How to increase your credit score quickly

Whether you’re trying to build up your credit history for the first time, or if your credit health has taken a hit, you might be wondering if there’s a shortcut to success. In other words, how can you increase your credit score quickly? 

The short answer is that you can’t. A higher credit score is something you build up over time. While there’s several things that can improve your score, there are no steps that can guarantee a large, or even particularly noticeable, increase overnight. 

But there are steps you can take to grow your credit score and help you access the best deals from potential lenders. 

This includes: 

• Checking your credit report for errors that could be dragging your credit score down 

• Making sure you don’t miss repayments on the credit you already use

• Monitoring your credit utilisation (the amount of available credit you use) to strike the right balance 

• Avoiding situations that could lower your credit score, so your score increases as quickly as possible.  

Now we know there’s no instant solution, let’s start by looking at how long it’s likely to take for your credit score to increase. 

How long does it take to increase your credit score? 

Your credit score is based on your credit report (also called your credit record or credit file), which is a comprehensive record of all the information relating to your use of credit over the past six years. 

All the entries on your credit report — from your Electoral Roll listing to how well you maintain your credit repayments — are taken into account when your credit score is calculated. Everyone’s credit reports will contain different information, so it’s difficult to predict how long it will take for any one action to impact your credit score — or how much of an effect it could have.

But we can be more sure about how long it takes for updates to show on your credit report and this can give an idea of when your score could change. 

Generally, it can take: 

• Anywhere from 1 day to 2 months for your payment status on existing credit agreements to show. Lenders typically report payment information to the credit reference agencies (CRAs) they work with — that’s Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — once a month.

• 4–6 weeks for updates after error correction. If your credit report contains errors or missing information, correcting these mistakes may increase your credit score. Once you’ve reported an error to your lender, they’ll need to investigate the issue and then work with the CRA to update your credit report if they agree it is incorrect. Lenders should respond within 28 days but the update can take up to six weeks.

• 3 months for Electoral Roll information to be updated. Depending on the time of year when you update your Electoral Roll entry, the change can take up to three months to show up in your credit report. 

Put simply, it’s important to be patient when waiting for your credit score to grow. But it’s worth working for. And you can start by building the habits that will make your goals a reality.

Five ways to improve your credit score

Because the improvements in your credit score can be gradual and take time to show, it can be helpful to approach improving your credit score from several different angles. 

Let’s look at five different areas where you could find an opportunity to improve your credit score. 

1. Spot errors in your credit report 

When you want to see your credit score increase, keeping an eye on the information in your credit report is a good place to start. Monitoring your credit report regularly can help you understand what affects your credit score and identify the factors that could lower it. 

From time to time, there can be genuine mistakes in how your payment history is recorded. For example, there could be errors in the way a lender has reported payment information to the CRAs. But if this error shows you missed a payment you actually made on time, it could have a negative impact on your credit score. 

If you identify an error on your credit report, it’s best to contact the lender directly to figure out what’s happened. They should be able to help you the quickest and have a legal requirement to respond within 28 days. If they agree there’s an error, they should correct it so that your credit report accurately reflects your payment history. 

If you want to check the information on your credit report, start with Checkmyfile. We’re the most detailed credit report you can get, bringing together data from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion in one place. We present clear paths to progress, identifying actions which can raise your score, build positive habits and arm you with the know-how to keep them up

2. Make your repayments on time

Of all the information that impacts your credit score, the most important is how you manage the credit you use. 

This means one of the best ways to see your credit score improve is to make all the monthly payments on your existing credit on time — whether that’s revolving credit like a credit card or instalment credit like the repayments on a car loan. 

Repayments can have a noticeable impact on your credit score because:

• They show the accounts are active. Newer repayment entries can have more influence on your credit score than repayments you made five years ago or repayments on a closed account, because it reflects your current circumstances. 

• They show your history. When lenders consider your application for new credit, they look at how you’ve handled your finances previously. Paying your bills on time shows them you’re reliable and will likely do the same for new credit too.

• Missed or late payments are negative. When you’re trying to build a good credit score, you want to take actions that improve it. Missed payments can quickly cancel out the impact you see from your positive payment history. New lenders may be more wary of lending to you and your existing ones could enforce penalties or fees. 

If you struggle to keep on top of your repayments, there are ways to help stay organised: 

• Setting up direct debits means that the payment is taken from your current account automatically on the day it's due. This saves time that you’d otherwise spend arranging transfers and also means that you’re less likely to miss a payment by accident. 

• Creating reminders for when the bills fall due. This helps to create an organised approach to finances and can make sure there’s enough time before the payment is due to arrange the money to cover it. Reminders can also help to reduce the likelihood of unexpectedly going into a negative balance, like using an unauthorised overdraft. 

These systems can be particularly helpful if you have several credit accounts where the repayments are due on different days of the month. 

Whatever systems you put in place to help you budget for repayments and make sure they’re made on time, this sort of credit management helps to build positive payment history on your credit report, which will help to build your credit score over time. 

3. Monitor your CUR

Your credit utilisation ratio (also called your credit utilisation rate) also plays a role in how your credit score is worked out. 

Your CUR is a measurement of the amount of credit you’re using versus the credit limit your lender has provided. 

Keeping your CUR around 30% can be beneficial for your credit score. This shows you can use credit responsibly without becoming over-reliant on it. Approaching the upper limit of, or maxing out, your available credit every month can have a negative impact on your score. 

Although your CUR can impact your score, it’s important to remember that paying off your outstanding balance each month is vital to build your score. So make sure you only use as much credit as you can afford to repay.

4. Register for the Electoral Roll

Your credit score will be most accurate if all the available information is considered when it’s calculated. When you live in the UK, that means making sure you appear on the Electoral Roll, if you’re eligible, and making sure your name and address information are consistent. 

The Electoral Roll is a list of people eligible to vote in each election, and it’s maintained by your local authority. It’s also important for lenders because they use it to validate the name and address details you provide on your credit applications. 

If your Electoral Roll entry is out of date or you’re not registered to vote, lenders might not be able to see all the information on your credit report when they search your details. This means that some of the payment history that’s relevant to your applications might be missing. 

In essence — and if you haven’t already — one of the easiest ways to improve your credit score is to register to vote. When you move house, or change your name, you can update your Electoral Roll entry online. And if you’ve never registered to vote before, it only takes five minutes to apply.  

5. Make sure all your account details are correct

Consistency is key to improving your credit score. So, while you’re checking your details on the Electoral Roll, it’s also worth checking that your name, date of birth, and address are the same across every credit agreement you have. 

If you move or change your name, it’s important to update your creditors with your new details so the positive payment history you’re building up every month can be reflected accurately on your credit report. 

Ways to avoid lowering your credit score

When taking steps to improve your credit score, one way to see it increase faster is to avoid the factors that could potentially lower it, such as: 

• Late payments. Whether your payment was late or you missed a month, it will have a negative impact on your credit score

• Arrears. Arrears are consecutive months of missed payments, recorded on your credit report as numbers (for example, a 3 marker indicates you’re three months in arrears)

• Defaults. Debts are marked as defaulted when the creditor considers the relationship with the borrower has broken down. This usually happens after around six months of missed payments, but this can vary dependent on the lender

• Court records like County Court Judgments, which show a lender took a borrower to court over an unpaid debt and won

• Insolvencies, like Individual Voluntary Agreements, Bankruptcies, Scottish Decrees, or Sequestrations. 

All of these are negative payment markers, and they will lower your credit score. And will continue to do so  for the full six years they show on your credit report.

Alongside negative payment markers, there are a few other factors that can cause your credit score to drop. Let’s explore them: 

Applications for new credit 

Whenever you apply for new credit, the lender will do a credit application search to get an idea of how you’ve handled credit in the past, to protect against fraud, and ultimately to judge how much of a risk it would be to lend to you. 

This hard search leaves a footprint on your credit report, but the outcome of the application doesn’t show. Because of this, lenders take the application search entries into consideration as part of your credit application because either outcomes could represent an increased risk to them: 

• If your application was accepted and the new credit hasn’t yet shown up on your credit report, it could mean they can’t accurately assess your affordability. 

• If your application was rejected, it could mean another lender found something in your application or credit report that made them hesitant. 

Too many searches in a short space of time can also suggest you’re trying to borrow a lot of money urgently, which suggests a higher risk for affordability. 

It’s important to only apply for credit that you need. If you want to compare your options, you can use eligibility checkers to find the best product for you before formally applying. These perform a “soft” search instead of a hard one, and don’t affect your credit score. 

Closing credit accounts

Once you’ve finished paying off a credit agreement you’ll usually close your account. You may also decide to close a credit account if you’re no longer using it. 

Whatever the reason, it’ll happen from time to time. So it’s important to be aware that closing a credit account with a positive payment history can impact your credit score, as this may explain an unexpected change, but don’t worry, it’s normally only temporary.

There are a few reasons for this: 

• You have one less source of current positive payment information for the lenders to assess your current circumstances on. 

• The account is no longer active, which means the payment history you built up when you were paying off the account is now less relevant to your credit score than the regular payments on the accounts you’re still using.

• The average age of your active accounts is lower. New accounts (like if you were to consolidate your debts) lower the average age of your active accounts, which can impact your credit score. 

Payment holidays 

There are some circumstances where you might need to take a payment holiday from your credit agreements — for example, if you’re made redundant or have to take time off work to care for a family member. 

Usually, a borrower would set up a payment holiday by contacting their lender and asking to change their repayments, this is usually outside the terms of their original credit agreement. A payment holiday can help ease the stress of not being able to make repayments during a time when your income is reduced. However, payment holidays can be seen negatively and therefore, lead to a drop in your credit score. 

To minimise the potential negative effects on your credit rating if you’re considering a payment holiday, it’s a good idea to ask your lender how it will be reported on your credit history, as they are not obliged to tell you if they report it as an “arrangement to pay.” An arrangement to pay is a serious negative marker that can lower your credit score.  

Voluntary termination

Voluntary terminations show your credit agreement ended early, but making all payments on the agreement on time and to its completion will provide maximum positive impact. Future lenders may be more cautious when they see this on your credit report as they can’t be sure it won’t happen again. So they may suggest you pay a higher deposit or interest rate.

Not to be confused with voluntary surrender - voluntary surrender is when you can no longer afford your repayments and you agree to return the product that you have purchased using the finance - this could be a car, for example. This is usually the worst case scenario, and the full outstanding balance would still be due. If you’re having trouble with your repayments it’s always best to contact your lender directly.

If your credit report includes negative payment markers, don’t worry. You can still take steps towards growing your credit score again. And Checkmyfile can help you do just that.

Showing you can manage credit responsibly moving forwards will build up positive credit history after the negative event and put yourself in a better position once the marker is removed from your credit report.

Ways to improve your chances of being accepted for new credit

When your credit score is lower than you’d like it to be, it’s helpful to remember your score is designed as a tool to help you understand your financial health. It can help you spot the areas you can improve but it’s also not the only thing lenders are looking at when they check your applications.

When lenders do a “hard check” as part of your credit application, they look at your credit report, including: 

• Public record information like your Electoral Roll entry and any court records you may have against your name. 

• Private information reported by other lenders, including how much credit you’re using, how much you owe, when you’re making repayments, and how often you apply for new credit. 

They also look at the other information you provide on your credit application so they can check affordability and conduct a “stress test.” For example, a lender will look at your income and regular outgoings, like rent and childcare, to check whether you could afford the repayments for a new credit agreement. 

Regardless of your credit score, there are still further steps you can take to make your applications more attractive to potential lenders and improve your likelihood of being accepted for new credit products. 

Show stability 

In the eyes of lenders, stability means lower risk. When you want to show stability in your credit applications, it’s worth paying attention to your employment history and your address history.  

While your employment history doesn’t appear on your credit report and can’t affect your credit score, lenders will consider it. 

If you've changed jobs frequently, you’re self-employed, or you’re in your probationary period at a new job, you might find it harder to get accepted for new credit. On the other hand, you might be able to access better deals for financial products — with lower interest rates and deposits — if you have a stable employment and address history. 

End unnecessary financial associations

If you’ve shared an account in the past or acted as someone’s guarantor, you might have a financial association on your credit report. 

Being financially associated with someone doesn’t affect your credit score, but it can affect your credit applications. If your lender has reported the association, the person’s name will appear when a new lender searches your credit history as part of your application. They can then also search that individual's credit report, and if there’s evidence that they haven't managed their own debts well, the lender might be less likely to accept your application. This is because a financial association suggests a financial liability to that person.

In this case, ending a financial link you no longer need could make it easier to be accepted for new credit. 

Satisfy defaults and CCJs

If you have a default or a CCJ on your record, you’ll still need to pay back the money you owe to the creditor. When you do this, the debt will be marked as “satisfied” on your credit report. 

A default or a CCJ is a serious negative marker, and it will lower your credit score for the entire six years it appears on your credit report. However, lenders may look more favourably on a satisfied debt than an unsatisfied one, so paying the debt in full may increase your options for credit. 

Improving your credit score: a summary

There’s no magic formula to make your credit score shoot up, and it can take a long time to see results. However, if you consistently repay the credit you have, and make sure that your personal details are consistent across your accounts and Electoral Roll records, you can put yourself in a good position to see small improvements in your score on a regular basis. 

Remember, lenders like banks, mortgage providers, and card issuers will use their own scoring criteria to assess your applications, they’ll look at your credit report and the details in your credit application. If you need to apply for new credit and you don’t have time to wait for your score to increase gradually, there might still be steps you can take to show potential lenders you can borrow and repay credit reliably. 

One of the most effective strategies for improving your credit score is to monitor the details in your credit report. This will help you spot and correct errors, and give you an idea of when you can expect your score to go up.

Know your file

Whatever your number, whatever your goal, the first step towards growing is knowing. With Checkmyfile you get the most detailed credit report on offer. Captured in one convenient spot. Check your file