The nice thing about trying to improve really bad credit is that there are lots of things you can do to get a better score, because you have so far to go.

Your rating is made up of info from your credit report, in a variety of areas, so the first thing you want to do is get a copy of your report, which you can do free online. Most people with a really bad credit history are afraid to look at this report, but the only way to improve and move forward is to arm yourself full of financial knowledge, especially about your own finances, and the first step to doing that is to take a look at your report.

Another thing that a lot of people with particularly bad financial histories have in common is that when they think of their report, they only look at their late and missed payments. This is a big part of your credit history and are definitely the big thing dragging down your rating, but there is more to your rating than this and we want to try to do whatever we can in all of these areas to make real improvement.

The age of your history is one simple thing that carries a good amount of weight. If you have an old credit card that you haven't used in a long time, you can start using this to get that card marked down on your report and help age your history.

Speaking of credit cards, there is a lot to know about how to use them properly. Paying it off completely and using less than thirty percent of it each month is a great way to keep your cards active and build some positive history. This shows that you make payments on time. This also shows that you are only using a small amount of the credit available to you. One thing that they look at when calculating your score is the amount of credit available to you against how much it is you are actually using. The lower your balance the better for this reason.

If you have a single late payment with a company that you have been on time with ever sense, write to them asking for a good faith adjustment. This is where they take the old bad mark off in light of what a good customer you've been ever sense. It can't hurt to try this and get some of those bad marks off your report.

Paying down your debts is going to be a big part of repairing very bad financial histories. Make a budget and see how much you can reasonably afford to pay on these payments each month. If you're having difficulty making your payments, you may want to consider looking into consolidation loans as a way to organize your payments on your debt and get things under control. If this is still too big for your finances, you may want to look into bankruptcy. This is definitely a last resort, however, because while it will get rid of your debt, this is the blackest mark you can have on your credit and is something that will take a lot of work and time to rebuild from.

When you have really bad credit there is always more you can do to improve your situation. Don't get overwhelmed. Look at your report, look at areas where you are lacking, and tackle one thing at a time. Build a plan for things you'll do over the next year or two, and slowly knock each thing off one at a time and soon enough you'll be putting your negative history behind you.