How to Improve Your Credit Score

The best way to improve your credit scores is to manage credit responsibly over time. Obviously the best way to do that is to pay your bills on time every month. It’s important to live below your means so that you have enough money every month to pay them. None of the techniques I’m going to share with you will work long-term if you can’t get your spending habits under control.

Here are some quick tips to help you improve your credit scores now:

Learn How the Credit System Works.

If you don’t know how this game works, you’re never going to win it. It’s just something that every single consumer is going to have to eventually learn in their life time. The sooner you learn, the better off your life will be. Yes, your credit scores are that important. Don’t listen to what a friend of a friend told you about credit that he heard from his parents. There’s a lot of misinformation getting spread around. Get your information from the top financial sites and books on the subject.

Keep Your Credit Card Balances Low.

High balances on credit cards and other revolving accounts hurt your scores. Try to keep your balances below 30% of your available credit limit. Never let it get above 50%. This is so important. Never give the appearance to the banks that you are "strapped". Once you let them see that you’re using almost all of the credit made available to you, it appears to them that you are in a state of financial emergency. It’s calculated in the FICO scoring algorithm and everything. At that time, only very high interest rate lenders will give you a loan.

Apply New Credit Accounts Only as Needed.

Applying for new accounts lowers your credit scores; especially if you apply for too many in a short period of time. If you know you have bad credit, don’t apply for anything. It’s ridiculous how some people know they have bad credit, but still keep trying. "It’s worth a try." No, it’s not. Every time you "try" you lower your scores even more – STOP!

Remove Negative Accounts.

This is my favorite. This is what credit repair is all about. Learn how to get negative accounts removed from your credit reports or hire a credit repair agency to do it for you. Removing such accounts is probably the single fastest way to raise your credit scores.

Chane Steiner is the president and founder of AAACreditGuide.com - the credit repair authority site. Check out his site to get more free tips on how to raise your credit score.