difficulty keeping track of due dates. Settle or negotiate any debt judgments or collections against you. Defaulting on debt can damage your credit rating big time.