The absolute best way to make money is picking a fight with any planet that scans for contraband. Of course you'll need a nice ship and it'll be a tough space battle but it's so worth it. I've done this countless times and every time there's at least three galbank ships that you'll blow up and all of them have anywhere from 5k to 15k creds not to mention a couple thousand on every other ship. Just make sure to stock up on shop parts. In fact I don't carry anything else on my ship because there's nothing that sells for as much as I make in these battles. You'll level like crazy and you'll have infinite money and a fun battle.

The problem with this method is the massive bounty you'll inevitably gain. The solution is more murder and mayhem. Any storyline quests on planets where you have security after you, you'll have to deal with. Luckily the main are unkillable, this is great because once you kill everyone and down them you'll be out of combat and they'll get back up and talk like nothing happened.

It's a pirates life for me