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When used responsibly, credit cards are helpful tools for building up or fixing your credit score. Using the right kind of card for your situation, keeping your accounts open for long periods of time, and improving your credit utilization ratio can all help boost your credit score.

Sign Up for Cards You'll Keep

Credit cards come with a variety of offers and signup bonuses that make it tempting to apply for new accounts and close old ones, but in the long term, it's better for your credit to keep at least some of your accounts open for a long time. Keeping accounts open lets you build a history and future lenders will like to see that you can responsibly manage the same accounts over long periods of time.

Not only can closing an old account harm your score as it pertains to how long your accounts have been open, but this also reduces your total available credit, which can hurt your credit utilization ratio.

Because of this, focus on what cards have to offer with everyday use, not what you can get for signing up. Credit cards can offer different kinds of benefits, such as cashback and travel rewards, so choose something you know you'll be able to stick with for at least several years.

Pick Cards for Poor or Fair Credit

If your credit is low or you haven't had time to build your score up yet, you can still use credit cards to your advantage.

First, look for specific kinds of credit cards, such as secured cards or student cards, if applicable. These tend to come with lower credit limits or require you to make deposits upfront. The good news is your credit score doesn't distinguish different types of cards; when used responsibly, these cards can still help you build up or fix your credit.

Second, if you have the option, ask to be an authorized user of someone else's credit card, such as a family member's. This gives you your own card, and the other person's credit usage will now affect your own score.

Try to prioritize cards with low credit limits or restrictions over cards with higher limits but higher interest rates unless you are absolutely sure you can always pay your balance. Otherwise, the interest may hurt your ability to pay off your balance and improve your score.

Request Credit Increases

One factor that influences your score is the credit utilization ratio, which measures how much of your available total credit is being used. Keeping this ratio low can help your score, and you can help bump it up by requesting credit increases.

If you don't often use your cards or save them for small and regular purchases, this is a safe option you can take advantage of. Call your credit card companies and ask for a credit increase, and cite things like regular on-time payments and a low utilization ratio. 

If this doesn't work, you can always try contacting a credit card service.