I've been treating it like a game for the last year.
if you look at it like points and goals, it's kinda fun. I mean... there's no point fretting about it. It's your money, but it's not.
Get a shytty credit card from like the gas station or whatever (especially if you keep getting those "pre-approved" credit card offers in the mail. they don't fukk with folks with totally wrecked credit)
find something you do on a weekly/monthly basis like putting gas in your car, grabbing fast food when you didn't have time to cook, etc. take a piece of masking tape and throw it on the card. label it "gas" or- hell, even categorize by fast food. label the card "subway". the cute cashier will find it hilarious.
end of the month, pay twice the minimum, $100 dollars or all the balance. I hate to think anyone reading this would spend more than a hundred bucks a month on taco Bell or some shyt.
in 6 months, they'll boost the limit on the card, thus increasing your debt to credit ratio (how much credit you've used vs how high your combined limit is) and your score will jump a bit.
Your score jumps, you get more "pre-approved" offers, but only fill them out every 3 or 4 months.
the money you would have put on the stuff you're using the cards for, put on the delinquent shyt on your credit report.
You do that for about a year, you'll wind up with your score increased by a good 100+ points, a lot of your credit cleaned up, extra money and extra emergency funds in your pocket. It's all plastic, but still.
Another good tip (if you've got the willpower), go to your local bank/credit union and get a small loan. If you're approved, take the money from the loan and open another bank account. Have the money from the loan automatically taken out of the bank account, then forget it exists.
Next time, get a bigger loan. Maybe a CD.
Repeat.
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when I saw the range of scores between the 3 bureaus but was 
when I saw the mortgage co. took the highest one.
