10 tips for repairing your credit history, raising score

Pay your mortgage and home-equity loan and lines of credit in full each month.

Then, throw any spare cash at the debt that carries the highest interest rate first.

Pay everything on time, even if you can only make the minimum payment.

The most crucial component of your credit history and credit score is your ability to pay your bills on time each month.

Even one late payment can seriously damage your credit history and credit score, even though it can take a year's worth of on-time payments to start to heal your credit history and raise your credit score. It doesn't seem fair, but that's how the credit industry works.

Don't charge more than 25 percent of your maximum available credit limit.

If you carry a credit card balance that is a higher percentage of your available credit limit, your credit score will go down.

Why? Because creditors believe if you charge the maximum on your credit cards, it means you can't properly manage your credit. You're better off spreading out your debt between three or four different cards than having it all piled on one card.

Don't open and close a lot of accounts.

Again, a credit score tells current and future creditors how likely it is that you won't pay back your debts.

Every time you apply for a new credit card, that creditor pulls a copy of your credit history from the credit reporting bureaus. That "inquiry" gets reported on your credit history.

Don't share credit (except with a spouse).

It's easy to tell someone that you'll co-sign a credit card, student loan or a mortgage loan application, especially if it's someone you've known for a long time. Once you're a co-signer for a loan, you're legally obligated to make those payments -- whether or not you can afford them. So think carefully before you agree to co-sign a loan, and nip the problem of bad credit before it begins.

Contact Ilyce Glink through her Web site, www.thinkglink.com, by mail at Real Estate Matters Syndicate, P.O. Box 366, Glencoe, Ill. 60022 or calling her radio show at 800-972-8255 from 11 a.m. to noon Sundays.