KNOW YOUR STARTING POINT

The first step towards increasing your credit score is knowing your current score and what is showing in your credit report, said Kristin Myers, editor in chief of The Balance, a personal finance website.

“You can’t fix what you don’t know,” she said. “See if there are

Ideally, you pay off your credit card every month. But, if that is not possible for you, making small payments can help you maintain or increase your credit score.

If you can, pay just a bit more over the minimum monthly payment so you pay less interest over time.

A well-known payment method is the “debt snowball” where you pay down your debts from smallest to largest, to build momentum and good habits. Once the smaller debts are paid off and you have built a habit of paying off debt, the money you were used to putting aside every month can then go toward larger debts. Nerdwallet offers a calculator to use this method.

Another small way to tackle debt is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recommendation to “use cash when it’s under $20” to avoid overspending on your credit card.

Many people’s first instinct is to not use any credit cards to avoid getting into debt. However, this is not a good tactic if you want to have a good credit score. It’s best to have at least one credit card but the key is to use it moderately, said Colleen Mccreary, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma.

“You don’t want to use more than 30% of the credit that’s available to you, but you want to be using those cards even just a little bit to prove that you can be trusted,” she said.

When using your credit card, make sure to pay on time each month and try to use it only for purchases that you were already planning to make, and can afford.

DO NOT CLOSE YOUR OLD ACCOUNTS

If you are starting and want to build your credit, there are several ways to make this process safe for you to not get into debt. One of the most recommended ways is to open a “secured card,” which are credit cards that require a deposit that usually amounts to the amount of credit that you are given.

The deposit is there in case you can’t pay back the credit but it is given back to you after you upgrade to an “unsecured” card. Secured cards are reported to the credit bureaus, which means this line of credit shows in your credit report and it can help build or fix your credit score.

That’s how Carpenter is planning to build up his credit score.