Credit Clean Up Tips

There are a lot of commonly asked questions when it comes to how to improve your credit score. But without a doubt the one question on everyone's mind is how quickly they can raise their scores. This is especially true of people who are looking to get the best deals on credit cards, but don't have the score for the best rates.

So what is the quickest route to credit cleanup and improved score? Sadly, there's no guaranteed way to get's you scored to the magic number you might want to be, but these tips will certainly go a long way towards helping you get there.

• Stop your spending! If you have an already lower than average credit score, it could have something to do with your spending habits. Having a lot of open credit accounts that are nearly maxed out doesn't look very good on your credit report. In order to build your score back to where you'd like it to be, you can start by bringing your account balances down to 30% of your available balance. Work on keeping your accounts at around this percentage to maintaining good credit utilization ratio that will impress your lenders.

• Keep your credit cards. Unless your wallet is already overflowing with them. People searching for ways to clean up their credit often think that cutting up their cards will help them improve their score, but this isn't actually the case. In actuality, closing every credit card you own will do you more harm than good, as 15% of your credit score is made up of the age of your accounts. Assuming those accounts were in good standing, you will have stopped the good they were doing for your credit score.

• Consider opening new accounts. It's always a good idea to have at least three open credit accounts in your name and in good standing. If you don't have that many cards or accounts already available to you, you might want to consider opening a few new accounts to even out your credit history. Having at least a few open accounts in good standing will help you maintain a good credit score.

• Seek financial help. If you still don't know where to begin when trying your hand at credit cleanup, consider contacting a credit repair or debt settlement firm to help you bring your accounts to a more manageable level so you can settle your debts easily and efficiently.