Your credit score impacts your ability to get loans, credit cards, and even rent apartments. Understanding how it works can help you improve it over time.

What is a credit score?
It’s a number between 300 and 850 that reflects your creditworthiness based on payment history, credit utilization, length of credit history, types of credit, and recent inquiries.

Tips to boost your credit score:

• Pay bills on time — late payments hurt your score the most.

• Keep credit card balances low — aim to use less than 30% of your available credit.

• Avoid opening too many new accounts at once — multiple inquiries can lower your score.

• Maintain older accounts — a longer credit history improves your score.

• Check your credit report regularly for errors and dispute any inaccuracies.

Improving your credit score takes time, but the financial benefits are well worth the effort.