10 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score

First, understand that just because you obtain a legal divorce, it does not release one or both people from their financial obligations when it comes to paying off a joint account. As long as both names appear on the account, both parties are responsible for it.

As your divorce proceedings move forward, be sure to pay off and close all joint accounts, or have one person's name removed from each account, meaning only one person will remain responsible for it.

It will probably become necessary for one or both parties in the marriage to re-establish their independent credit. When doing this, start off slowly and build up your independent credit over a few years. Immediately applying for a handful of new credit cards, a new car loan and/or a new mortgage within a short period of time after your divorce won't help to improve your credit report and credit score. Try to spread out new credit card acquisitions and new loans by at least six months each.

In the event of a spouse's death, creditors can not automatically remove the deceased person's name from the joint account and make the debt the sole responsibility of the living spouse. It will be necessary to contact each creditor separately. In some cases, the widow or widower may need to reapply for the credit card or loan as an individual borrower. Keep in mind that several of the credit reporting agencies regularly update their records using information provided by the Social Security Administration. As a result, joint accounts that include someone who is deceased will be flagged when the creditors are notified.

Strategy 6: Correct Inaccuracies in Your Credit Reports, and Make Sure Old Information Is Removed. One of the fastest and easiest ways to quickly give your credit score a boost is to carefully review all three of your credit reports and correct any erroneous or outdated information that's listed. If you spot incorrect information, you can initiate a dispute and potentially have it corrected or removed within 10 to 30 days.

Strategy 7: Avoid Excess Inquiries. Every time you apply for a credit card or any type of loan, a potential creditor will make an inquiry with one or more of the credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax or TransUnion). This inquiry information gets added to your credit report and will typically remain listed for two years. For one year, however, the inquiry will slightly reduce your credit score. If you have multiple inquiries in a short period of time, this can dramatically reduce your credit score.

Keep in mind, when shopping for a mortgage or car loan, it's permissible to have multiple inquiries for the same purpose within a 30- to 45-day period, without those multiple inquiries hurting your credit score. In this situation, the multiple inquiries will be counted as one single inquiry.

Strategy 8: Avoid Bankruptcy, if Possible. There are a lot of misconceptions about the pros and cons of filing for bankruptcy if you encounter serious financial problems. In terms of your credit report and credit score, filing for bankruptcy is one of the absolute worst things you can do. If your credit score hasn't already plummeted as a result of late payments, missed payments, and defaults, when the bankruptcy is listed on your credit report, you will notice a large and immediate drop in your credit score. Furthermore, that bankruptcy will continue to plague your credit report for up to ten years.