Credit Score Killers: 5 Things To Look Out For
Your credit score is a very important part of your financial future, affecting a number of different areas of your life. A bad credit score from excessive balance transfers or otherwise can affect your ability to obtain a home loan, a car loan, an apartment, even a job. There are several things that will definitely destroy your credit score and these actions should be avoided at all costs.
Credit Score Killer #1 – Late Payments On Your Credit Cards
Information about your credit card accounts is the easiest information for the credit bureaus to obtain and is the information most likely to affect your credit score. If you regularly miss payments on your credit card accounts, that information is being reported to the credit bureaus each time and each time your total credit score is being decreased by a significant amount. If you miss several credit card payments on several different credit card accounts, your score could decrease by 100 points or more in a relatively short period of time and it may take years to rebuild your credit score to its previous level.
Credit Score Killer #2 – Canceling Old Credit Cards
An important part of your credit score is the length of your credit history, which is often calculated by how long you have held your credit card accounts. Canceling your oldest credit card, even if you have not used it in a while and do not intend to use it in the future, reduces the length of time listed in your credit history and can drop your credit score by a large amount.
Credit Score Killer #3 – Maxing Out Your Credit Limit
The amount of your available credit that you are using at any given time is another credit criteria used by the major credit bureaus in calculating your credit score. If you are using close to your total amount of credit available, credit bureaus determine that you are not using your credit wisely which in turn causes them to drop your credit score because you are now a credit risk in the eyes of the lenders. To keep your credit score high, you should be using no more than 50% of your available credit on each of your credit card accounts.
Credit Score Killer #4 – Opening Numerous Credit Accounts
Each time your credit score is pulled to determine your qualification for a new credit account, the credit bureaus reduce your credit score by 5 points. Opening a number of accounts at the same time could reduce your credit score by a significant amount and even drop you into a lower credit score bracket. Also, having a large number of revolving credit accounts, such as store credit cards, signals to the credit bureau that you have the ability to create a great deal of debt quickly, which makes you a credit risk. Having two many credit card applications open at once is a killer.
Credit Score Killer #5 – Not Reviewing Your Credit Report
It is estimated that nearly 25% of all credit reports contain an error and the size of this error could be costing you when it comes to your credit score. Most of the information that is included in your credit report was entered into a computer system by a person, making that information susceptible to human error. If the information found in your credit report is inaccurate, the credit bureau has a legal obligation to determine the validity of the debt reported and remove the debt from your credit report if it is not a valid debt.
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