All the Ways You Didn’t Know You Could Raise Your Credit Score

The credit score, which has a surprisingly long history dating back to the 19^th century, is mainly used to judge how much risk you represent to lenders. It makes sense: If you have a bad habit of not paying back loans or defaulting on credit cards, why would anyone trust you with fresh debt? But the score is increasingly being used to judge you a lot more broadly—credit scores are checked when you’re trying to rent an apartment or a car, or when you’re buying life insurance. And while prospective employers can’t actually see your credit score, they can get a modified version of your credit report, which can have a huge impact on your candidacy.

But we live in a world where credit is an absolute necessity, so even if the impact of your credit score is limited to your finances, that’s huge. If your FICO credit score is below 670, you’re going to experience problems. If it’s below 580, you’re going to have a lot of problems. There are some obvious ways to get that score up: review your credit reports and dispute errors, reduce your debt, and pay off old or delinquent debts. But there are some not-so-obvious things you can do that can have a positive effect on your credit score, too.

Rent reporting

Your credit score is a broad rating of your financial reliability, so it makes sense that paying any sort of bill can make a difference here—if the credit bureaus hear about it. If you can get your landlord to enroll in a rent-reporting service like Piñata (which is free to use), your rent payments will be reported to all three of the credit reporting bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax). All three bureaus will take those payments into consideration, as paying your rent on-time and in full obviously speaks positively towards your financial management skills. In fact, Piñata claims that using it can raise your score by 60 points, all by making a monthly payment have to make anyway.

Credit-boost services

The same mechanism that increases your credit score by reporting rent payments can be expanded to other bills using a credit-boosting service like Experian Boost. These are typically free services that link to your bank account and track payments to utilities, streaming services, and phone plans, raising your credit score as you demonstrate on-time payment histories with each.

Limit requests

Whenever you apply for a loan, credit card, or other kind of new debt, your credit reports get hit with what’s known as a “hard inquiry.” Every hard inquiry, no matter the context, will negatively impact your credit score, at least temporarily. This means that if you’re already struggling with debt and a low credit score, you can get funneled into an endless loop: You apply for more credit, which lowers your credit score, which makes it harder to get credit.

One strategy to raise your credit score is therefore to simply stop applying for credit, which runs counter to the general wisdom that using credit responsibly will raise your score. The longer you can go without any new loans or credit cards on your account, the healthier your score will get.

Consolidation loan

If you have a lot of debt with a lot of different credit cards, banks, or companies, consider a debt-consolidation loan. This is just a loan that covers all of your outstanding debts, transforming them into one large debt. This has several advantages—you reduce your payments to a single one, you have less to keep track of, and you can probably get a better interest rate overall. Plus, every payment you make has more impact: As your debt goes down, your debt-to-credit ratio improves, and so will your credit score.

Request limit increase

One of the weirdest ways to improve your credit score is to ask for credit line increases from your credit cards. This usually just involves calling up your credit card issuer and asking, and it can be done right there on the spot. The reason this works is that increasing the amount of credit you have improves that debt-to-credit ratio. Since you’re now utilizing less of your available credit, your score goes up. Hopefully it goes without saying that it’s imperative you don’t use your new credit—you just want your ratio to improve.

Credit-builder loan

If you want to increase your credit score, you can actually do it by loaning yourself money. Called a Credit-Builder Loan, this involves opening an account (typically a certificate of deposit [CD] or a savings account) and then paying principle and interest (yes, interest is charged) into it over a fixed term. These payments are reported to the credit bureaus, which improves your credit score. At the end of the term, you get the funds you’ve deposited. (The amount of interest you paid into it that you receive back will vary—as with every financial product, it’s good to shop around for the best deal). This is a low-risk move for both you and the financial institution, so even if your credit score is in the toilet, you should have some luck setting this up.

Raising your credit score is important, but it doesn’t have to be arduous. Sometimes just paying your bills is all you need to do—as long as someone’s paying attention.