Image source: Getty Images
Getting your credit score from 700 to 750 quickly comes down to one number more than any other: your credit utilization ratio. This is a calculation of your average balance divided by your available credit limit.
My own FICO® Score sits at 838 as of this writing, and it’s not luck or some insider trick. I’ve developed habits and methods to keep my utilization extremely low. Experts recommend keeping it under 30%, whereas mine never really goes higher than 5%.
Of course, this all assumes you already pay your bills on time. If your score is already at 700, you almost certainly do, so I’ll skip the sermon. On-time payments are the floor here, not the accelerator.
1. Pay your balances down before the statement closes
The single fastest move to lowering your utilization is about timing. If you pay your balances down before the statement closes (instead of after), a lower balance gets reported to credit agencies.
Most credit card issuers report account balances to the bureaus once a month, usually on the statement date. Whatever the balance is that day is what shows up as “used” credit.
So even if you pay in full every month, a fat statement balance can make your utilization look high.
I actually pay my credit card balance weekly. Instead of making a single $4,000 payment when the invoice is due, I make 4 x $1,000 payments periodically. It’s the same amount out of my pocket, but results in always having a low average balance.
If you do one thing this week, this is it. Try making mid-cycle payments and see the effect on your score.
2. Ask for a credit limit increase
The second-fastest move is raising your available credit limit. This lowers your utilization without changing anything on the payment side.
Utilization is your balance divided by your limit. For example, a $3,000 balance on a $10,000 credit limit is 30%. A bigger limit shrinks the ratio on its own. If you have that same $3,000 on a $15,000 limit, your ratio goes down to 20%.
One thing I do is just call and ask for a higher limit. This usually doesn’t involve a hard credit pull, and takes effect immediately. I also rarely close a no-annual-fee card, since every open card keeps my total available credit higher.
A keeper like the card voted our Best No Annual Fee Cash Back Credit Card for 2026, is one I’ll never cancel.
3. Dispute the errors on your credit report
The third move is pulling your credit reports and disputing any errors. According to a Federal Trade Commission study, about 1 in 4 consumers identified errors on their credit reports that might affect their credit scores.
I pulled my own credit report once. It was a boring 50+ page document and I’ll be honest, no fun at all to go through. But I still found junk in there, like my brother’s address listed as an old address of mine. Luckily, none of the errors I found on mine affected my credit score in a big way — you won’t know what’s in yours until you look.
You can get your credit report for free by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com. Once you receive it, dispute errors directly with the bureaus. Minor errors probably don’t matter, so only focus on the stuff that actually hurts: a wrong late payment, an account that isn’t yours, a balance that’s way off.
Best case, you fix something and gain 40 points. Worst case, you spent an afternoon reading the world’s most boring PDF.
Is 700 a good credit score?
While a 700 FICO® Score is definitely in the “good” range, it’s at the lower end. This means a minor change in the wrong direction could put you in a lower bracket.
Hitting 750 moves you from “good” to “very good,” which is where the better rates and easier approvals start showing up. The average credit score in America was 714 in 2025, according to Motley Fool Money research. So 750 is well above that average.
It also opens doors that were shut at lower scores. The best credit cards, with real welcome offers and better perks, get a lot easier to qualify for once you clear that tier.
Alert: highest cash back card we’ve seen now has 0% intro APR until nearly 2028
This credit card is not just good – it’s so exceptional that our experts use it personally. It features a 0% intro APR for 15 months, a cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee!
Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
Motley Fool Money does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from Motley Fool Money is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Joel O’Leary has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
