that's why they made it so secretive years ago. its still shady, but it's easier to find out your score now.

once I figured out the utilization thing, I started using it to my advantage. shoots the score way up by having more available credit.

another item to consider is type of debt. loans (not counting student loans) will help your score much more than credit cards. loans can help show the trend of paying stuff down consistently. cards tend to go up and down and will effect your score more frequently.

my personal loan helped me get rid of my card debt. and I was in position not to that card debt back up. I actually did close multiple accounts, although its not recommended. I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be using those cards again and didn't have the discipline not to.

eventually my score went up way up and I was able to get cards with much lower rates than before. I use them periodically, but my utilization is no more than 2% max.