You can take several steps to improve your credit score, but be aware that there are no quick fixes. You may be able to see your score tick up soon after you start trying to improve it. However, credit reports are updated month by month and it may take several months or even years before your credit score is where you want it to be.

1. Pay your bills on time. Late and delinquent payments make up much of what determines your credit score. You need to establish a good record of timely payments. Consider setting up autopay for your accounts.
2. Reduce your credit utilization. Credit utilization is another important factor in calculating your credit score. Keeping low balances on revolving accounts, such as credit cards, will help improve your score. You can also reduce credit utilization by requesting an increase in your credit line—as long as you don’t use the increase in your limit to increase debt.
3. Avoid or limit opening new accounts, especially multiple accounts within a short period. When you apply for credit, the prospective lender makes a hard credit inquiry, which is reported to the bureaus. Lenders may interpret making multiple credit applications as you facing financial troubles and looking to increase debt as a way out.
4. If you have no credit history, or a thin credit history, you can look into other ways to get yourself on record as making timely payments. One solution is a credit builder loan, where you make payments into an account over a set period of time (usually one or two years). These payments are reported to the bureaus, so you build a credit history. If you pay monthly rent and utilities, you can look into rent reporting options. With rent reporting, your landlord or property management company reports your monthly rent and utilities to the bureaus.
5.  Keep older accounts open. Length of credit history works for you. The longer you have an account open, the more stable you look to the bureaus.
6. Consolidate your debts. Too many accounts may work against you. If possible reduce the number of accounts, but be careful of affecting credit utilization. Don’t max out an account by consolidating it.
7. Use credit monitoring. Improving your credit score is a project, a credit monitoring app is a critical tool for helping you manage your credit profile.

There’s no set number of credit accounts that’s optimal or suboptimal. Having multiple credit card accounts can help you maintain a good debt to credit ratio, but having too much debt spread across multiple accounts can have a negative impact.

Any accounts that were in good standing when you closed them will remain in your record for 10 years. Any negative information will remain for seven years.

Late payments will stay in your record for seven years. You can dispute a late payment report that you believe is in error, however you will need to provide proof, such as documentation that you did make the payment in question on time. If the information is accurate, however, you’ll have to wait the full seven years before it clears.

Newer accounts may not show up on your credit report because the creditor hasn’t started reporting it yet.

Each of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) uses a different model to calculate a credit score and each gathers data independently.

The credit bureaus pull your information from many different sources (such as lenders, collections, court records) at different times, there will often be discrepancies at any particular time between the reports from each credit bureau.

If you discover information on your credit report that you believe is inaccurate, you can take the following steps to dispute and hopefully correct the information.

1. Highlight the errors on your credit report.
2. Gather supporting documents that show your side of the story; for example, receipts or
   bank records showing that you made a payment on time that’s recorded as late or
   delinquent.
3. Submit the information to the bureaus with a brief explanation (100 words or less).

You may find that some companies have forms on their websites that you can use.

You can also submit your information directly to the reporting lender.

After you submit your claim, you may need to wait 30 to 45 days before it’s resolved and the corrected information appears on your credit report. Note however, that if the inquiry confirms that the information is accurate, the bureau or lender won’t change it.

If you still have questions after your claim is rejected and want to pursue your dispute further, you can file a complaint against a bureau or lender with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or with the Attorney General of your state.

Simply log in to your online or mobile banking to enroll. Click “Learn More” under Credit Score to get started.

Please note: You will be asked to verify your identity with your name, address, DOB, social security number and security questions. This will be used to access your credit information from the Experian credit bureau.