Obviously it will be easier to repair a credit score that's just a little dented, rather than one that's in terrible shape, but the same methods have to be used in both cases.

Since credit cards are without doubt the most important things to get sorted out, you might think that it would be best to wait until your credit's well on the way to being fixed before applying for them, but you'd be wrong. The reason that it would be wrong to wait, is that it usually takes about six months before you see some real benefits from any type of revolving credit.

If your present situation suggests that you're unlikely to get approved for any new credit cards, then take out two secured ones, and since almost anyone can get secured credit cards, I'll assume from this point on that you now have two of them. It's the best number to work with and I'll now explain how to use them to best advantage.

Start using them as soon as you get them, but never let the balance, which is the amount that you owe, go down to zero, and always keep it to less than 20% of the available amount. The difference between a maxed out credit card and one that is within the above ranges will make a difference of around 150 points to your credit rating, and that's a huge number of points!

I should probably add here, that it doesn't really matter how you use your cards if nobody is going to check their usage, but be sure that you follow the above advice for at least sixty days before you apply for any new form of credit.

The FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) scoring system has a built in bias against all consumer credit that's used for the purchase of furniture, appliances, electronics and any kind of store loan in fact. So if you have these kind of debts them then try to get rid of them, or at least cut down on their number, at least sixty days before someone is likely to run a credit-check.

You've most likely heard or read, that creditors will make deals and accept settlements for much less than the amount that owing to them, and you probably wonder why they'd be willing to do it. It's because of what is known as the 'statute of limitations', and learning about them will enable you to get a great deal of debt removed from your credit report for next to no money, and with very little effort on your part. The 'statutes of limitations' vary from State to State and are different for different types of debt, so the details are beyond the scope of this article, but they can easily be found on the web with just a minimum of effort.

A 'statute of limitation' is the period of time that is allowed for a debt to be collected through the courts, and it's generally much shorter than the reporting period limit for either credit or debt, and if a creditor knows that you are aware that your debt is outside of the statute of limitations then he'll basically be willing to take what he can get, in order to remove the debt from his balance sheet, and after he removes it, it should no longer show on your credit report.

Finally, if you're being harassed by debt collectors then it's possible to put a stop to them almost at once by simply sending the company a 'cease communication letter', and there are no negative legal ramifications to firing off this kind of letter either.

So you now have some first-rate tips as to how to improve your credit score, and you also know how to stop debt collectors from knocking at your door, so if you start acting today then you'll start seeing the results tomorrow.