9 Ways to Boost Your Credit Score

1. Always take advantage of your annual free credit reports. Get your credit reports annually for free from all three credit bureaus and review each carefully. Check for any discrepancies or errors, as a large percentage of credit reports contain erroneous information. Let your credit clean up service know immediately of any errors you find so they can work to correct them ASAP.
2. Pay at least the minimum balance on your bills by the due date each month. Paying bills on time consistently is a tried-and-true way to improve your credit. Paying bills promptly is especially important around the time you know you will be applying for a loan or other credit. Late payments in your recent history will hurt you more than isolated late payments from years back.
3. Don't open accounts unless you plan to use them. Opening credit accounts that you have no intention of ever using will not help your credit score.
4. Refrain from opening many new accounts over a short period of time. This is especially true if you have no or limited credit history. Take it slowly.
5. If your credit history is shaky, open one or two new accounts and use them responsibly by staying under your limits and paying on time consistently.
6. Do your credit shopping over short time periods. If you shop for credit for a specific loan or are just randomly hunting for many different credit lines, your credit score will reflect it. The former is always better for your score.
7. Don't move debt-pay it off. Moving your debt around to lower-interest cards and closing the old account will damage your score. This is because it will change your balance-to-available-credit ratio. You want to keep your credit usage at a minimum while keeping your credit capacity (or how much total credit you have) at the maximum.
8. Keep those balances low. This relates to #7-you want to keep your balance-to-limit ratio low. Aim to use 25% or less of your credit limits.
9. Installment loans and credit cards can help your score as long as you use them wisely. That means not having an excessively high balance and always paying on time.