There’s no one action that’s deemed the best or fastest way to build credit, as it ultimately depends on where your credit stands. In fact, there are many different ways you can build your credit over time.
6 Ways to Build Credit Fast
Not sure where to start the process of building your credit? Try these five fast ways to build credit:
Clean up your credit reports – Check your credit reports and make sure everything is accurate. You can request a complimentary copy once every 12 months from each of the three national credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you notice any errors or incorrect information that's having a negative impact, dispute it with the reporting credit bureau immediately.- Pay down credit card balances – Ideally, you should try and pay off your account balances each month, but this isn’t always possible. At the very least, try and pay down your balances so that you have a credit utilization ratio that’s under 30%. Your credit utilization ratio is the sum of all of your credit card balances divided by the sum of all of your credit card limits.
- Increase your credit limit – You can request an increase of your credit limits on credit cards. This helps lower your credit utilization ratio, as long as you carry the same balances as you did previously.
- Become an authorized user – When you become an authorized user, your name is added to another person's credit card account. This allows your credit to benefit from the account's activity and history, making it a great way to build credit fast.
- Have your rent payments reported – You can also give your credit score a boost by having your rent payments reported. Our trusted partner gives you the credit you deserve by having these payments, which you're already making, reported to the three major credit bureaus.
- Open a new line of credit – This may seem counterintuitive, but adding a new line of credit can help you build and improve credit. The key is to make sure you’re able to responsibly manage the account. If not, doing this can hurt your score.
What Makes Up Your Credit Score?
Now that you know a few different ways to improve your credit, what exactly makes up your score? Most lenders check your FICO score, which consists of five categories:
- Payment history: 35% – The biggest component is your payment history on all of your accounts. The more bills you pay and have paid on time, the better your score can be.
- Amounts owed: 30% – The second biggest component is amounts owed. This looks at how much debt you carry, and a big component is your credit utilization ratio. The less debt you have and the lower your credit card balances are, the better your score can be.
- Length of credit history: 15% – The third most important component is the length of your credit history. The longer you’ve managed credit, the higher your score can be.
- New credit: 10% – This factor looks at the amount of credit accounts you have opened or applied for recently. You never want to open too many accounts at once, as every hard inquiry made on your credit negatively affects your score.
- Credit mix: 10% – Having a mix of both installment credit (mortgage, car loan) and revolving credit (credit cards) is best, as it shows that you can handle multiple types of credit.
Looking to Add an Auto Loan to Your Credit Mix?
It takes time to build up a good credit score – especially if you’re dealing with bad credit. As long as you keep up with your monthly bills, keep credit card balances low, and add credit wisely, you should see your score improve over time. An additional way you can build credit is to take out a self-lender credit building loan. Our partnership can get help your credit get back on track in no time, so check it out!
If you’re thinking about adding an auto loan to your credit mix, but worry your bad credit is holding you back from getting financed, don’t sweat it. At Auto Credit Express, we’ve teamed up with dealerships across the US that have the lending resources available to help people like you get approved for car loans.
The process is easy – all you have to do is complete our free and no-obligation auto loan request form, and we'll work to match you with a special finance dealer near you.
