A credit score is an important number as financial institutions consider it before offering any form of credit. The credit score ranges between 300-900 and it requires a higher score to ensure approval of credits with better benefits.
A credit score takes a long time to improve and requires patience. There is no shortcut to improve the credit score, so if a borrower wants to raise credit score from 360 to 800, he/she must be patient and follow the correct approaches to increase it.
What are the benefits of having a high credit score?
Having a high credit score helps to gain access to additional perks that include:
- Lower interest rates
By having a higher credit score, a borrower proves their creditworthiness, which helps them get the best interest rates offers available. A lower interest rate can save a lot of money in the long term.
- Better credit approval
A credit score as high as 800 likely exceeds any lender’s minimum credit score requirement. If a borrower meets other eligibility criteria along with a high credit score, the odds of approval are high, no matter what kind of credit he/she has applied for.
- Better offers
A high CIBIL score boosts the chances of getting the best credit offers. These offers include credit cards reserved for people with great credit reports. The borrower can also avail auto loans, home loans and other forms of credit easily.
How to raise credit score from 360 to 800?
Though it takes much time and patience, improving the CIBIL score is not as difficult as it may seem. Here are some proven tips that will help to improve your CIBIL score.
- Pay dues on time
Failing to repay a debt or missing a repayment significantly impacts the CIBIL score. Borrowers should pay every due payment on time if they wish to raise their credit score from 360 to 800. It is one of the main factors that are considered while calculating the credit score.
To ease the repayment process and to make sure all dues are paid on time, setting up auto-pay is the best hack.
- Avoid multiple loans
It is best to avoid making multiple loan applications as it impacts the credit report. Many people borrow multiple loans just because they are getting various loan offers. Whenever a loan is accepted, a credit check is conducted on the borrower’s profile. And with every hard credit check, the score will decrease.
- Keep credit card balances low
This is the second most important thing that impacts the credit score. The best practice is to keep the balance below 30% of the credit limit. If someone wants to raise their credit score from 360 to 800, he/she should keep their credit card balances even lower than 30%.
- Do not make too many credit inquiries
Each time a hard check is made, a hard inquiry is marked on the credit report. Though the hard inquiries are not a large part of the score, it keeps the score from improving from good to excellent. So, it is advised to avoid too many credit inquiries.
- Review credit reports
Due to some errors and significant changes in the credit report, the credit score can be low. The CIBIL score is based on information in the credit report at any given time. The best practice is to keep a track of credit information by online credit score checking to correct errors.
Apart from all this, several renowned financial institutions provide pre-approved offers on products like loan against property and home loans. Customers can ease up the loan application process by accepting these kinds of offers. They just need to submit their basic information like names and contact numbers to check the pre-approved offers.
The path of CIBIL score recovery is long and requires a lot of patience and smart work. To raise a credit score from 360 to 800, one has to maintain a proactive attitude and keep working on the simple strategies that will help to achieve the same. By doing everything right, the credit score will improve in the long run. However, once the desired score is reached, the person should continue practising good credit habits to keep it from fluctuating.