Your credit report is a very sensitive thing. It is very easy to damage and hard to repair. Similarly, it usually doesn’t take long to ruin your credit and a longer time to fix it. If your credit is suffering, follow these steps to repair it.

1. Make your payments on time and pay more than the minimum. It is so important that you pay your bills on time. If you can, pay them early. This will not only prevent you from having to pay late fees, it will go a long way in fixing your credit. You also need to pay more than the minimum payments. Minimum payments keep you from paying off your debts and cause you to pay ridiculous amounts in interest. Be careful not to become victim to late payments and minimum payments.

2. Don’t have too many. It is a common misconception that the more cards you have, the better it is. This is absolutely false. Lenders tend to be skeptical and cautious when they see too many open accounts. Even if every account is at a zero balance, it causes lenders to worry. They worry about what will happen if you come across a hard time and max out every account. That is always a possibility, even with the wisest consumer. If you are serious about fixing your credit, close some of your open accounts. Only keep one or two accounts open to prove to lenders that you can be responsible with your finances.

3. Pay off the highest interest cards first. If your credit is damaged, take a careful examination of all of your outstanding debts. Make a list of everything you need to pay off. Rank them in order of highest interest to lowest interest. Pay off the high interest accounts first. Once those are paid off, work on the next highest interest accounts. You’ll be able to whittle down a lot of your payments by getting the high interest accounts out of the way first.

4. Keep an available limit. Once you have paid off some of your cards, you need to concentrate on keeping an available limit. Just because you only have a few credit cards doesn’t mean you can max them out each month. You need to budget your money carefully and create a buffer zone. This buffer zone will help in emergencies and show lenders that you aren’t racking up a lot of credit card debt.

5. Check it. You need to request a copy of your credit report at least every year. If you can, check it every three months. Make sure you check your score with all three credit bureaus. Some times, one credit bureau can have different information from another. Also, check your report for any errors. These errors could be dragging your credit score down. Remember, we are trying to build it up.

It does take a longer time to repair your credit score once it has been damaged. If you are diligent and disciplined, you can have your credit score fixed in no time. Budget your money carefully and really work on paying off your debts. Also, be careful not to become a victim to credit card debt. Use your credit card wisely and you’ll stay out of debt. No debt equals good credit.