If you've been considering buying a house for a while, you probably know that you need a good credit score for your mortgage to be approved without any issues. 

No matter how far ahead or soon your plan is to buy a home, these are some very efficient ways that will not cost you anything to improve your credit score. 

Increase your limits.

Do you have debt you still can't pay off? You can ask your credit card company to increase your credit limit! Doing this will be increasing your debt-to-credit ratio. This number shows how much you have borrowed versus how much you can borrow.

You just have to be very careful that you don't borrow more after increasing your credit limit or else you'll set yourself up for failure!

Write a dispute letter to the bureau.

In a study by Federal Trade Commission in 2013, it was found that 5% of credit reports have errors that could affect your score negatively. If you already a copy of your credit report, scour it thoroughly and check if there are any mistakes in the report. 

Once you find them, write a dispute letter to the bureau with the needed documents per FTC guidelines to back up your claim. 

Aside from writing a letter, make sure that you contact the organization that made the mistake, and request for an update with the correct data. 

This is not a quick process so make sure you do this ahead of time and provide all the necessary papers to strengthen your claim. 

Rest assured, once the error is removed, your credit score will be improved. 

Make a phone call.

You wouldn't believe how a simple phone call can help you bump up your score! Look at your current bill payments and if you've had 1 or 2 late payments for any of your bills, call the company and ask for it to be removed from your records. 

Of course, if you've had the habit of paying your bills later than the due date, this would not work.

Set up an alarm and calendar reminder for all your bills.

Moving forward, you also have to maintain a good record of paying your bills. If you're not good with dates, set up an alarm or your calendar to remind you about your payments. This task would take you a minute or two but once you're set, you'll never be able to miss any fees again.

Set up an auto-debit system for all your bills.

If you want to take it up a notch, set up all your bills to be automatically deducted from your debit or credit card on or before their due dates.

This way, you don't even have to think about it. This system will help you be smart in budgeting your money and it will be impossible to miss your due dates.

Get accountability.

People stick to a habit when they're held accountable. Get your closest friend to check up on you when it comes to saving up for your down payment and paying your bills on time. If you want to make it more fun, have a reward or punishment system with your accountability partner.

You can agree on rules such as paying your accountability partner when you miss a bill payment or getting a reward after a month of successfully paying your bills on time. 

Summary 

Planning to buy a home does not only involve having funds but your regular payments must always be in check, for you to have a great record to show your lenders. 

If you think you're ready to buy a home, call a trusted realtor. If you want to work with us, call 925-415-0835 today! 

Source: 

https://www.realtor.com/advice/buy/how-to-boost-your-credit-score-first-time-home-buyer-advice/