 TITLE: What Is a Bad Credit History and Rating? CONTENT: How to Improve Bad Credit\n-------------------------\nBad credit doesn't last forever. You can take steps anytime to begin adopting good credit habits that promote improvements in credit score and credit rating. These include:\n*   **Check your credit score.** When you get your free FICO® Score score from Experian, you'll also receive an explanation of the factors in your credit report that are having the greatest negative impact on your score. That can give you a good idea where to focus your score-improvement efforts.\n*   **Pay your bills on time.** A good way to avoid late payments is to set up automatic electronic payments for recurring bills, such as student loans and car payments. Setting up email or text message reminders and calendar alarms can help as well. Whatever it takes, do all you can to avoid making late payments.\n*   **Pay down credit card debt.** Any payment that reduces an outstanding credit card balance lowers your overall utilization ratio (assuming, of course, that you aren't running up new charges at the same time). If you focus on avoiding new card purchases, and work on paying down the cards with the highest individual credit utilization, you may be able to make progress toward credit score improvement in a relatively short time.\n*   **Apply for new credit only as needed.** Avoiding hard inquiries for a year or two can help your credit score recover some, and remove the appearance of overeagerness for new credit accounts.\n*   **Boost your credit.** Experian Boost™† is a free program that adds your on-time utility, phone and streaming service payments to your Experian credit report, often instantly increasing your credit scores based on your Experian credit data.\n*   **Get credit improvement help.** If you're having trouble getting approved for a credit card or loan on your own, you can build credit history with the help of others:\n    *   Become an authorized user on someone else's account.\n    *   Work with a cosigner who has good credit. When you have a cosigner for a loan or credit card, the lender also considers them jointly responsible for the debt.\n    *   Open a secured credit card account. With a secured credit card account, you provide a deposit and the card issuer allows you to borrow up to a certain amount, only using the deposit if you stop paying your bills.\n*   **Be patient.** If you have major negative events on your credit report, they can hurt your credit score and credit rating for years, but their impact will diminish over time. That's why patience is another prescription for improving your credit. As long as you avoid additional missteps and embrace good credit habits, your credit will tend to improve over time.\n### Learn More About Your Credit History and Rating\n*   How to “Fix” a Bad Credit Score  \n    To improve a bad credit score, understand the basic contributors to credit and take steps to address the factors that are making a negative impact.\n*   How to Improve Your Credit Score  \n    There are steps you can take to increase your credit score, and the sooner you address certain factors, the faster your credit score will go up.\n*   What Is a Bad Credit Score?  \n    Based on the FICO Score range of 300 to 850, a credit score below 669 is considered either fair or bad.\n*   How to Get a Loan With Bad Credit  \n    Getting a loan with bad credit is possible, but it may be more difficult and expensive. Here’s what you should do.\n*   How to Rebuild Credit  \n    Good credit can make many of life's financial situations easier and less costly. For example, with good credit, you can get approved for a mortgage or auto loan, and...\n*   What Are the Different Credit Scoring Ranges?  \n    Lenders use credit scoring ranges to decide whether to take a risk on a potential borrower. Understanding your score and how it fits into a scoring range will help...\n*   Why No Credit Is Better Than Bad Credit  \n    Having bad credit is more challenging than having no credit, but both can limit your ability to borrow money. Here’s how to overcome either.\n*   Can You Get a Job With Bad Credit?  \n    Bad credit can affect your job prospects, especially if you’re applying for a finance or management role. END