Your credit score is basically a history book about your promises.

A credit score is not a measure of how much money you have. It is a record of whether you did what you said you would do, on the day you said you would do it, over and over. That is why it takes a long time to build and reacts quickly to a miss.

If you have a card or a phone bill in your name, automate the minimum so a bad week cannot cost you a year. If you do not yet, the habit still transfers. Being on time is the whole skill.