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Need an Apartment but your Credit Score Stinks? Here’s How to Raise It

May 5, 2015 by Justin Weinger

If you’ve got plans to get a new apartment sometime soon, your credit score will be one of the criteria that they check before many apartment complexes will allow you to sign up and move in. If that’s you, and your credit isn’t as good as it could (or should) be, securing a new apartment might be a problem.

Lucky for you we’ve put together a number of things that you can do to quickly increase your credit score so that you can get the apartment you need with the least amount of hassle. Enjoy.

The first is simply to apply for a new credit card. If you don’t have one, you definitely should consider getting one because, when used wisely, it can help you build your credit and raise your credit score as well. Keep in mind that it is best to simply open one credit card, not several.

Using less than 20% of your credit limit is also an excellent idea. The fact is, even if you pay on your balances in full every month to avoid interest, keeping your credit utilization too high will negatively affect your credit score. Keeping it at around 20% is good but if you can lower it to 10% that’s even better.

One of the ways to do this is simply to stop using your credit card pay for everything, and use it more strategically. For example, instead of paying one lump sum for every bill every month, you can pay several payments throughout the month.

Paying your bills on time, every time, is extremely important as well if you want to quickly increase your credit score. The fact is, even a small amount of negligence like paying your gas balance a few days late can have a negative effect on your score. You might want to consider setting up an automatic deduction for your monthly bills so that you don’t have to worry about forgetting them. If you have and use a budget this will be much easier because you will know that you have the money you need to cover your rent and bills, and also what’s left over for “unnecessary” purchases.

Of course if you don’t actually know what your credit score is and what your credit report has to say about you, it’s definitely time to get your free credit report from the ‘Big 3’ reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. You can get one free from each every year by federal law. Knowing how to read your credit report is vital in order to being able to make sure that there are no mistakes on your report, and that you haven’t been the victim of identity theft.

If it has mistakes or errors, cleaning up your credit report is extremely important, especially if you want to rent an apartment. If you have negative notes from collection agencies or utility companies but they are older than 7 years, you should immediately request to have them removed. Disputing errors is also an obvious task that you need to take care of because these can lower your credit score.

And there you go, some excellent advice about quickly increasing your credit score so that you can more easily rent an apartment. Best of luck apartment hunting!

Filed Under: Credit

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