Anyone who already has a low credit score knows that banks will happily charge you penalties and higher interest rates on your credit cards and loans. If your score has dropped too low then you may not be able to get approved for a new loan at all.

Raising your credit score is not only a great way to become eligible for lower interest rates, but it could also mean breathing easier with your repayments each month.

It is possible for you to easily increase your credit score. It just takes a little planning and some discipline. You won’t even need to pay ridiculously high fees to some credit repair company when you do it yourself.

Here are some simple steps that will help improve your credit score.

1. Remove negative listings.
   It is very common for financial institutions to neglect to remove negative listings once you’ve cleared up any disputes you may have had. You are legally allowed to write to the 3 major credit reporting bureaus on your own regarding these listings. Your letter should request an investigation into any negative listings that appear on your credit report. Once they receive your letter they have 30 days to investigate your inquiry. If they can’t verify these entries, then they are required to remove them.
2. Payment timing counts.
   Although your bank or credit card company only reports on your repayment conduct monthly, there are no limits on the number of payments you can make each month. If you receive a paycheck each week, it is to your advantage to divide your required monthly payment by four and make a payment each time you get paid. You won’t be paying any additional money — you are just paying more frequently. This extra payment activity is noted by the credit reporting bureaus and helps to increase your credit score.
3. Catch up on overdue payments.
   This is the quickest possible repair solution for anyone with bad credit. Catch up on any overdue payments you have with all your creditors, and if you don’t have the cash to pay everything off right away, call and negotiate a realistic payment plan. Then when you’re completely caught up, call them and ask if they’ll notify the credit reporting bureaus that all payments have been met.
4. Low balances, high limits.
   If you’ve been diligent about paying off your debts, then you should have a low balance compared to your available limit. However, even  if you’re maxxed out and already at your credit limit, it may be possible to open new credit accounts with high limits… but make sure you keep the balance on these new accounts low, or even zero. When calculating your credit score, low balances with high available credit shows positive discipline and your score will increase because of it. However, if you’re the type of person who will be tempted to run up large balances on these new accounts, this is not a good option for you. It will only make your credit score even worse.

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