<prompt> Human: personal finance has been a fantastic resource for me. COming from a family that has a long history of making terrible financial descisions, it has been the advice of this thread that has helped me get my finances in order over the past 2 years. Its for that reason that Im asking for s ome advice.A bit about my current financial situation:I previously had a lot of credit card and student loan debt from college. While I Still carry a lot of this debt, it is all finally under manageable payment plans, and current. I opt to pay of my high interest rate balances before lower interest rates. I should have my credit card debt paid off within a few years. My federal student loans are consolidated, and i have a private Sallie Mae loan side note: fuck them, seriously that is current and being paid upon. This cannot be consolidated because of its private lending nature.My credit is not terrible, but it is certainly not good- were sitting at about 620. Through using various credit monitoring tools, I see that the biggest hits on my credit are in the available credit line and credit used area. Which makes sense, honestly.My SO and I are serious about buying a house within a year or so. What Id love to know is, what can I be doing to raise my credit score in a situation like this? If I raised my credit line within my various line of credit, would that put the available credit stats in my favor? Is there a way to right past credit hits, such as tiny outstanding bills that you mightve lost track of I know thats a possibility with relocating a few times?What are the tricks of the trade? This is completely new territory for me.  <response>: Whats the trick? Pay off all that debt! I wouldnt recommend buying a house before you do so, because ALL of the expenses that come along with buying a house will just put you into even worse debt.Maybe its possible, but judging from the words not numbers you wrote, I dont think you are in a great financial position, but maybe you can convince us otherwise by posting your income and expenses? 