• Be strategic with the order in which you pay off your debts. Personal loans and credit cards often have higher interest rates than mortgages, car loans, and student loans.
• Check your credit utilization.
• Open another credit card. 

The average credit score for 25-30 year olds is 628.

Having a mix of credit cards and loans is often good for your credit score. While paying off debt is important, if you only have one loan and pay it off, your score might drop because you no longer have a mix of different types of accounts.

When a collection is removed from your credit score report, you can expect to see a credit score increase at least up to 150 points.

While settling an account won’t damage your credit as much as not paying at all, a status of settled on your credit report is still considered negative. Settling a debt means you have negotiated with the lender and they have agreed to accept less than the full amount owed as final payment on the account

As long as your charge-off remains unpaid, you are still legally obligated to pay back the amount you owe.

Your credit score may be low even if you don’t have debt for the reason that you are frequently opening or closing accounts and lines of credit.