[swolfe]

my credit score last i checked was 755. my girlfriend's is 806. the key to having a high score is to have a deep credit file (accounts going back years), good payment history (no more than a 1 or 2 30 day lates), and low balances in relation to available credit.

the quickest way to increase your score is to pay off any debt you have. if your $5K is spread out over several cards, consolidating them to one will increase your score, but not as much as paying everything off completely. if you've had several late or missed payments, the only thing that will help is making timely payments from now on. it doesn't really take that long for the effect of late payments to diminish. you could see a score increase in as little as six months of good payments.