Sunday release, 9/26 You've heard all the things you need to do in order to have a good credit score. But it's hard for you your bad credit habits are deeply ingrained.

What tips do the experts have for you, who lack the discipline and the will necessary to change your ways?

•  Understand why your credit score is important. Pretend this real-life experience happened to you: You enter a contract to buy a cell phone. You get charged a $125 security deposit. Another customer makes the same purchase and is not asked to pay a penny.

You need that $125. You could use it to help pay the rent, buy a new outfit, pay extra on your mortgage principal, catch a flight to Florida, pay a creditor, buy the kids a bed, save toward something you want. But your credit score is too low. You have to shell out money that other people don't. Such events will keep happening to you until you boost your credit score.

•  Shoot for the high score. You go shopping and see stuff all the time that you want and you go after it. Go after this: a credit score of 775. Pursue it aggressively, and if you fall short you may reach 760, which still gets you good rates and prices, or the job or apartment that you want, or a loan, or affordable insurance, or zero-percent-interest vehicle financing and maybe no security deposits.

Go online and get your three scores and three credit reports from the major agencies for $38.85 at www.myfico.com. Spend time there and at www.identityguard.com using their free on-site simulators and other credit analysis tools to find out how to close the gap between your scores and the high score.

Think of the high score as your ticket to the best prices and interest rates. Get individual scores, if you wish, from Equifax, www.equifax.com , (800) 685-1111; Experian, www.experian.com , (888) 397-3742; and TransUnion, www.transunion.com , (800) 888-4213. A score plus credit report at Equifax costs $14.95.

•  Start small. Start with paying your bills on time, advised Shana Moore, certified credit counselor with Credit Counselors in Richmond. That will boost your credit score. If you get paid on the 15th and 30th, sit down and pay bills on the 16th and 31st. "Put it down on your calendar and make sure you do it every month." Don't wait until the weekend, if it's days away. You can easily blow part of the money.

If possible, get into the habit of making payments as soon as the bill comes in. Don't wait for the due date, Moore said. You'll pay less because interest accrues on a daily basis. Wait until the due date and you'll pay the full 30 days interest. Start with these behavioral changes and you'll create t he momentum for bigger ones that will boost your score.

•  Sit down with the family and write financial goals together. That way, everybody, including the kids, gets on board, Moore said. It's discouraging if one person is resolved to pay down debt while everybody else constantly clamors to dine out, go the movies or buy toys.

•  Pay off something small. It'll boost your credit score a little and motivate you a lot to pay off something larger. "It gets really exciting when you start to see those balances go down," Moore said. "It's very motivating and the motivation increases the more you go along." First, pay off the account with less than a $100 balance. "Then focus on paying high interest accounts. Your high-interest accounts go down slower."

•  Stop using the cash-advance feature of your credit card. The interest rate is always higher, and when you make a payment, the lower rate on the credit card, say 9 percent, gets paid down first, not the 18 percent on the cash advance, Moore said. You wind up paying a lot more interest and taking longer to repay your debt.

•  Stop thinking of your credit card as a cash cow. It's not. It's a loan; you're borrowing money, Moore said.

•  Keep your credit utilization below 50 percent on each account. "This helps improve a consumer's credit score," said David Chung, interim president of CreditXpert Inc. in Maryland.

•  Mess up with one creditor, you mess up with all. Weigh the consequences of making late payments, Chung said. Miss a payment with one creditor and you won't just get hit up with that one's late fees and increased finance charges,

"You're hurting your position with all creditors, whether or not you have an account with them," he said. When your missed payment gets reported to the credit agencies, "every creditor sees it," and when your score gets lowered, you pay new creditors more than you could have.

•  Call your creditor if you're in over your head. "If there is no way to make even the minimum payments to your creditors after reducing expenses, call your creditors and ask for temporary 'hardship' status," said Brad Stroh, co-CEO of Freedom Debt Relief in San Francisco. "Work out long-term repayment plans with them."

•  Get a reputable debt management firm to pay your bills for you, "For many consumers, that's the only alternative, because they don't have the personal discipline or savvy or knowledge to do it on their own," Stroh said.

"Ideally, over the course of the program, they've learned financial discipline and they take pride in paying off their debt. It's liberating for that consumer. For the first time in their life, they're debt- free. Losing the burden of debt is enough of a catalyst for them to say, 'I want to maintain this for the rest of my life.'"

•  Stop giving away your money. Pay cash whenever possible so you don't waste money paying interest. If you can't pay cash, shop with your lowest interest-rate card, Moore said. Pay off credit charges each month, if you can. You need all the money you can get to pay down balances and pump up your score.

Maybe you don't think your credit behavior is all that bad. Think again, Stroh said, if you're behind on any monthly payments, getting calls from collectors, find yourself juggling credit-card balances to pay off other debts and bills, or using credit cards, and carrying balances, to pay for necessities such as food, housing, utilities and auto payments.

Consumer Watch appears weekly except for the first Sunday of the month, when The Times-Dispatch publishes the Small Business column. If you have consumer concerns, call Iris Taylor at (804) 649-6349 or write to her c/o Richmond Times-Dispatch Business News Department, P.O. Box 85333, Richmond, VA 23293. Her e-mail address is itaylor@timesdispatch.com .

Click here to go to Freedom Debt Relief's website