Paying down debt<\/a> will require you to cut back your spending, increase your income or both. Make a plan now on how you\u2019ll tackle your debt in 2017.<\/p>\nDon\u2019t Open Any New Credit Accounts<\/h2>\n
While you\u2019re working on improving your credit score you should not open any new credit accounts unless absolutely necessary. Applying for new lines of credit can have an adverse effect on your credit score.<\/p>\n
Instead, work on improving your credit so that when the time comes that you need to buy a house or take on debt for any other major purchase you\u2019re in a good position.<\/p>\n
Also, this should go without saying but DO NOT rack up anymore debt on the credit accounts you already have. You should focus on eliminating debt and avoiding taking on anymore.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t Cancel Old Credit Card Accounts<\/h2>\n
The length of your credit history accounts for 15% of your score. That means the credit card accounts you\u2019ve had opened the longest are the biggest influence on this calculation. If you close those accounts this portion of your credit score could be negatively impacted.<\/p>\n
Stay Consistent and Be Patient<\/h2>\n
You\u2019ll find many articles claiming that you can raise your credit score by 300 points in six months. But remember, what sounds too good to be true is usually too good to be true. Instead of looking for that next method that will get you there fast do what makes sense.<\/p>\n
If you have a lot of debt paying it down, refraining from opening new accounts and consistently paying all of your bills on time will raise your credit score.<\/p>\n
Do you plan on working on your credit this coming year?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the New Year ahead many ambitious goals will be set. If one of your goals is to straighten out your finances, improving your credit score might be on your list. Improving your credit score is a great idea since it can affect your insurance rates, housing opportunities and ability to take on a mortgage. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[176,633,236,632],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}