Are you eager to achieve an excellent credit score over the next 12 months?

It’s definitely not a cakewalk. Only about 20 percent of Americans have an excellent credit score, and many of them have spent years perfecting their score to get it above 800 (Source: CNN Money). Typically it takes at least a few years to gradually boost your credit score into the excellent range.

If you are aiming to do it sooner than that, you need to know how to get an excellent credit score first.

Below are some relatively easy steps you could take to bring your score up dramatically within a year, as long as you’re 100 percent committed to doing it:

Begin by starting to find out what your credit score is

Before you start to make improvements to your credit score, find out what your credit score actually is.

This might seem like simple logic. But surprisingly, about 30 percent of Americans have no clue what their credit score is. Most of them might be doing various things to improve their scores without actually knowing what their score is.

Once you’ve figured out your credit score and known how far from excellent you are, you can begin your journey towards perfection.

Understand How Your Credit Score Is Formulated

After finding out your credit score, it’s time to gain some knowledge on how these ratings are formulated by the credit bureaus. This helps you to understand why your credit score isn’t higher.

Nearly 35 percent of your credit score is determined by your payment history. About 30 percent of it is based on credit usage.

Approximately 15 percent of it accounts for the length of your credit history, and 10 percent is based on recent credit inquiries. The final 10 percent, meanwhile, is based on how many different types of credit you have on your report. (Source: Credit concierge LLC US)

The credit bureaus churn out all these factors and come out with your credit score that paints a  clear picture of how you’ve used credit over the years.

A high score discloses that you’ve had good control with credit usage, while a lower one implies that there’s a chance for you to make some improvements to your credit use.

Understanding these factors will pave a way for an excellent credit score.

Check for Errors on Your Credit Report

After a fair understanding of your credit score and its formulation, it’s time for you to work on getting your score up.

But before you begin, take a close look and see if there’s anything fishy or hard to recognize. For instance, if you have any credit cards mentioned that you didn’t open yourself? Or are there certain credit inquiries that you didn’t make?

In case you’ve spotted errors, you hold a complete right to dispute them right away. Correcting them will definitely work wonders and would drastically lessen your actual effort.

Figure Out What’s Pulling Your Credit Score Down

In case you don’t spot any flaws on your credit report and yet your credit score is well below excellent, it’s time you figure out what’s dragging your credit score down and preventing it from being excellent.

Below are some issues that might be deteriorating your report and are stopping your score from being high:

• You’ve failed to pay your card bills on time
• You have high balances on your credit card accounts
• You’ve only had credit cards and other forms of credit for a year or two
• You’ve taken or applied for too many loans over the years
• Your credit report lists just one type of credit

Make Improvements in Areas That Are Weakening Your Credit Score

After figuring out why your score is low, get on a mission to make improvements to parts of your credit report that are hurting your credit score the most.

For instance, let’s say you’re failing to pay your credit card bills on time every month. Probably you’re budgeting has gone for a toss and you’re left with meager or no money to pay your bills on time. Or maybe it’s likely that you’re simply forgetting to pay down your credit card balance month in and month out.

Whatever be the reason, ensure you make a timely payment every month. That alone will upscale your score quite a bit over the next year.

If you’re determined then take a step further by borrowing a loan from a family member or friend or apply for a personal loan from a bank or a lending service to pay off your debts completely. By consolidating your debt, you can usually pay it off more effectively and utilize a lot less of your credit every month.

Paying off a debt completely is a quick way to send your credit score skyrocketing in just a few months.

Monitor Your Credit Score Every Month

Once you’re committed to improving your credit score, you should also commit to keep checking your credit score religiously. The only way you’ll know if it’s improving or not is to keep a tab on the score. It gives you a feeling of motivation to work more as you see your efforts paying off.

If you notice that your score isn’t jumping as much as you thought it would, double down on your efforts and do even more to bring your score up. There are numerous credit repair services available that can make a dramatic difference in your score. Now that you know how to get an excellent credit score, start trying to do it.

Get in touch with top credit report companies that’ll help you scale up your score in no time. Call now to get the best quotes