I paid everything on time for years. Letting debt fall off etc yet every little thing that can happen Damn near brings my score bacc down to where I started. At this point I don't even care anymore
Increasing your income > good credit
5 factors that affect credit scores:
1. Payment history
2. Credit utilization
3. Length of credit history
4. New credit
5. Credit mix
Credit is leverage. I can't stress the aforementioned sentence enough.
I like to have a multiplicity of credit instruments such as credit cards, HELOC, PLOC, etc. Keep the accounts for a long time. Pay your bills on time. Use credit, but not too much. Keep your payments in interest low.
You can undergird your credit system with high cash value life insurance which, in time, you can totally avoid and abandon banks and third party creditors or you can use it as a fail safe and bailout from external creditors when needed.
Depending on how you organize your cash flows, contracts, and accounts; you can leverage both the cash flows and credit to have a high credit score, acquire more credit, crush debt, minimize total interest costs, and acquire what you desire from the market with ease.