Drive-through meals, overnight shipping, and quick fixes; in our culture of immediacy, we like things to happen quickly. The same attitude is common when it comes to improving our credit scores. We all know it is important to have a high credit score and that when practiced over a long enough time period, using credit responsibly will result in a good credit rating. But what if you want results quickly? If you are searching for a simple way you may be able to increase your score by a few points, here are three tricks of the trade:

  1. Make payments on your credit cards just before the reporting date to show the lowest balances. To find out the best date to make the payment, your credit report should show what day of the month your creditors are sending account updates to the credit bureaus. Make it a point to make your credit card payments about 3 to 5 days prior to when the accounts get reported. Your credit reports will then show the lower outstanding balance, instead of the higher balance, giving your credit score a little boost.

  2. Use old credit cards now and then. Most of us have a few older cards that were used when purchasing that new electronics equipment, or a department store account you opened to get 25 percent off your purchase. Pull those cards out every once in a while and use them for small purchases that you can easily pay off the next month. These established accounts will show activity again (positive activity
    because you paid them off), and that will help out your credit score.

  3. Untapped credit is good, so keep your utilization rates at about 30 or less across all of your cards. For example, if your credit limit is $20,000, keep the balance at or below $6,500. Furthermore, 3 cards with a $3,000 balance on each is better than one card with a $9,000 balance balance, but better score. Although common sense tells you it shouldn't matter, it does and playing the game will help you achieve the best score.

So a few quick fixes are great, but it's going to take much more to restore a bad credit score. If you're looking to raise your credit score by more than a few points, in less time than it would take for it to do so on its own, you'll need to look past tricks and simple fixes. Depending on your unique credit reports, improving your credit score may require removing the questionable negative items on your credit reports, paying down high account balances, creating new credit accounts, reorganizing your account balances, or a combination of tactics.

Solving your credit score problems requires more than a quick fix. It takes time, knowledge, and perseverance to clean your credit reports. It will be worth it in the end, and in a society where instant results are expected, credit repair proves that sometimes there are things worth working for.