Many years ago, due to unforeseen circumstances my credit really took a nose dive. I tried everything I could to stay current on my bills, but I slipped further and further behind. Once I found a job and got back on my feet things got a lot better. A few years later when I went to buy I house I learned just how much my credit had been damaged. I did everything I could to find out how I could repair my credit rating. Turns out there were quite a few things. I ordered my credit reports and found some info that was wrong. I got that corrected and it helped a lot. I closed accounts I no longer used. I also started paying down my balances. By doing all these things over the period of a few months I was able to raise my score a lot and get a good mortgage.