If you are like many other Floridians, you may have a credit score that isn’t at a level where it should be. Many things can cause a credit score to fall including late payments, unemployment, medical bills, too many inquiries, and bankruptcies. All of these things together can cause your credit score to slip and once it falls, it can be difficult to bring back up again. However, there are some things you can do to raise that credit score, for good.

1. Know Your Score

The first thing you must do, before doing anything else, is to know your score. You can find out your FICO score, what most people call their credit score, by contacting one of the three major credit bureaus. These are free and the bureaus are Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

2. Pay Your Bills Each and Every Time…On Time

One of the best ways to raise your credit score is to make sure you are paying your bills on time, every time they are due. The more you do this, the higher your score will go as creditors will report back to the credit bureaus with this good performance and it will help your score go up.

3. Use Your Best Cards…Forget the Rest

Most people have several credit cards and with these cards, there will be varying interest rates. You will want to actively use the cards that have the lowest rates and pay off the others.  However, don’t close them as the more open and free credit you have, the better off you will be.

4. Don’t Take it to the Limit

You also don’t want to push your cards to the limit. Instead, it is advisable to use that credit you need, but to keep at least 25% of your credit open. By keeping this credit free, your score will rise up quickly.

5. Consider a Loan

Finally, you may want to consider taking a short term loan out, like a car title loan. Because these loans can be relatively short term and the lenders will report to credit bureaus each month, it is a great way to raise your score. Contact Embassy Loans for more information on this.

A good credit score is around 720 and above, so if you are falling lower than that, try some of the suggestions above.