Credit repair is not a mystery! It all boils down to one, single number - the credit score!
We’ve all heard those wild claims on the internet –– the people who say they got their scores up 75 or 100 points in a month, or a week.
Is that even possible?
The answer is Yes! You just need to know how it all works.
In this article, I’ll break down the 5 parts that actually make up your score, and then I’ll share with you my SECRET HACKS to boost your score by up to 100 points or more… Very FAST.
The Big Question:
How do you boost a credit score up to 100 points or more, really fast? What is the secret?
Well, if you’ve been around credit repair at all, you already know it takes time, persistence, pressure, and an equal amount of cooperation from your clients!
And as a Credit Hero, you could be working nonstop, 7 days a week, sending dozens of dispute letters every day, and doing everything the right way, but if your clients don’t do their part to lower their debts and pay on time, then they could find themselves back to “Square One.”
So It’s a team effort and a partnership!
But what if there REALLY WAS a way for you to get a MAJOR 100+ point increase in a matter of a few days... Is that even real?
Well, the real answer is YES!... most of the time.
Here’s what you need to know.
Come on, follow me.
There are only 5 parts to a credit score that you need to know to get started.
They are Payment History, Utilization, Age, Revolving and Installment Accounts, and Credit Activity.
So let’s breakdown of those parts:
PAYMENT HISTORY:
Did you know that just one recent late payment can cause as much as a 180-point drop in your credit score? That’s right!
So here’s what this means to you:
Let’s do the math… let’s say you had a credit score of 720 and you missed ONE single payment –– Depending on the severity of the late payment, your score may go down to 540, and collection agents are gonna come after you!
But that’s not even the worst part. When a credit card bill comes due, and you don’t have the money to pay it, you’re also charged a late fee, and on top of that, there’s interest to pay. This will start to snowball, and it will put most people into a late-payment debt spiral!
See, they love it when you miss a payment because then you owe them even more money. And they can raise the interest rate, too! So this is how the credit system really is designed to hurt people. And this is why the poorest people always pay the most. It’s a terrible terrible system.
Here’s another dirty little secret that people new to credit repair may not know about...
UTILIZATION:
When you’re running a credit repair business, and signing up more and more clients, the biggest issue you’re going to constantly run into is your clients’ debt. Everyone is overextended and living on credit.
Someone who owes a really big chunk of their maximum credit line will see a negative impact on their credit score. This can be true, even if they’re paying off their balance every month.
Here’s what I mean: about 165 points can be deducted from your score if you max out your credit cards.
You can figure out your credit utilization rate by dividing your total credit card balances by your total credit card limits. Most experts recommend keeping your overall credit card utilization below 30%. That means never using more than 30% of your available credit line -- even if you pay the bill off in full every month. Ok? Lowering your credit utilization lets creditors know that you can use credit responsibly without relying too much on it. SO if you get it down below 30%, your score will increase A LOT!
AGE of accounts:
About 80 points come from the age of your accounts. So the longer you have your accounts, the more points you get. And in a minute, I’m going to share with you a little-known INSIDER secret to boost this part of your score. It will SHOCK you!
REVOLVING and INSTALLMENT accounts:
Revolving accounts are another massive part of every credit report and if you want the highest score possible, they’re very important.
So what does revolving credit really mean? It means you’re given a credit line with a limit and you can charge purchases up to that limit. Also, you pay interest on balances you carry and as you pay it down, you can re-use available credit again and again. You know, like a credit card.
So what’s the difference between revolving and installment accounts?
Installment accounts
Installment accounts are just as important as revolving accounts for building credit and gaining trust. In fact, you need to have a healthy mix of both revolving and installment lines, because they make up about 10% of your total credit score. About 55 of the credit score points come from your account types of revolving or installment accounts.
To increase your CREDIT ACTIVITY score, do this:
When you have your credit pulled, it could be a loan, car, mortgage, phone application or sometimes even when applying for a job, getting insurance or if you’re trying to rent an apartment –– a hard inquiry is placed on the credit and each hard inquiry dings the credit score. This is important, because 55 points of your credit score come from your recent activity, like inquiries.
Ok, so now you know the 5 parts of a credit score…
So what can you actually DO to take control of them and make them work for YOU?
Well, right now I'm going to show you how to hack your way closer and closer to that 800 score.
Hacks to boost PAYMENT HISTORY:
Now, at 35% of your whole score, the biggest chunk to worry about is your payment history. If you or your client don’t have a long payment history, one of the easiest ways to get a big chunk of that payment history added is by piggybacking. Basically, piggybacking is all about inheriting positive credit history from a spouse or family member. I’ve done podcast episodes on it in the past.
It’s as simple as finding a really old credit card with perfect payment history and being added as an authorized user, or you can even get added as a joint account holder and VOILA, you just added 5, 10, 15, or even 20+ years of positive credit history.
Just this technique alone can quickly add 100+ points to your client’s credit score.
AND it can do more than add a solid payment history. It also helps credit history length, which, to review, makes up 15% of your total score.
And while we’re talking about that, in general, while there’s not much you can do to increase the actual AGE of your existing accounts, there is one other hack that can help you accelerate it! Did you know you can build credit by reporting rent and utility payments? You can! It’s a little-known secret, and it’s really, really easy!
Nearly everyone has utility bills like gas and electricity, phone and internet and the vast majority of credit repair clients pay rent. In fact, over 43 million people in the United States do!
So, for example, if you’ve been paying rent for longer than the age of your accounts, go to RentalKarma and RentReporter to add up to 2 years of age based on your rental history.
You can also add an aged authorized user tradeline to average out your age, like a 10 or 20-year-old account.
For UTILIZATION, take these simple steps:
Ideally, you should get your credit cards down to 30% of the total credit limit. You may not be able to pay this off, but did you know that there are options out there that will approve a high-limit account even with bad credit? There are a bunch of them. You can get a high-limit tradeline account, OR there are companies like AG Jewelers, for example, that will give you a $10,000 revolving line of credit –– AND they report to all 3 credit bureaus.
So by getting a big credit line, it makes it look like your client has more available credit and makes their score go up! As soon as they open the new high-limit account... the scoring model will take that new, high-limit, low-balance account into consideration and suddenly, the overall utilization across all the cards decreases. So it’s a cool hack to drop your utilization. It doesn’t change your payment –– but your score goes up.
And finally, follow these simple tips to boost the HARD INQUIRIES part of your score:
Did you know you can LEGITIMATELY get an inquiry removed within 24 hours? It’s true!
All you need to do is physically call the companies that placed the inquiries on the telephone and demand their removal. This is all done over the phone, swiftly, and without ever creating a letter or buying a stamp.
Keep in mind, there are two restrictions you need to be aware of.
One, most companies require the consumer to call. If you’re calling on behalf of someone else or letting them know you're with a credit repair organization –– it won't work. They’ll only talk about this information with the consumer that has the inquiry on record.
Secondly, you’ve gotta provide them with a legitimate reason for removing the inquiry. Usually, they will only remove the inquiry if they pulled a credit report without authorization, approval or it somehow was a Fair Credit Reporting Act Violation.
You have to get hard inquiries down because remember, each one can cost you about 80 points, and they’ll stay on your record for 24 months and impact you for 12 months.
These easy steps will increase a credit score FAST and help your clients to their desired end result.
Of course, they’ll need to continue to pay their accounts on time, stop applying for things, keep balances low with a mix of accounts, don't close any accounts because you need that history, and continue making wise financial decisions – and that will continue to raise the score.
Remember, this all takes TEAMWORK.
Keep the pressure on, keep disputing the negative items, and gradually clean up the mess... while teaching your clients to add positive credit history, then soon enough, all of everyone's hard work comes together, and BOOM! Another life changed!
So that’s it!! And now you know my secret tactics to boost a credit score by 100 points or more!
And one more thing! If you want to get certified in disputing and launch your very own credit repair business in just a couple of weeks, I invite you to join our Credit Hero Challenge!
It’s an amazing program that has helped tons of Credit Heroes get their first clients, get certified in disputing, and gain confidence in knowing they are launching their credit repair business on a solid foundation that allows them to grow and scale FAST!
We’re starting again soon, so SIGN UP NOW at creditherochallenge.com!