Things You'll Need:
- Your recent credit report
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Step 1
Pay your bills on time every time no matter what! Paying on time means not even a few days late. Even when you fall into the "grace period", it counts against you. When you pay your bills on time, this improves your score. Every time you pay late, your credit score will decrease.
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Step 2
Scrutinize your outstanding debts. Your debt to income ratio needs to be in proportion. To explain, if less than 20 percent of your total income goes toward bills, this is great. If you're bills total to higher than 20-25% of your income, you should probably try to strategize ways to get below 20%.
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Step 3
Don't appy for a lot of credit cards. Use only one or two credit cards for all purchases instead of having a lot of different store cards. Every time you get a new credit card, your overall credit score will decrease.
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Step 4
Always shred your statements. Protect yourself from thieves who specialize in identity theft and credit theft.
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Step 5
Don't give out your information unnecessarily. Only give out your social security number when it's absolutely necessary, it rarely is. See if you can get away with only giving the last four digits of your social security number.
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Step 6
Check your credit reports on a regular basis. Review your credit reports a couple times a year to make sure they're correct. Report any false information to the credit-reporting agencies.
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Step 7
Here is the big secret to improving your credit score that most people don't know about. Keep your credit limit to 50% or less of what they allow you to owe. Going above that half way point to your limit will reflect badly on your total credit score.
