{"id":48055,"date":"2013-09-17T12:51:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T18:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=48055"},"modified":"2023-05-11T09:49:58","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T15:49:58","slug":"2013-09-17-build-your-credit-score-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2013-09-17-build-your-credit-score-today","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways To Build Your Credit Score Today (Without Spending Any Extra Time)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a commercial real estate and corporate underwriter, I have a very different view of credit scores than most.\u00a0 A simple score that gives no credence to an individuals income, liquidity or net worth has NO credibility in my opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of my individual thoughts, the bottom-line is that if you have a low credit score you are going to have a tougher time getting a loan. The average <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/credit-score-buy-house\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">credit score needed to buy a house<\/a> in around 620 or higher, however you should always consult\u00a0 your mortgage broker as requirement do vary. Additionally, you will probably pay a premium interest rate if your credit score is too low.<\/p>\n<h2>4 Ways to Build Your Credit Score<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t shop around for consumer credit.<\/strong>\u00a0 The more people that pull your credit, the lower the score\u00a0 This doesn&#8217;t apply for a mortgage or new car loan, but I wouldn&#8217;t chance it.\u00a0 Try and get a preliminary rate quote before you give the lender permission to pull your credit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t close that line of credit or any credit cards.<\/strong>\u00a0 A big percentage of the score is revolving balance to revolving limits.\u00a0 A high ratio points indicates a borrowers stress to pay.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t pay charge-offs.<\/strong>\u00a0 Charge-offs drop after seven years.\u00a0 If you pay them you are keeping them open, which is hurting your score<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t open new accounts.<\/strong> Over the long-term a lot of revolving accounts helps you.\u00a0 However, in the short-term opening a bunch of revolving accounts will drop your score significantly.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Above are 4 tactics you can use to improve your credit score without spending any extra time. \u00a0However, I want to leave you with a bonus tactic that can improve your credit score by over 100 points in 1 month.<\/p>\n<p>My friend recently got turned down for a mortgage because his credit-score was too-low. \u00a0(see above comments on my personal thoughts on credit scores! \u00a0My friend makes six-figures, no debt and has $50K ready to put down on a $150K house purchase)<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, my friend has a <a title=\"The Ultimate Beginner\u2019s Guide to Real Estate Financing\" href=\"\/renewsblog\/2012\/10\/07\/real-estate-financing-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\">line of credit for his business<\/a> but he personally guaranteed it, so it was reporting on his personal credit report. \u00a0He quickly paid that off.<\/p>\n<p>The next thing he did which caused a huge spike in his credit score was that <em>he used his credit card like a debit card.<\/em> \u00a0He put everything he could on his credit card and then every three to five days he would make a bank transfer and pay-off the balance.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-days later, <strong>his credit score improved by over 100 points.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One final credit boosting tip for today: A recent study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/jimmy-dahroug\/credit-agency-oversight_b_2079612.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">79 percent of credit reports contained some kind of error.<\/a> Sometimes improving one&#8217;s credit is simply a matter of getting rid of the errors!<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s the craziest credit score story you have or have heard about? Or do you have any tips that you know can help improve someone&#8217;s credit? Tell me about it in the comments!<\/p>\n<p>Photo: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/92661859@N00\/3058009462\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bitzcelt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a commercial real estate and corporate underwriter, I have a very different view of credit scores than most.\u00a0 A simple score that gives no credence to an individuals income, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1277,"featured_media":96078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-finance"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1277"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}