Answer: -There are a lot of good ways of doing this...1) If you have credit card debt, you should make sure that all of your credit cards have between 40-60% of their limit on them. If you have more, either increase your limit to make it fall in that range, or if it is less than 40%, call to decrease your limit to make it fall in that range. How many or how few of cards you have isn't really that much of an issue.2) Get your Credit Reports, and make sure all of the information is accurate. A large percentage of credit reports have wrong information on them.3) Taking your Credit Reports, look through all the negative items. The companies that reported these negative items have the power to expunge it from your record, even if it is accurate. Make a list of the companies that have reported negative items, and call them and ask them what they would require of you to remove these items from you record. Some companies won't work with you, but many of them will.4) Don't apply for any new credit cards in the next year, UNLESS it helps accomplish one of the previous three goals. This includes store credit and gas cards.The first one is the big one, as silly as it sounds. Having $500 of debt on a credit card with a $500 limit is MUCH worse than having $250 debt on two cards each with $500 limit. This really hurts your score, most people don't know about it, and it is often easy to fix. However, all of these can make a big difference in your credit score.Also, make sure you are checking all three credit bureaus. -I have been advised to try not to use my credit card(s) too often, the more average monthly payment I owe, the less loan amount I get. Best way is to use debit card or cash - that way one get an idea of how much one spends each month.