Bad credit is a term used to describe a poor credit rating. In common practices a bad credit rating include making late payments, skipping payments, exceeding card limits or declaring bankruptcy.
Bad credit can result in a negative rating from the credit reporting agencies. Many factors can contribute to someone getting a bad credit rating, such as non-payment of an account or late payments over an extended length of time which will result in a low credit scores.

Credit score is a statistical method of assessing an applicant’s credit liability such as payments history, amount of outstanding debt, type of credit used, negative information such as bankruptcies or late payments, collection accounts and judgments, too little credit history, and too many credit lines with the maximum amount borrowed are all included in credit-scoring models to determine the credit score.
With higher credit scores,creditors will provide lower interest rates on mortgages, car loans and credit cards. If your credit score falls under minimum score, getting loans and credit cards with reasonable terms is difficult.

Here are short tips you can use to raise your credit scores :

Pay Your Bills On Time :
Your payment history makes up 35% of your total credit score. Missing just one payment can knock off of your credit score. Paying your bills on time is the best way to get building your credit rating and raising your credit score.

Reduce your credit card balances :
Key factor in credit score is how much money you owe on your credit cards relative to your total credit limit. Keep your balances at or below 25 percent of your credit card limit can helps you improve your credit scores.

Correct obvious mistakes :
Your credit score is what shows up in your credit report. Review your reports from all three credit bureaus for accuracy once a year or several months before applying for a loan.

Keep Your Old Accounts Open :
With today’s current scoring methods closing old accounts could actually hurt your credit score. Closing old credit accounts lowers the total credit available to you and makes any balances you have appear larger in credit score calculations and shorten the length of your credit history in which to a creditor it makes you less credit worthy. So, keeping those old accounts open you can raise your credit score.

Avoid Bankruptcy :
Bankruptcy is the single worst thing you can do to your credit score which will much lower your credit score. Once your credit score falls below minimum score, any loan you get will be far more expensive. It is better to get credit counseling to help you with your bills and avoid bankruptcy at all costs. By getting credit counseling you can raise credit score over a much shorter period of time.