You really do need to take your credit score very seriously, because it’s the key to so many financial aspects of your life. It will determine if you can buy a house, buy a car, start a business and myriad other things.
Unfortunately, by the time many people realize this, they have already done some things to set their credit score back. That said, if you find yourself in this situation, it’s possible to rebuild your credit a bit more quickly with a few techniques.
For example, someone with a 550 credit score is in the “poor credit” range. But, if their goal is to get a low-downpayment FHA loan for a house, they only need to get it to 580. It may not take that long to lift a credit score by 30 points.
Wherever you fall in terms of “bad credit,” you need to realize that rebuilding that credit may likely to take years…sorry. It’s a marathon and not a sprint. But I’ve got some recommendations below for rebuilding your credit as quickly as possible.
You need to sign up for a credit monitoring service. Many of these services are completely free and help you review your credit from month to month. I personally use Credit Karma.