Your credit history is the best indicator that prospective creditors have on how you will be expected to repay your debts in the future. Although you have changed the way you use credit from what it was in the past, you will have to realize the information that is on your reports now will remain there for up to seven years.

All of the credit bureaus use weighting factors to determine your score. Of these factors, approximately 30 percent weighting is placed on credit history. You must understand that apart from the fact that you can't change what is in the past, you can start proving to the credit agencies that you are less of a risk now by paying all your current debts on time and in full.

This will provide the with a positive sign of what they will be able to expect in the future.

The more and the bigger the problems you have had in the past the more work you will have to do to convince all of your future creditors that you deserve a second chance.

The biggest factors that will affect your scores are any bankruptcies, collections, judgements or unpaid taxes that are on your reports along with any loans that have defaulted.

If you can clean up any of these issues, it will have a substantial affect on your scores.

Bankruptcies will stay on your reports for up to 10 years from the date of filing, so you will be better off focusing on paying your current creditors and showing the credit bureaus that all of your current debts are getting paid as they should.

This will create a new pattern and a new and higher credit score will be the result of these actions.

Even though it can take a while to reverse your past credit history if it has been poor, there is no time like the present to get started. The sooner you start the more likely you will be able to secure smaller amounts of credit which will in turn, speed up the process of boosting your credit scores.

So the lesson here is that even though your past credit history may be crappy, there is usually always something that can be done to improve it and begin the habits of good credit.