Millions of Americans are suffering from bad credit readings. This can make getting a car loan, mortgage or student loan much more difficult. Even if you do get these types of loans with bad credit, your finance charges will be much higher than if you had good credit. You can take simple steps to help repair your credit score and help eliminate an era of bad credit in your life.

The first step in repairing your credit reading is to find out exactly what kind of score you are dealing with. You can find out by getting a free credit report through a number of services available. This will give you an idea on how hard you have to work in order to repair your score.

Even though keeping up with your mortgage and student loan payments are important, more so is getting your credit card payments down to a manageable level. An appropriate level is usually below 30%. When you have your cards at least to this level, it will dramatically help your credit reading.

Most financial consultants will advise to pay off high interest debt first. This may be true, but if almost completely maxed out on one particular card, there is no rule in the book that says you should not give that card priority! Pay it down some before moving on can help your credit rating.

Keep your information with the credit card bureaus up to date. This means that if you get an increase on the credit card; make sure that the bureaus are informed. If not, it may give the appearance that you are overspending, which will hurt your FICO score.

If you have a late payment blemish on your credit card and you have been making payments on time for several months, ask for a good will gesture. Request that this blemish is removed from your credit history. These are just a few tips to help repair your credit score.