It used to be that “people” made decisions about your credit worthiness. You knew your banker and your handshake was all the collateral you needed. Those days are long gone, and now a single number – your FICO score – determines your credit worthiness.

We can talk about several ways to review your credit but to keep it simple we are going to focus on the credit model created by Fair, Isaac Company. Better known as FICO.

Your FICO credit score can be used to determine your interest rate and how much credit a lender will give you. So taking care of your score, and keeping your credit clean will save you money.

Keeping your credit history in good order and improving your rating is not a hard thing to do…but it will take time. Here are a few ideas how to do just that.

FIRST: Get a copy of your Credit History

There are many reasons you may have no credit history. Maybe you’re just starting out, maybe you pay cash for everything and have never needed a loan. In any case, if you have no credit history, your FICO score is likely to be low.

The easiest way to raise your score is acquire a loan, and pay it off on time. In general, installment loans are weighted more heavily than credit cards. In other words, you will improve your credit score faster if you buy goods with an installment loan, rather than acquiring a credit card.

Another option is to take a $1000 and open a 6 month CD at a bank. Now turn around and get an installment loan using the CD as the collateral. You then take that $1000 loan and do it again at another bank. Do this for a total of 3 times.

Now what you have is 3 loans. Pay the minimum payment for 6 months. In the last month, cash out your CDs and pay the loans off. You now have a credit history, and did not go into long term debt to get it.

SECOND: Keeping your history in good standing.

So we now have a good history. How do we get the score higher?

You don?t need to close old accounts. (Unless you?re being charged a fee to keep the account open.) Part of the FICO formula is based on the amount of credit available vs. how much you have used.

Another thing to be aware of is how you manage your money. Here?s the scenario: you have a $2000 credit card. Every month, you charge about $1800 to that card. And, every month you pay it off. But here’s what happens – your credit card company reports your credit information monthly to FICO. However if they report it on the day before you pay it off…the credit agency sees you carry a balance every month. If you can try changing the days you pay off your credit card.

THIRD: Fix your bad credit

For whatever reason, if you have a poor credit history, there are things you can do to improve your score. Some of them take time, and you will probably be best served by talking to a credit counselor to be sure that you not only repair your credit history, but also eliminate what caused that poor credit history in the first place.

Your credit history is the most important part of your FICO score. You need to start paying your bills on time. The value of your bills is as follows. Mortgage first, followed by installment loans, then credit cards.

The next factor in your FICO score is how you have used your credit. So pay off those credit cards

When you?re all done with the rest of things…review your credit report. Get one from all the credit agencies. Look for errors and mistakes. Contact them to see if they can remove them or correct the errors.

Your FICO score is an important part of your financial life, and using these strategies may help improve your FICO score. Before making any drastic changes to your finances, consult with a financial advisor.