Provided by MLS Mortgage (Austin, Texas)

1. Your credit cards have a limit on them. Do not go over 50% of that limit and you will have higher scores.
2. If you are in the process of buying a house, do not charge large amounts to your credit cards before closing on your house.  Charging a few dollars here and there to keep cards active is perfectly acceptable.
3. If your balance is over 50% of your limit, call the card company and ask them to raise the limit for you. If you are a good customer they will usually be happy to do so. Thirty days later, the new limit will appear on your credit report, raising your score!
4. Do not open new accounts while in the process of buying a home. This lowers your scores.
5. Do not even apply for new credit while in the process of buying a home. Every time you apply for credit, that potential creditor makes an inquiry into your credit report, and that inquiry is recorded.  Generating too many inquiries in a short period of time lowers your credit score.
6. Pay your bills on time. Do not worry about paying off your credit card balances.  Just make your minimum payments on time so as not to KILL your credit score!
7. Never pay your mortgage or rent late.
8. Always keep 5 or more active credit lines open and in use (credit cards, car payments, mortgage payment, student loans, etc.). It is important you use these accounts (at least 5 of them) so that GOOD activity (scheduled payments) is reflected on your report. Letting cards sit in your wallet for 2 years without being used will lower your score. You do not need to use 20 trade lines, and you do not need to put more than a few dollars on these cards to generate good credit scores. Keeping large balances on credit cards does not help you get better credit scores—and may lower them if they are over 50% of your limit—but using your cards (and paying your bills) regularly can help keep them high.
9. Do not re-open old card accounts that the card company has closed. This looks the same to creditors as applying for new credit.
10. Dispute old collections. This is something you can do for free on the 3 credit bureau websites (see below). If you dispute something on your report—EVEN IF IT IS TRUE—AND THE CREDIT BUREAU DOES NOT RESPOND IN 30 DAYS, THE ITEM FALLS OFF OF YOUR REPORT! This is the law.
11. Dispute any incorrect information on your credit report. If you have documentation that proves something on your credit report is incorrect, by all means, dispute it!
12. DO NOT TAKE ANY CREDITOR’S WORD THAT “IT WILL BE REMOVED FROM YOUR CREDIT REPORT”. Folks that report stuff on your credit report are lazy and most often NEVER remove things they say that they will. GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING AND STAY ON TOP OF THEM.
13. Get everything in writing when dealing with creditors and collection companies!!!!!!
14. DO NOT PAY OLD COLLECTIONS! Let me repeat this one: DO NOT PAY OLD COLLECTIONS! Certain collections that have a DLA (date of last activity) two to three years past should not be paid off.  This would trigger a new DLA that would actually lower your credit scores. Consult a mortgage broker that specializes in credit repair before paying old collections.
15. DO NOT HIRE A DEBT CONSOLIDATION COMPANY!!! This ruins your credit report and credit scores.
16. Do not hire someone to fix your credit that charges you a monthly fee and tells you it could take years to fix your credit. Fixing credit only takes 60-90 days. In some cases, we can have something removed from your report in 48 hours.
17. ***Very Helpful*** Have a relative add you to their credit cards if you need more active trade lines. This is tricky because you need to be sure you are adding yourself to cards that:

    (a) have good payment history
    (b) do not have large monthly payments/balances
    (c) will show the payment history on your report after you have been added, and
    (d) have been open for over a year.

    And make sure that the card companies are not opening a new credit line for you but are just adding you to your relative’s existing trade line. Your relative’s credit will not change or be affected by this in any way. The only thing that will happen is that your credit report will now show the payment history for this credit card as if it had always been your card. It takes 60 days for this to appear on your report.

18. Get judgments removed from your report. Ninety-nine percent of banks demand judgments be paid or removed before they will give you a loan. Judgments are usually tax liens and court judgments.
19. Catch up on child support payments. Most underwriters are women who are generally not friendly to men with late child support payments.
20. If you are instructed to pay an old collection, never pay it in full. Negotiate with the collection company, and they will always let you pay less than what is owed.