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Paying down the balances on all your revolving credit accounts including credit cards, department store cards and lines of credit.
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Paying off all accounts that are currently past due.
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Keeping account balances as low as possible.
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Relying less on your credit card. Try to use your card only when necessary. Consider freezing it in a block of ice or putting it somewhere that is even more inconvenient.
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Paying all your bills on time. If keeping track of due dates is difficult, you may want to contact the companies you deal with and set up an automatic payment program. Just make sure there is money in the bank to cover the bills.
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Limiting any applications you make for credit. Multiple applications will impact your score negatively.
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Contacting creditors you are having difficulty with to explain your situation and negotiate to keep your accounts from being reported as delinquent. You may want to ask a creditor to reduce your monthly payment or change the payment date to spread your payments more evenly over the month.
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Closing accounts you have opened recently but don’t really need.
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Verifying that all accounts you've closed are reported as "closed by consumer" in your credit report.
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Raising the credit limit on your accounts slowly, despite what creditors may offer. Lenders are often suspicious when customers increase the credit limit significantly.
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Reviewing your credit report to see that all of your creditors are reporting your on-time payments. Some creditors, such as gasoline card companies, do not routinely report credit history to the credit bureaus. That means that your positive payment history will not be reflected in your FICO score.
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Opening a savings account at your bank, if you haven’t done so already. This shows creditors you are committed to saving and building up a serve fund to repay debts.
