Improving your FICO score is one of the most important aspects of improving your credit. The best way to raise your especially if you’ve just been through a loan modification to stop foreclosure, but not impossible. Here are some additional tips to help you raise your FICO score:

Make timely payments on all of your credit accounts: Whether it is a new mortgage via a loan negotiation, or installment loan or a credit card, making timely payments will always help to raise your score. Moreover, keeping the balances on these accounts as low as possible is yet another way to raise your score. To do so, pay more than the minimum amount each month and make sure that your payments are always made in a timely manner, on or even before the due date each month.

Do not close credit accounts: One of the biggest mistakes borrowers make when trying to raise their FICO score is closing credit accounts in attempt to lower the amount of credit/debt on their credit file. This is actually the worst thing you can do. Instead, keep those accounts open, but maintain very small balances on them. Moreover, when you do charge items or services, pay the bill in full immediately upon receiving your account invoice.

Keep your debt to credit ratio low: Your debt to credit ratio is the total amount of your personal debt in relation to the amount of available credit you have. This is important in showing potential lenders how much debt you can responsibly handle. It highlights how your level of credit worthiness. Maintaining the proper ratio of debt to credit can increase your score.

Limit the number of inquiries into your credit: The more inquiries that are made into your credit file, the lower your score tends to be. This is because multiple inquiries indicate a problem getting credit. Keep this in mind because potential creditors, whether you have given your permission or not, need only a social security number to check your credit. Inquiries generally stay on your credit record for two years, so keep that in mind any time you give a creditor --- or anyone for that matter --- permission to check your credit.