Third, make sure you are paying all of your bills on time. If for some reason you are behind on your payments, contact each of your creditors and ask them for an extension on your payment due dates. You may also sometimes be able to negotiate a lower minimum payment for certain credit cards or other accounts.
Fourth, you can actually improve your credit score by opening new credit cards or store accounts. While this sounds like financial suicide for someone who already has a low credit score, having more credit extended to you actually improves something called your credit-to-debt ratio. In other words, the more credit you have, the better. Of course, the trick is that you must not borrow against the newly-acquired debt instruments. Hint: try to open new accounts one at a time every 3 months or so, and be sure to watch out for cards with high annual fees.
The fifth way to raise your score is to transfer all of your existing credit card balances to your lowest-interest cards. This could save you $100s per month in lower debt payments, which will help you pay down your existing debt faster and thereby help raise your credit score. Watch out for high balance transfer fees, but sometimes even paying these might be worth it if it means saving more money in debt payments.
Raising your credit score can be one of the smartest financial moves you make. Spend the necessary time and effort improving your credit score now and enjoy the long-term benefits of lower debt payments and the ability to qualify for more types of lower-interest loans.