One of the most important parts of your financial well being is your credit score. The higher it is the easier it is to qualify for loans, lines of credit and credit cards. A high credit score will also allow you to qualify for lower interest rates for all your credit needs. Lower interest rates mean more long term savings for you. And that's a good thing.

But what if your credit isn't so good? Bad credit can make getting a loan or credit card much more difficult, not to mention the outrageous interest rates you will have to pay. So what can you do to improve your credit score?

There are several different options when it comes to improving your credit score, but the easiest and cheapest way is to do it yourself. You can pay high priced "credit repair specialists" but chances are they are using the same methods that can be easily followed in several low priced down-loadable e-books on the market today.

If you don't know what your credit score is you can easily obtain a copy from any of the big three credit reporting services for free. In the United States federal law dictates this. Once you receive your credit report see what your overall rating is. The scores normally range between 340-850 with any score over 700 considered to be very good. Your still in good shape if your credit score is in the 600-700 range. Once your score starts to fall below 600 it's a good idea to find out why and start working on improving it.

The three big credit reporting agencies have five main categories they look at when they calculate your credit score. A deficiency in any one of these or a combination of them will cause a low credit score.

1. Your payment history: This includes such things as collections, on time payments and past due accounts.

2. How much you owe: Here they look at all your accounts, whether they be mortgages, car loans or credit cards.

3. How long your credit history is: This is the culmination of all your past credit history including how long you've had accounts and the activity within your credit accounts.

4. What kind of credit you have: Mortgage, credit cards (revolving), car loans, etc. You want a mixture of these for a better score.

5. Any new credit: How much credit have you recently applied for and been granted. They will also look at how many enquiries have been made concerning your credit score.

These 5 things are the main issues you will have to deal with if you want to improve your credit score. There are many resources at your disposal for doing this, including lawyers, credit repair specialist, or for a lot less money you can do it yourself.

It is important that however you decide to improve your credit score that once you have improved it to a good level that you keep it there because the money savings you will see through better deals and lower interest rates will be high.