How do you increase your credit score to buy a house?

In order to buy a new house, you need to make sure that your financial health is in good shape, which means a high credit score. A higher credit score can also help you to borrow with the lowest available interest rates. If you are interested, here are some effective ways to increase your credit score to buy a house.

1. Review your credit reports

This is the first thing you need to do to know your exact credit score, and from there you can figure out what activities have helped or hurt your score. Moreover, this is also a chance to take a look if there are any errors in your credit. If you see any errors, make sure that you dispute them right away so that you can improve your credit.

2. Pay bills on time

Payment history has a huge impact on your credit score. Therefore, it’s important to keep track of your spendings and pay your bills accordingly on time every month. One way to remind yourself is setting due-date alerts when a bill is coming up.

3. Improve your credit utilization ratio

There are two ways to keep your credit utilization: pay your credit card balances in full each month or ask for a credit limit increase. Most people only pay the minimum balance without knowing the fact that paying the full balance can have a positive effect on the credit score. In case you can’t afford that, you can request to increase your credit limit online or by phone.

4. Let old credit accounts open

One mistake that people usually make is closing their old credit cards but that will impact their credit score in a bad way. Credit cards that have been opened for a long time are beneficial for your credit health. Therefore, you can take advantage of that by leaving them open or using them sometimes to keep these accounts active.

5. Don’t open new accounts

Sometimes you might see attractive rewards offers that make you want to open a new credit card. However, doing so can damage your credit score. Since these accounts are new, banks could take it to mean that you need money because you’re facing financial difficulties and you will be considered a slightly higher risk.

6.   Don’t take out additional loans

This is the time that you need to focus on paying off all your loans and not adding any more debt to make things harder for yourself. Until your credit score improves, prevent yourself from taking out any new loans.

Having a good credit will help you buy your dream house easier. Therefore, if you have bad credit, it’s time to follow these tips to improve your credit score before it’s too late. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at (416) 830-9039 so that I can help you further.