Photo: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images I want to improve my credit score, so I’m thinking of getting a new credit card. I already have another card that I’ve had for nine years. I pay it off every month, so my credit score is pretty good — in the mid-700s — but I want to get over 800. I also have an old Bloomingdale’s card that I lost track of years ago, but I think it’s helping my score to keep it open, so I haven’t touched it.
To find out how you can make your good situation even better, I called Beverly Harzog, a consumer-finance analyst at U.S. News and World Report who has written several books about credit cards. Getting a new credit card is an obvious way to lower your credit-utilization ratio, because it gives you more available credit overall . But you could accomplish the same thing just by calling your existing company and asking them to raise your limit, Harzog said. “Someone with excellent credit like you is a very valuable cardholder,” she explained. “You can use that to your advantage to negotiate better terms, and it’ll save you the trouble of applying for a new card.