Credit Advice

You didn't give any details of your current credit, so it's hard to give you personalized advice. But here's a good general guideline:

Look at what weights your credit score the most and adjust as makes sense for your financial situation:

1st - always pay all bills on time

2nd - have as much "open credit" as possible - i.e. keep low balances

3rd - wait. (and don't close accounts - old accounts especially - unless absolutely necessary). as the average age of your accounts increases, your score will increase.

4th - if you don't already have 2-3 Credit Cards, a charge card and an installment loan (like a car loan or a mortgage), if it makes sense for you to have one financially, add the accounts. both the number of accounts (to a point - you can also have too many), the amount of credit available to you (again, to a point - you can have too much), and the mixture of different types of accounts ALL help your credit score

5th - clean up any old (bad) debts and make a comment on your credit report if necessary. though if you have bad debts, you're probably not looking at a 700 score any time soon.

Finally, improve your debt-to-income ratio, though this is a more indirect impact on your score. To do so, it's simple: Increase your income or lower the debt your carrying.

Good luck!