Steps to the quickest way to improve your credit score

Maintaining a credit score about 730 is becoming more critical as credit markets remain tight. So readers who always pay on time, but have high debt utilization ratios, are finding it harder to get new credit. One reader asked:

What is the quickest way to improve my credit score? I pay more than the min, and no delinquency but my debt to income ratio is really high. How do I obtain a better score?

Paying down debt using the round robin strategy can get you there the fastest. People with the best credit score only use 10% to 20% of their available credit, so the faster you can pay down your debt on each card, the better your credit score will be. (If you're looking to minimize your interest and a quick improvement in credit score doesn't matter, then use the snowball effect strategy instead.)