At some point, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to raise your credit score in a hurry. A couple of obvious examples are when you're planning to apply for a mortgage or new car loan. In both of these cases, a few additional points in your credit score could mean a substantial reduction in your interest rate. This could save thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.

In fact, it is quite possible to raise your credit score quickly. While a couple of weeks may be a little ambitious, you could realistically see a measurable increase in a month or two. This is because most creditors report changes to their accounts only once per month.

What are the things you can do to raise your credit score? Well, the first thing to do is to check your credit report for inaccurate information. If there any accounts that are mistakenly showing collections or charge offs, you should begin the process of having this information removed from your credit report. Also, if there are any unfamiliar accounts, contact the creditor and have them send the complete file on the account for your review. This should only be done if you are certain that you do not owe such debt. Otherwise, if you contact creditor within the statute of limitations, you risk being sued for the full amount of the debt.

If any creditor fails to respond to your request within a reasonable time period, contact the credit bureau(s) reporting the debt, and inform them that the creditor has failed to respond to your requests to validate the debt; demand that the corresponding entry be removed immediately from your credit report. For additional information, download and read the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Next, determine whether you can pay down some balances. One of the main factors in your credit score is "credit utilization." If you have several accounts that are at utilization of 50% or greater, try to pay off some of the lower balances and to get the higher ones under 50%. This could result in a fairly significant increase in your score.

Whatever you do, do not try to raise your score by applying for new credit. It is a common belief that adding some new credit accounts could increase a credit score. To the contrary; sometimes newly obtained accounts can actually hurt your score initially. For one thing, they add new inquiries to your report. Inquiries often lower your score.

To learn more about raising your score, take a look at The Credit Secrets Bible for inside information that will enable you to qualify for almost anything for which you wish to apply, and to save a great deal of money by also qualifying for premium accounts at reduced interest rates.