Part of rebuilding your credit is proving that you can pay your bills on time. If your bad credit episode left you without any credit cards, you’ll have to open new ones.

It’s very common for credit reports to contain errors. Anything from inaccurate late payments to accounts that aren’t yours or maybe even a falsely reported bankruptcy could mistakenly end up on your credit report. Because so many businesses use your credit report to make decisions about you. It’s important that your credit report is accurate.

Credit reporting bureaus continually update credit reports as they receive information from lenders. Your credit score may change with these updates as lenders add new information to your credit report but also as old information drops off your report. How updates affect your credit score can depend on your overall credit history.

A credit bureau is an information clearinghouse that compiles information on consumers. The credit grantors, or lenders, report consumer payment history to the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus then compile that information together with information on tax liens, bankruptcies, and court judgments that is available in public records. In return, when consumers apply for credit, lenders can check credit reports to determine the creditworthiness of consumers.

If you have bad (a 500 credit score to 580 credit score) to poor (a 581 credit score to 639 credit score) credit but want to increase your FICO Score by 150 points then read on to find out how to boost your credit score in the next 6 months.