A credit score, in the United States, is a number representing the creditworthiness of a person, or the likelihood that person will pay his or her debts. A credit score is primarily based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit report information, typically from the three major American credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Lenders, such as banks and credit card companies, use credit scores to evaluate the potential risk posed by lending money to consumers and to mitigate losses due to bad debt. Using credit scores, lenders determine who qualifies for a loan, at what interest rate, and to what credit limits. The Fair Isaac Corporation, known as FICO, created the first credit scoring system in 1958, for American Investments, and the first credit scoring system for a bank credit card in 1970, for American Bank and Trust. (Wikipedia)

If your credit score is low, the good news is that it's possible to rejuvenate your numbers if you have a strong understanding of your finances and you know how credit scores work. After all, the median credit score is 720 on the 300-to-850 FICO scale, meaning half the adult U.S. population has a higher score and half has a lower score. Forty percent have scores over 750, and 13% have scores above 800, according to Fair Isaac. Plenty of folks are handling their credit well enough to earn good scores. It's important to note that raising your FICO credit score takes time and there is no quick fix. In fact, quick-fix efforts can backfire. The best advice is to manage credit responsibly over time.

• You can't raise your scores if your finances are still in free fall. Repairing your credit score will have to wait until your financial crisis has been solved.
• You can't raise your scores if you don't use credit. Credit scores try to predict how well you're likely to use credit in the future by how well you've used it in the past. Without continuing use of some type of credit, eventually your credit reports won't even generate credit scores.
• You don't have to pay credit card interest to achieve great scores. "Using credit" is not the same as "carrying a balance on your credit cards." Carrying a balance is expensive, bad for your finances and completely unnecessary. Many of us who have achieved 800-plus scores pay off our balances religiously, and we know you can build and keep great credit scores without ever paying a dime of credit card interest.
• You can't expect everything to change overnight. It is possible to see improvement with your scores if you pay down significant chunks of your credit card debt but it takes time to repair your credit.