How Can I Raise My Credit Score in 30 Days? Top 7 Ways (2024)

There are several ways to raise your credit score in 30 days. Reducing yourcredit utilizationis one of the fastest ways to raise your credit score, and you can do it by paying down debt, spending less, paying your bill more often or asking for a higher spending limit. Disputing negative information on your credit report can help quickly, too.

1. Dispute Credit-Report Mistakes
2. Make a Big Debt Payment
3. Reduce Your Credit Card Statement Balance
4. Become an Authorized User
5. Dispute Negative Authorized-User Records
6. Ask for a Higher Credit Limit
7. Write a Goodwill Letter

The bottom line is that your credit score can change anytime new information is added to your credit report or old information is removed from it. Creditors typically report updated information about loans and lines of credit at least once a month, so making the right moves for 30 days can definitely produce results for your credit score.

Below, you will find a collection of tips that should help anyone improve their credit score quickly. You can also get personalized advice for how to proceed by checking outyour free credit analysis on WalletHub.

7 Ways to Raise Your Credit Score in 30 Days:

1. Dispute Credit-Report Mistakes. Removing negative information from your credit report is perhaps the best way to generate substantial short-term credit-score improvement. But you can remove such information only if it’s wrong or the result of fraud. So go over your report with a fine-tooth comb, cross-referencing each item with your own financial records. If you find something fishy, investigate it further and, if necessary, file a disputewith the credit bureau.
2. Make a Big Debt Payment. How much you owe, especially compared to your income, has a big impact on your credit score because it tells lenders how risky it would be to let you borrow more. A credit score measures your risk to lenders, after all. So the more debt you pay off, the more your score should improve.
3. Reduce Your Credit Card Statement Balance. Credit utilization is calculated by dividing your credit cards’ balances at the end of each billing period by their spending limits. So if you reduce the balance listed on your monthly statement, you also reduce your utilization, which in turn improves your credit score. You can reduce your statement balances by spending less, making larger payments, or paying your bill more frequently. For example, paying a credit card’s bill twice per month – once before your statement is generated and again before the due date – allows you to lower your credit utilization and avoid interest.
4. Become an Authorized User.If a family member has excellent credit, ask him or her to add you as an authorized user on an existing credit card (preferably an old one with a high credit limit and no negative records). This might take too long to process to benefit you in a month’s time. But it should provide a bump pretty quickly.
5. Dispute Negative Authorized-User Records.Not many people know this, but if you are or were anauthorized useron an account that is dragging down your credit score, you can ask the credit bureau to remove it from your credit report. Authorized users are not responsible for paying the bill, which means they don’t have to suffer the consequences of not doing so. You just have to file a dispute.
6. Ask for a Higher Credit Limit.More available credit willreduce your overall credit utilization ratio, a key component of your credit score. Be careful, though. Many credit-card issuers will re-check your credit history — causing ahard inquiry and short-term credit-score damage — before approving a higher limit. So make sure to ask about your creditor’s policies first. You should also make sure all your credit limits are expressed accurately on your credit reports. If a listed limit is lower than it should be, ask the issuer to report an updated figure to the credit bureaus. Take note, however, that if you have an “NPSL” credit card, there might not be much you can do about an unusually reported credit limit.
7. Write a Goodwill Letter.If your credit report bears only a minor blemish — one late payment, perhaps — and the rest of your credit history is solid, you can try asking the issuer for a favor. For example, you could call and make a case for why your slip-up should be forgiven and stricken from the record, so to speak. Or you could send an official “Goodwill Adjustment Letter,” which formalizes the request. This tactic is most successful before a negative record actually makes its way to your credit report. But it’s worth a shot afterward as well.

You can keep track of your credit score’s latest developments bysigning up for a free WalletHub account. WalletHub offers free credit scores and full credit reports that are updated on a daily basis.

Finally, it’s important to remember that true credit building is a multi-year process. You’ll still need to manage your money responsibly moving forward for your 30-day credit-score gains to last.