9 Little Ways You Can Improve Your Credit Score (Without Paying Off All Your Debt)

Are you in debt and feeling panicked about your credit score? Take a few deep breaths.

“There are many ways to improve your credit score beyond paying off debt,” Dimitri Pan, a wealth advisor at Ally Financial, told HuffPost. “The first step is understanding what credit is, how it’s calculated, and why monitoring your credit is so important. Credit is the ability to borrow money under an agreement with a lender that requires you to pay back the loan later, and your credit score represents your creditworthiness as a borrower.”

Your credit score is influenced by a variety of factors like payment history, credit mix, amounts owed and length of credit history. That’s why it’s important to be mindful of your use of credit in your personal finances.

“Using credit responsibly and maintaining good credit scores can allow you to buy things you need that you can’t purchase all at once with cash, like a car or a home, and can help you build wealth over time,” said Courtney Alev, a consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma. “And, if you’re faced with an unexpected expense, credit can help you stay afloat financially.”

If your credit is not great at the moment, however, you don’t need to scramble to come up with nonexistent funds to pay off all your debt at once. There are other steps you can take to improve your situation.

“It’s not about having perfect credit but making sure you’re taking advantage of the small things that can add up over time,” noted Bola Sokunbi, author of “Clever Girl Finance, Expanded & Updated: Ditch Debt, Save Money and Build Real Wealth” and founder of the financial education resource Clever Girl Finance. “Making progress with improving your credit doesn’t have to be overwhelming.”

“One small but impactful action is lowering your credit utilization ratio,” Sokunbi said. “This means using less of your available credit.”

Experts recommend trying to keep your credit usage below 30%, using just under one-third of your total available credit.

“Having a high credit utilization ratio shows that you’re close to maxing out your credit cards, and can significantly lower your credit scores,” Alev noted. “The good news is that lowering your credit utilization rate can help boost your scores in a short time.”

So if you have $10,000 of available credit on your cards, aim to keep your spending below $3,000.

“If you’ve already exceeded that amount, stop adding new purchases to the card and work toward bringing that balance down,” said NerdWallet personal finance expert Melissa Lambarena. “Make purchases with cash or debit instead.”

Prioritize paying down credit card balances early and often. Consider asking for a credit limit increase as well. And in general, try to keep your nonessential spending down as you pay off debt.

“Paying your bills on time may be the best way to improve your credit score since payment history carries a lot of weight,” Pan said. “Just like on-time payments can do a lot to help, late payments and defaults can do a lot of harm.”

He urged people to prioritize paying their bills and doing it on time to avoid negative consequences.

“On top of on-time payments, paid-in-full payments are also favorable because they bypass the “minimum payment strategy,” Pan added. “When you make minimum payments, a lot of your hard-earned money goes toward interest, so on top of helping build your credit, making in-full payments can save you money in the long-term.”

Consider setting up automatic payments to ensure you’re never late — just don’t forget to closely review your statements to catch mistakes and avoid accidentally overpaying.

“The more credit cards you have, the easier it is to lose track of purchases and overspend,” noted consumer finance and budgeting expert Andrea Woroch. “To manage your credit card balance and keep debt at bay, It’s better to stick with just one credit card so you can keep a watchful eye on your spending and you don’t go over budget.”

She added that “decluttering” your card collection allows you to maximize the rewards you earn from buying daily essentials, which in turn can help offset some monthly expenses. That’s why it’s helpful to prioritize one card as your main payment method.

“Avoid closing old accounts,” Sokunbi said. “The length of your credit history plays a significant role in your score, so keeping long-standing accounts open helps maintain that history.”

If you decide to focus on using just one credit card, make sure you don’t let your other cards go fully unused for an extended period, as you run the risk that the issuer will close your account or reduce your credit line, which can also harm your score. Instead, keep these cards active by using each for a small recurring expense like your Netflix subscription or gym membership.

“It can help to keep a credit card open and active with small, planned purchases that you can pay off in full every month to avoid the interest charges,” Lambarena said. “As long as it’s not costing you anything to keep the card open, this can be a useful strategy, especially for credit cards you’ve had for a long time.”

“Along your journey to better credit, you also want to be conscious of not submitting several applications for credit at once because doing so can temporarily cause credit scores to drop,” Lambarena said.

Applying for credit typically triggers a “hard inquiry” on your credit report — meaning a creditor requested to look at your credit information while assessing your reliability as a borrower. This typically occurs with applications for a new credit card, mortgage or other type of loan.

Hard inquiries can lower your credit score, so after you open a new credit card, you’ll want to hold off on applying for additional forms of credit to give your score time to recover.

Woroch suggested transferring your credit card balance to a card that offers 0% interest because there are multiple benefits.

“First, you will be able to save on interest fees, thus paying off debt faster and saving more in the long run,” she said. “Next, this will improve your debt to credit ratio, showing you have more available credit compared to how much credit you’re using, which will boost your score.”

As previously noted, applying for a new transfer balance card can cause a short-term decline in your credit score due to the new inquiry. If you’re doing it as part of a concerted effort to pay off your debt, however, you might find the long-term credit benefits outweigh this drop. You can also avoid the dip by moving a large balance from one of your existing cards to another existing card with a lower interest rate.

“Sign up as a secondary user on a trusted family member or friend’s credit card account,” Woroch suggested. “Your credit score will benefit from the primary account holder’s positive credit card management such as making timely payments and maintaining a low balance.”

Of course, not everyone has this option. Becoming an authorized user can only boost your credit score if the primary user has solid credit and adds you to an account in good standing.

And understandably, not everyone is willing to add a loved one with credit card debt to their account, as the move could alter their credit utilization ratio and any missed or late payments could harm their credit score as well. The good news is that the authorized user generally doesn’t even have to use the card to benefit from the primary cardholder’s positive habits.

“A secured credit card can help you establish — or reestablish — credit with a down payment,” Pan explained. “Secured credit cards can be a helpful tool for those with no credit history or bad credit to help build credit without getting approved for traditional credit accounts or loans. Secured credit cards work by allowing you to put down a sum of money, called a security deposit, with a credit card issuer.”

As with transfer balances, applying for a new secured credit card might cause a temporary dip in your credit score due to the hard inquiry on your credit report. Assess whether the potential long-term benefits for your credit score outweigh this short-term dip.

“Checking your credit report regularly for errors is key,” Sokunbi said. “Sometimes mistakes can lower your score, and disputing these can give you a quick boost.”

At least once a year, take the time to look for any discrepancies in your credit history. You may discover errors or even fraud.

“You can request free credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion,” Woroch said. “To fix an error, send a dispute in writing to both the credit reporting bureau and the creditor who filed the error in the first place attaching any supporting documentation.”

She also recommended monitoring your credit score even more regularly. Sign up for alerts from sites like Credit Karma so you’ll know whenever there’s a change in your credit.