I want to share with you some personal credit-building tips that will raise your bad credit (or decent credit) to new heights. Some of this may be common knowledge and other credit tips will be newfound wisdom. People who suffer from bad credit are victims in my book. They are preyed upon by corporations. Today, we start the process of bringing you back to life. And if you're interested, I wrote a book about how to remove bad credit and return to the land of the living—more on that at the bottom of this article.

1. Pay your bills on time – yes, it seems like common sense, but this does help. Many new creditors weigh your recent payment history heavily. Even being one day late can trigger a 30-late on your credit report.

2. Be cautions when dealing with any collection agency – they are the enemy and they will rip you apart if given the chance. If you work for one, sorry. In my experience with collection agencies, they've lied, broken federal laws and conducted themselves unprofessionally. Sure, there are always good individuals in anything, but be cautious.

3. Paying won't remove negative items – don't pay a collection account just because you think it will make things “all better.” It won't. Your collection account will remain on your credit file and it will simply be marked as paid. It still hurts your score the same. My book talks about negotiating with collection agencies and getting these items removed.

4. Lose 100 points just like that – by being over-extended, you can lose up to 100 points or so on your FICO score. What do I mean? Well, let's imagine that you have $1,000 in total revolving credit on your report and you owe $800. You would be at 80% utilization and that's enormous. Ideally, you need to stay at 30% or lower. I know this, because once I had a high utilization (thanks to my two maxed out cards) and it cost me about 100 points on my credit score. I wiped them out eventually and my score shot up.

5. Account length matters – You want to have at least one credit card open that has a lot of history time. So, don't go closing down your cards without thinking. Instead, just don't use them. Time heals all wounds. Remember that.

6. Secured will start you right – If your credit is horrendous (been there), don't fret. Start with a secured card. In my book, I have a complete plan in place that you can follow. A secured card, as credit reports go, is the same as a regular card. It's a credit account.

I hope these credit tips have helped you some. In my life I've had some very bad credit days. It was through hundreds of hours of research and practice that I learned all I did about credit. One last advice point, stay away from “law firms” offering credit repair. They can't do anything, like removing negative credit items, that you can't do yourself. It's federal law. And you can do more than they can.