How controlling credit utilization can help your credit score

What’s your credit score? If you’re reading this, it’s probably lower than you’d like it to be. So what can you do about it? Here are three ways you can use credit utilization to improve your credit score this year…

Pay more often: Money has been tight and you can’t pay your credit card bill in full. Your best bet may be to make a few small payments each month to lower your credit utilization. Maybe you can’t get your card to a zero balance, but you can try and make a dent in that balance as often as you can.

Cheat a little: This tip isn’t really cheating but it might feel like it is. Another good way to improve your credit utilization is to try and request a higher credit limit on your credit card. There are no guarantees here, but if you’ve been pretty good with your card and perhaps your income has increased since you received it, you may have a good chance to get your limit increased. That’ll lower your usage and help your credit score for sure.

Don’t mess with any other cards: Your credit utilization is based on your credit availability on any cards in your name. So if you have another credit card with a zero balance, make sure you leave it open and don’t use it. If you were to close that card, your total limit would decrease and your utilization percentage would increase. So leave those other card alone, especially if they’ve got no balance.