Your payment history makes up 35 percent of your score, so this is crucial. “If you’d previously been a sloppy payer you really don’t want to be doing that going forward,” says Sarah Davies, senior vice president of research, analytics and product development at VantageScore. Fortunately, recent activity is given more weight than older transactions, so paying on time if you hadn’t been doing so will start helping your score soon. Remember, some service providers (such as cell phone companies) also report to the credit bureaus, so just paying credit card bills by the due date isn’t enough. Also, watch out if your due date falls over a weekend or a holiday. Credit card issuers can’t count your payment as late if it falls on a day when they’re closed, but many big issuers now process payments every day. If your bank is closed and your card company is not, you could get dinged for a late payment if your bank doesn’t process the payment until the following day.