Improve a Credit Score Many consumers at one time or another will find themselves saying, "how do I improve my credit score?" To do this, a consumer needs to understand what factors make up their credit score. The following are the main factors that are taken into account when determining a credit score and ways to improve a credit score. Payment Record Pay all of your accounts on time. Collection accounts and past due payments have a major impact on your score and will not improve a credit rating. If you have missed any payments, bring the accounts current and keep them current. The longer your payment history remains current the better your score thus making your credit rating improve. Remember that paying off an account will not remove it from your credit report. Accurate information will stay on your credit report for seven years from the date of last activity. Amounts Owed Try to keep the balances on your revolving accounts low compared with their credit limits. A high outstanding debt can affect a score negatively. An example would be to try to have at least 40% of your credit limit available to you. Pay off the debts rather than moving them around. Maintaining the same amount of debt but having less open accounts may lower your score. Don't close any unused credit cards as a "quick-fix" strategy to raise your score and improve a credit report. Don't take on new credit that you don't need, or increase your credit limits to increase the amount of your available credit. This may have the reverse effect and will not improve a credit report.