It used to be that a 700 FICO score was all you needed to get the best rates on home and auto loans.  Now, with the current economy and credit crunch, a 700 FICO credit score will not guarantee that.  You need to improve your credit score so you can get the best rates on your loans and pay the least amount of interest.  If you can get a better rate on your loans with a little bit of effort then you should make every attempt to get that lower rate.Learn how to improve your FICO credit score with the tips below.

Get free help with credit score.  The first step to improving your credit score is to get out of debt.If you have used up all your credit up to your available limit, you cannot have a high FICO credit score.  One of the best debt elimination methods you can use is called a debt snowball.  You start with the smallest balance credit card and pay that off first and then use that money to pay off the next one until you are debt free.  You will pay a little bit more in interest overall but you will become debt free.  I used this method to eliminate over $12,000 in credit card debt in 2008.Use it, it works.

More free help with your credit score. Try and increase your credit lines.  This may seem as odd advice but it makes sense.  If you have maxed out credit cards because you have reached your limit, you will have a low credit score.When you increase your credit lines, your ratio of how much credit you have used will go down and your FICO will go up.And make sure you do not keep charging stuff you don't need on your credit cards. 

The last free help with credit score is to pay all your bills on time.This is the most often heard advice but it usually takes several times of hearing something before it sinks in.  Your payment history accounts for a full one third of your credit score.  Late payments will affect your credit score more than anything else.  So if you want to improve your credit score the most, make all your payments on time. 

Improving your credit score is not hard.It takes a little bit of effort but it is worth it.  Nothing worth doing is easy.  Make the extra effort and enjoy the benefits a high credit score has to offer.