The first step to working on building an ideal credit score is to gather up related resource: credit reports, which include information about your borrowing habits and payment pattern. You can easily obtain your credit reports’ copies for free with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—the three leading credit bureaus. Under the rules of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the agencies have to collect accurate information about your credit. (If you want to view your credit scores for free, head on over here.)

It’s imperative that you collect your credit reports from all leading credit reporting agencies, because each version may report different data, which can affect your credit score. A lender may obtain your credit score from any one of the reports, so it’s safe to cover all your bases. Get all reports to find any inaccuracies, any problems—and address all issues.

Credit reporting agencies are obliged to respond to any credit score disputes within 30-45 days—a much shorter time period than the years-long delay of dealing with inaccurate, negative information.

Understanding credit scores…

If you already have access to your credit report—and by extension, your credit problems—you can find out what’s keeping you from obtaining a commendable score.

Typically, credit scores depend on five factors: credit utilization, payment history, age of credit accounts, number of credit accounts, and credit application history. Any of these can hurt your credit score.

Fixing errors these errors as soon as they occur is the most efficient way to see some credit score improvement.

Credit repair, however, may be complicated. You may be able to it on your own, but you can also hire professional help, such as a credit repair company. Whichever way you opt for, make sure to start as early as possible.

Starting a credit-dispute repair process…

Simply because you have been denied a loan due to your credit score, does not mean you’re incapable of borrowing ever again. If it’s credit utilization, payment history or credit accounts affecting your score, opening new credit is a possible solution to rebuilding credit—efficiently.

Secured credit cards—these are credit cards specifically made to help with bad credit score issues. You are requires to make deposit that serves as your credit limit. The credit card company can take away from deposit if you fail to pay your bills on time.

However, know that it’s imperative you make payments on time and check your credit utilization regularly. Having a $1,000 limit card does not mean you can charge $800—carelessness in credit utilization can impede your efforts.