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This day and age, your credit score is one of the most important things in your life. Unless you have a lot of money to buy all of the things you want with cash, you will either live or die by your credit score. If your credit score is bad you will either not get the loans you want or if you do get approved for loans you will pay through the nose in interest.

There are easy steps you can take to get your credit score back on track. So with a little time and effort you can be saving money on interest in no time.

Step 1: Pay your bills on time.

Paying your bills on time is one of the easiest things you can do to start recouping your credit score. In as little as three months your credit score will go up about twenty points just by paying ALL of your bills on time.

Also, if you pay on time and send just 1% more than the minimum payment you will actually get those bills paid off and build a better credit score in one step. Most minimum payments are 3% of the balance, so to really get it paid off and save money you should pay at least 4% but I recommend paying 5% to get out of debt.

Step 2: Pay off your bills.

If you have a few credit cards that have balances under $500, concentrate on those first. Send bigger payments to these smaller balances and maybe just the minimum to the larger accounts.

By eliminating the Small debt first you lower your debt to income ratio. Your debt to income ratio is one of the more important steps because even if you have good credit, you can be denied credit because of your debt to income ratio. It is important to keep it under 45% if at all possible, and I would never let it get higher 55%.

Step 3: Keep track of your credit report.

Everyone is entitled to one free credit report every year. Take advantage of that. Also, if you have been declined credit, you are entitled to a copy of your report. It is important to see what is on there that is costing you money or credit. Not to mention monitoring your identity for theft or fraud.

This way you can find out if there are any mistakes and get them taken care of. There are many companies out there that specialize in helping people get things removed from their credit report, so find them and take advantage of that. It might cost money up front but it more than pays for itself in the long run.

Step 4: Get caught up.

I listed this as number four but this step doesn't really have a place because not everybody needs it. So if you are behind on any bills get them caught up. By missing any or all payments

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