She advises taking these steps to protect and improve your credit score: 1. Know your score. The score range in Canada is 300 to 900 - the higher the better-and reflects a person's credit history over the past six years.Only 5 per cent of Canadians have a score of 850 or better.. Pay your bills on time. Making a credit card payment even one day late will hurt your score. If you're paying online, send the payment at least three banking days before it's due to allow enough time for the transaction to be processed.