I've been making use of a 30-day free trial of TransUnion's TrueCredit 3-credit-report monitoring service. Each day (almost) I've been pulling a new report and see updated FAKO credit scores. I even used it to help get two baddies removed from all three of my reports.

Until today, though, I haven't taken a really good look at the analysis they provide about my credit report and score. Here are few pieces of advice they gave me, with my comments provided.

There are too many bankcard accounts on your credit report. Having too much available credit can sometimes harm your credit score. Lenders may feel that you have the ability to spend more than you could potentially pay back. You might want to consider closing a few accounts or asking to have your credit limits reduced. Avoid closing too many accounts - especially the oldest accounts on your credit report - because it could harm your credit score. Closing the oldest accounts can damage your score by making the length of your credit use appear shorter.

So having too many accounts is bad – but be careful, because having too few is bad too! Too bad they don't tell you what the "right" amount is. Also, I've always heard that more available credit is good, so it seems strange that they would consider this a bad thing.

There are too many accounts on your credit report with high balances in comparison with your credit limits. Having credit available to you is a sign that you are able to manage your finances responsibly. Lenders like to see that consumers have a large amount of credit available to them, but not so much that they could spend more than they could afford to pay back. If you currently have multiple accounts open with high balances, try reducing your balances below 35 percent of your limits. If you do not have many open accounts, consider opening a new credit account or asking your creditors to increase your limits.

This is also known as "utilization." Utilization matters both for individual cards and across all cards. I do have two cards right now with pretty high utilization (both >90%) because I'm using them for some balance transfer arbitrage. The good news is that this item is easy to repair simply by paying all or most of the balance, which I can do if I had to.

There are too many recently opened accounts on your credit report. Time is one of the most important factors for a healthy credit score. The longer your accounts have been opened, the better they are perceived by lenders. Opening new accounts can cause your credit to appear unstable, because a record of responsible use has not yet been established for the account. Your borrowing power should improve as you keep your new accounts open, active and paid on-time.

I did an "app-o-rama" (AOR) in June in which I opened six credit card accounts to take advantage of balance transfer deals and bonuses. This has brought my overall account age down significantly. I also have a couple other cards that are less than a year old, which I've opened for similar purposes. Fortunately, this is easily fixed by simply doing nothing and letting the accounts age.

There are too many inquiries on your credit report. When lenders review your credit report for the purpose of an application, an inquiry is placed on the credit report they checked. A few inquiries a year is normal, but multiple inquiries within a short time frame may cause a temporary drop in your credit score. If you have many recent inquiries, lenders may assume that you are having financial problems. Avoid unnecessary inquiries by only applying for credit cards or loans that you are sure you want.

This is another one that's tied to my June AOR, as well as an AOR that I did in August 2007. Fortunately, most of the inquiries show up on only on my Experian report, so my TransUnion and Equifax reports are relatively unscathed by this item. Typically inquiries hurt you until they are six months old. They also drop their claws a little more at the one year point. After two years, they drop off your report altogether (and at that point they aren't really hurting you much anyway).

Not enough revolving debt experience. A healthy balance of credit and loan accounts is key to achieving a high credit score. It is important to build a record of responsible credit use over time with different types of accounts. Consider opening a new account to strengthen your credit report.

My oldest item is my student loan, from 1995. After that, I only have a 5-year-old mortgage and a 3-year-old car loan. I also have one credit card from 2002, but most others are much newer.

Conclusion

My credit report isn't that bad. Basically, for a better score I just need to:

• Bring down my individual card utilization – Easy, since I can pay off most of it immediately if I need to
• Consolidate accounts – Many credit card companies will let you trade credit lines between accounts (this might also help the utilization)
• Let my older accounts get older – The bad thing about consolidating accounts is that when I close some, they will not get any older, and they'll stay at their current age for 7 years until they drop off. But the rest of my accounts will just keep getting older, which is a good thing