 TITLE: How One “Credit Invisible” Went From No Credit Score to 745 in Less Than Two Years CONTENT: Apply for New Credit\n--------------------\nOnce she had one unsecured line of credit, Campbell received an offer for another credit card with Capital One. She applied for it and was approved. (Capital One offers several cards for people with less-than-perfect credit.) She continued to use both her cards, making sure to never miss a payment and keep a low credit utilization ratio.\nYour credit utilization ratio is how much credit you're using compared with how much credit you have available to you. In Campbell's case, her credit limits were not very high after her first year of building credit in the U.S.—only about $3,100 total on her two unsecured cards. Experts recommend keeping your utilization ratio below 30%, and for the best scores, below 10%. In Campbell's case, keeping it below 30% meant she could only have about $1,000 total on her statements every month.\nOne way around this is to make payments early, before the statement generates. That way, you can spend more on the cards and still maintain a low utilization ratio. This is a smart strategy to help you get into a prime credit category as soon as possible—so you can start getting rewarded for everyday spending.\nCampbell's strategy was prudent: She applied for another card as soon as she was able to, thus diversifying her credit mix and increasing the amount of credit available to her. Both these factors contributed to her rising credit score.\nOn the first anniversary of opening her secured card, Campbell used CreditMatch to learn that she was likely to get approved for a rewards card from American Express. She applied, was approved, and started spending so she could earn rewards and an intro bonus. (This card is typically only available to consumers with a high credit score.)\nIn February 2019, Campbell used the points from her card to book a flight to Cancun. \"It would have cost me about $700, but I got it for just $81 using my points,\" says Campbell. \"I went from being credit invisible to having credit that actually works for me.\"\nThis spring, Campbell used Experian Boost™† to instantly improve her FICO® Score☉ , the credit score used by most lenders, by getting credit for paying her utility bills on time. This caused her score to go up by seven points. By June 2019, just 20 months after she had applied for a secured card when she had no credit, Campbell's credit score was 745. To maintain that excellent score, Campbell never carries a credit card balance from month to month and pays all her bills on time. END