Need to raise credit score by 35 points

[Tanner F]

I plan to buy a new car next month, and from what I understand I need to raise my credit score by 35 points at least to get approved. Any ideas?

[MattF]

Is your credit cards balance high?

The ONLY way you can quickly raise credit score by 35 points (or even more) is by paying off your credit cards statement before the statement date (get it? Not before the due date but before the statement is even sent to you!). I assume that you have a high until on your cards, otherwise this won’t work either.

Any revolving utilization over 30% lowers your credit score, and lowering it below 305 (preferably to 10% or lower) yields an immediate positive response on your credit score.

In a nutshell – if you pay off before the statement date – the reported balance on your credit card accounts will be $0 (or very low if you continue to use your cards) and this has a positive effect of credit score. As a side effect, this lowers your DTI as well. While DTI in itself has no effect on credit score, loan officers like to see a low DTI, so you benefit twice!

Other than this, there are no quick credit repair miracles.

There are many threads & posts in this site about this technique. Here are a few:

• Pay credit card before statement date to improve your chances of approval
• How high will my credit score go after paying off my credit cards?
• When is the best time of month to pay off credit card statement to avoid balance showing on credit report?

Good luck

[Author]

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