Simple Steps to Increase Your Credit Score

 How to manifest a high credit score. That is what we’re gonna be talking about today on the episode. And this has been a much requested topic, , because I’ve probably shared with many of you that I took my credit score from very low. I was in the six hundreds and within a couple of years. Got my credit up into the eight hundreds.

In fact, I just had to run my credit like three days ago because I bought a new car and my credit score was higher than I’ve ever seen. It was eight. 40. And I was so excited and thrilled and I just so proud of myself because I knew where I came from. My husband had to run his too, , because we were gonna be on the car together.

And it was so fun because his was just a little bit lower and I had always dreamed of having credit like his. And so now we’re kind of competitive and we’re like, oh, who’s gonna be higher? Oh yeah, well, I’m gonna do, we just play this game and it’s. Really fun. , So now he’s trying to increase his credit limit so that he can get as high as me.

But any who on this episode, I wanna tell you how I did it, right? So I manifested it. And manifesting is just simply the process of creation. It’s the process of creating what it is you. Desire and I desired a high credit score. And let me tell you why. Because nine years ago when we bought this house that I’m sitting in now, which is under escrow, so soon I will be recording from another house.

But this house in LA that we bought, we were newly married. And, , when we went to get the loan for the home, they basically said, since Jamie has very low income and has such a low credit score, it’s gonna be a lot better for you guys to leave her name off of the home, because otherwise you’re gonna have a much higher interest rate.

It’s gonna be harder to qualify for it. So if you just leave her name off and only use Josh’s, you’re gonna get the house, which with much more ease. So I was not able to be on the title of. Our home, which was so frustrating to me. I hated that feeling. And honestly, it was in that moment that I just felt so frustrated and like, this is not who I wanna be.

I don’t wanna not be able to go own a home with my husband just because my credit score sucks and I’m not making income. And honestly, in that moment, in that. Feeling that I had of deep frustration of where I was thinking what I got myself into in that moment. I thought, this is where things change.

This is where I become a different. Person when it comes to money and wealth and financial stability and financial freedom. And I decided in that moment literally to start working on my relationship with money and to start looking at it. And that was when I started diving into Books on Money. I started learning about it.

I started learning about manifestation when it comes to money, and I actually started hosting a book club. At my house where we were reading money books and I had a different money book every single week. This was before I was a money coach. This was when I just decided to start doing my own inner work around it.

And the only reason I started a book club was because I thought. Money is such a boring topic. I’m not gonna read these books unless I’m the one hosting the book club and have to show up as the host who has to read the books. So I literally hosted a book club just to keep me accountable. Anywho, that’s where the whole journey of this began, where I kind of planted the seed of becoming a money coach.

It started with me doing my own work on money and me making the choice that I wanted a different reality for myself financially. And so what I did was I just started to research, Hey, what does it take to increase your credit score? What do you have to do? And what I actually realized after researching is that a lot of the strategies are really simple and are actually really effective.

And when you follow them, you can start increasing your score really fast. You can go from a place of a low credit score I mean, it’s pretty easy. It’s pretty simple. And I know, some of these strategies will be harder than others for everyone, just depending on your situation.

But whatever you can do. Do it, you might as well, right? Even if you have a high credit score and you wanna go higher, just see if there’s any of these strategies resonate because again, it really does make a lot of things easier and I think having a higher credit score creates more abundance because when you are getting loans, if you decide to do that ever, you just get a better a PR, right?

So you save money in that way. Alright, so I’m gonna talk you through exactly what I did see what applies for you. I also will say, I do live in the US so this is applicable to the credit card companies in the us. I think it’s pretty similar overseas and in other countries. But I will say if you are in another country, just look it up for yourself and see if these strategies apply for you, given your specific credit card or your specific country that you’re in and see, if there’s different strategies for you.

So this is US based, but I think a lot of the things will be applicable. Overall, so just wanted to mention that first. Okay. So the first thing that’s really important to do, and this is actually what effed up my credit initially, was I didn’t have things on auto pay. So the reason my credits. Score got really low was not because I was holding debt, right?

I’d had a lot of student loan debt. That wasn’t actually the reason. It was because I missed some payments. Like I just wasn’t paying so much attention back whenever I was in my twenties and I would miss payments or I’d be late on payments and Wow. Does that ding your credit in such a big way? I had done a credit report, which also can be really helpful.

You can just Google like free credit reports and I did a credit report to see why my credit, where was, where it was, what was being like, what was causing that low score. The main reason my credit score low. My credit score was so low was because of those missed payments, which it was only like three or something like that, and it took a huge ding on my credit.

So from that moment forward, I decided I’m never missing a payment ever, ever, ever again. So make sure that all of your loans and credit cards are set on auto pay that is so important. So if I. Ever, ever, ever get another loan, like for example, I got a small loan for my new car, I automatically set it up on auto pay for any credit card.

Everything is set up on auto pay so that I never miss a payment because that is the main thing. And if you cannot set it on auto pay. So important that you’re on top of your payments. You really have to be on top of it. Schedule it, do money dates, check inconsistently. I’m a big fan of monthly, I’m sorry, not monthly, weekly money dates where you’re checking in on your finances, you’re checking in on what’s coming due.

You’re making sure everything’s there just. Stay on top of it. So payment history is 35% of your credit score. So even if you miss one payment, it takes a ding. And here’s the thing, like I said, if you know your credit score is low or if you accidentally make this mistake, do not punish yourself. Do not be hard on yourself.

You can take the steps to increase it. It’s not a big deal. It can increase and go back up pretty quickly. Okay. The next thing that I had no idea of but made all the difference is actually increasing your credit limit. So having more credit available is what that means. That is why. I actually had a low score was because I was always afraid of credit cards Growing up, I had decided I’m never gonna be in credit card debt.

I never want to have credit cards. I wanna pay everything on debit and just make sure that I have the money for it, right? Because I had seen my family, some family members go into debt over credit cards, so I was literally scared of credit cards. So all through my twenties, I literally just used debit.

But that was a problem, meaning I didn’t have a whole lot to build credit on. I didn’t have a whole lot of credit history. I didn’t have a lot of available credit, which means my rate, my credit score stayed really low. So if you want to build up a higher credit score, it’s actually good to increase the amount of credit available to you.

So I’m gonna tell you a couple of ways that you can do this. Number one, and I highly recommend this for everyone, even if you have a high credit score, is call all of your credit card companies and a ask for a higher limit. I’m not saying don’t, I’m not saying use that higher limit now. That’s the key ’cause I’m gonna explain a little bit more about that too, and why you don’t want to use all of the credit you want to have.

Quite a bit of credit available to you. So call all of your credit card companies and ask to extend your limit. I couldn’t believe how easy that was to do that. That was wild to me. So that’s something that I’m still, I’m always making sure that I can get as high of a limit as possible and like having more credit available to me because what looks really good on.

Your credit score is you having a high limit in terms of what’s available. But not utilizing all of it. So what you don’t wanna do is get a high limit, say, $10,000 on your credit card, and then using that $10,000 every single month, you’re gonna increase your credit score if you stay under 30% utilization.

So what that means then is you wanna have the $10,000 credit score. But just use 3000 of it max every single month. If you do this, your credit score is gonna go way up. So I’m telling you, just give it a try. Call all your credit card companies. Ask if they can increase the limit. Now, another thing that can be really helpful in terms of increasing the amount of credit that’s available to you. It’s actually become an authorized user. And this is only if you trust the person very much and you know that they’re way on top of their finances. This is something, just make sure of that they can add you. Someone else, let’s say it’s a spouse that is really on top of their finances and they

pay every single month. They’re on auto pay. They have a high credit score. They’re never going to miss a payment. If they add you onto their credit card as an authorized user, it looks like you have that credit available to you as well, and their good. Credit history can impact yours. So for example, I said back nine years ago, whenever I had a really low credit and my husband actually had good credit history, he had a high credit score, he added me onto his cards, even if I wasn’t going to use his cards, right?

So even business cards and things like that, he added me as an authorized user and I just cut the card up. I don’t even use it. I don’t touch it. But I have that credit available to me, so that increased it significantly. So if you have someone super trusted in your life that you can do this with, it’s a great option, right?

Because all they have to do is call and add you. It doesn’t matter if your credit score lot sucks, it’s not gonna impact them. And so if you have a parent or a grandparent or somebody that you really know and trust. That would add you as an authorized user that can be really helpful and help improve your credit score.

So I did that and it really helped. Only thing is, like I said, I’m just going to say this one more time. Make sure it’s someone you trust, because if they start becoming late on their payments or they miss a payment that is going to impact you. So it has to be someone you super just know. Trust 100% know is gonna be on top of it.

And then that could be an option. The other thing that can be really helpful is paying in. Full every single month. All right. If you can pay in full every month, because carrying a balance doesn’t help your score, right? It just costs you interest. So paying in full keeps your utilization low and it shows financial stability.

So that is just something that I do with credit cards. I personally pay in full every single month. . For me, I’m watching my money every single week. I do money dates, so I’m making sure that I am not spending more on cards or on credit cards that I actually can pay. So that’s one thing that I do.

If you’re not in that place where you can do that right now, just important that you’re at least paying your minimum payment and having that on auto pay, and then just making steps towards paying down your debt. But yeah, that just really shows financial stability and can really help increase your credit score.

Okay. The next one is keeping accounts open. So this is kind of confusing. It’s so weird how some of these things work, but let’s say you have an old JC Penny credit card, which if you’re not sure what that is, it’s basically a. It’s a retail store, right? That used to be super popular. I remember my mom had a JC Penny credit card.

Let’s say you have one and you’re like, I’m never using this right. It’s actually better to just hold onto it and not use it. But keeping it open, because you know what that does? It’s still increasing the amount of credit available to you, but if you’re not using it, that’s a beautiful thing, right? It still increases it, but shows that you’re not using all of your available credit.

But it’s better to do that than close it. I don’t know why closing credits. Cards actually dings your credit. To me, that’s just a little ridiculous, but it is what it is. So I have kept all of my old cards open, even if it’s not something that I use. The only reason I would potentially close one is if it’s just not a great card and you have expensive yearly.

Fees and it’s something you don’t use, then it might be worth closing it. But if it’s a free card and it’s just something that is just, you’re just not using, keep it open ’cause it’s actually going to help improve your score. Now the seventh one that I recommend, or sorry, let me say that again.

Okay. Now the next one that I decide, no, say it again.

Okay. Now the next one is just make sure to limit the amount of new. Credit applications you have. So for example, just because you go to Ulta Beauty and they say if you open a credit card today, you’ll get 20% off. Don’t open it just because of that. Unless it’s like a credit card, you’re gonna utilize a lot and it’s gonna to be worth it.

It’s got, and it’s intentional and make. Sense then, okay, let’s open a new credit card. But you don’t want to be opening new cards left and right. You don’t want to have your credit dinged many times in a row because that will absolutely lower your score. So don’t just. Open new credit cards because they give you some kind of benefit or little perk.

You wanna be intentional about what it is you open and the frequency in which you open them because you want it. I mean, it’s fine to open a new card, no problem. It’s just you wanna space it out. You don’t want to open a whole bunch at once and have your credit dinged several times in a row. ’cause that will lower your score.

And I noticed even within myself this past. Month I’ve had to get my credit checked for the house that we’re renting in Hawaii. And then I was calling about a loan with my credit union for a car that I bought. And then they, I wanted to get pre-approved for that, so they had to check it and ding it.

And then at the BMW dealer where I got my new car, they also had to run my credit. So I had it three times checked in a row, which these weren’t things that I could like. Necessarily avoid, but I did notice that, it went down a little bit after that second one, and then I’m sure if I check it now after having it checked a third time, it’s probably gonna be lower, which I’m fine with because, I’m not trying to go get a mortgage or something right now in this moment.

But I do know that I’m gonna have to be conscious about all of these things and getting it back. No problem if it happens, but you just wanna be conscious and not be taking out all the credit cards under the sun. And you don’t wanna be, dinging your credit score and getting it checked often because every time you open a new card or apply for a new loan, they have to check your credit and that lowers your score.

Okay. Last but not least, this one’s really important. Watch your credit score, celebrate your wins. Check in on it. Usually on credit co cards. I know on my, my card, it actually shows me what my credit is, so I love to check up on it and love up on it and celebrate whenever it goes up and have fun with it.

Like I said, my husband and I have a little game and we’re a little competitive about our credit scores now. This sounds really dorky, but it’s just a fun game. We’re very competitive, so anything we can be competitive with, we will. And so we’re always like, looking at it and sharing, and if it goes up, we’re like, yay.

And if it goes down, we’re like, huh, why did that go down? And you can actually look and see why did it go down. So if you watch it, that’s gonna give you some insight. Two. So just check in on it during your weekly money dates. If you do weekly money dates, which I recommend, just look at it whenever you log into your credit card, you can also check it online for totally free.

So I would recommend doing that and monitor it, and just watch the progress, watch the growth, watch it go up and celebrate it because. That matters, right? It is something that is a fun win. Kind of like how I love to encourage my clients to celebrate money. You can also celebrate your credit score going up or the debt that you’re paying down and really acknowledge yourself and be proud of yourself.

So I hope this was helpful for you, especially if you are in a place where you wanna be more conscious of it and you wanna improve your credit score. I’m gonna go through each of these again, just as a reminder. Number one, auto pay everything right, because 35% of your score is not missing a payment. Set up automatic payments check in weekly, right?

Make sure that you’re gonna be able to pay it when you do your weekly money dates. Just seeing what’s coming due this week. Do I have enough in there? Do I need to, put more money, whatever you need to do to make that happen so that you can autopay, autopay everything. Number two, increase your credit limit.

Number three, pay in full each month if you’re able to. That is going to help with this financial, sorry.

That is going to show financial stability. Add your number four. Why can’t I talk? Let me start this part over. Okay. Just to go through all of these one more time. Number one is auto pay everything, right? So make sure you are set up on autopay because D, forgetting a payment or missing a payment.

Is going to affect your credit score for sure. This makes up for 35% of your score, so auto pay Number two, increase your credit limit. Call your credit card companies. See if you can extend it. If you have someone that you trust in your life, you can add yourself as an authorized user on their card and benefit from their good, longstanding financial stability and credit history.

And that will also increase your credit limit. Number four, pay in full each month if you can, or whatever,

loans or cards you can pay in full. Because what that shows is financial stability and it really helps. Number five, keep accounts open. Even the ones that you don’t use, just cut them up. But keep ’em open.

Number seven is limit the amount of new credit applications that you have. So don’t be opening new cards every single month just because you get a discount at a store. So limit the amount of new credit applications. Just be intentional about it. And then number eight, celebrate your win. Celebrate your successes.

Watch how doing these things impacts it, and that makes it a fun game. All right, so I hope this was helpful. Sometimes I like doing these little strategy podcast episodes to support you in your financial freedom and your, stepping into just the highest version of yourself financially. So I hope this is helpful and happy manifesting a high credit score.