I fell behind on my mortgage and my credit score tanked 175 points. Here’s how a major drop can affect your financial future — and how to get back on track ASAP

Why credit scores matter

Lenders use credit scores to determine the risk level when loaning money or allowing an individual to open a line of credit or credit card account. This includes loans such as mortgages — but landlords can also request a credit report from potential tenants to help them decide whether the tenant is likely to miss rental payments.

A low credit score can impact whether you’re accepted for loans. It can also mean that the interest rates for any new loans or credit cards you apply for will be higher than average. Scores can range from 300 to 850, with a score of over 740 seen as the most desirable.

You can request a credit report through your bank or an independent service. But this also comes with a catch — requesting a report too often can lower your score. Instead, check your credit once per year to avoid these penalties.

You can still monitor your score with what’s known as a “soft pull” credit check, which won’t affect your rating. The good news is that there are a number of online services and apps available that monitor your rating for free without impacting your score.

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How to improve your credit rating

Your credit score is calculated by assessing five factors:

• Your payment history, including any missed payments
• Outstanding balances on accounts like credit cards and lines of credit
• The types of accounts you have
• How long you have been a borrower
• How often you have applied for new accounts like credit cards

To improve your score, it’s important to understand that your credit utilization matters. This means the ratio of your total outstanding loan balances compared to your total credit limits.

Lenders look at your utilization to assess risk, so it’s important to keep this score under 30%. That might mean paying down any credit card balances as quickly as possible, or looking for other ways to balance your utilization.

To improve your credit score quickly, you might consider using savings to pay off an outstanding card balance and improve your utilization. However, you should speak to [a trusted financial adviser]( first before taking this step.

Next, it’s important to make all your payments on time. If you’ve missed payments, especially two due dates in a row on the same account, it can wreak havoc on your credit score. Those who have trouble keeping track should consider setting up automatic payments.

If you’ve missed a number of payments due to an oversight or lack of communication from the lender, you may be able to negotiate with the lender to remove some of the missed payment reports from your credit history once you’ve paid the outstanding balances. Don’t overlook this step as it can be a huge boost to your score.

Finally, if you have a lower-than-expected credit score and have both a good utilization ratio and no missed payments, you may want to check your detailed credit report for errors. These can happen, and it’s up to you to be vigilant about checking your score and report details each year to catch the errors. If you find any outstanding issues, be sure to contact your lender right away.

By taking these steps, you can start to see a change in your score in as little as a month. With consistency, you could get your rating into the 700s within a few months.