• Pay your bills on time. Delinquent payments and collections can have a major negative impact on a score.
• Keep balances low on credit cards and other "revolving credit." High outstanding debt can affect a score.
• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed. Don't open accounts just to have a better credit mix -- it probably won't raise your score.
• Pay off debt rather than moving it around. Also don't close unused cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score. Owing the same amount but having fewer open accounts may lower your score.
• Make sure the information in your credit report is correct. It won't affect your score to request and check your own credit report. If you find errors, contact the credit reporting agency and your lender.

Your FICO score is a credit rating produced by Fair, Isaac and Co. It's used by most lenders to help them decide whether or not you're a good credit risk. Fair, Isaac crunches the numbers from your credit report, and spits out a score somewhere between 300 and 850. A low score says you're a bad credit risk, a score of 750 or higher puts you in the catbird seat.

Here are the factors considered when calculating your FICO score and an estimate of how heavily each factor might be weighted.

• Past payment history (35 percent): bankruptcies, late payments, past due accounts and wage attachments
• Amount of credit owing (30 percent): amount owed on accounts, proportion of balances to total credit limits
• Length of time credit established (15 percent): time since accounts opened, time since account activity
• Search for and acquisition of new credit (10 percent): number of recent credit inquiries, number of recently opened accounts
• Types of credit established (10 percent): number of various types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, mortgage)