This is all good advice. There are also some new, free web resources to help you understand your score too.
Credit.com had an excellent, well written, very informative and free "Credit Report Card" available for some time. They took it offline it but hopefully they'll bring it back soon. Check
https://www.credit.com/ufg/credit.com/ccom_credit_report for any updates.
Credit Karma is an innovative new website that allows you to check your credit score for free whenever you want. The only downside is that it's the proprietary Transunion score and not the classic FICO score everyone's used to seeing, but you'll at least be able to monitor when your score goes up. Sometimes seeing any payoff of disciplined credit management makes it easier for you to do more.
http://www.creditkarma.com
Quizzle is a new beta from Quicken Loans that allows you to see your credit report and score every 6 months, they also have some tools to help you budget, and understand options for home financing.
http://www.quizzle.com - Sat May 24 2008, 18:05