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There are many credit card mistakes that people can make that lower their credit score and reduce their ability to obtain credit.  Many of these common mistakes are things that most people do not think of as affecting their credit score.  The truth is that there are many things that can reduce their credit score from actions that they may think are benign.  People that avoid the common credit card mistakes keep their credit score high and the interest rate for their credit accounts low.

Missed Payments
The most common mistake that many people make is believing that a missed payment on their credit card will not have an affect on their credit.  Some people believe that the only consequence is a penalty fee and most are willing to accept the fee to so that they do not have to pay the minimum payment due for the credit card.  What they don’t understand is a missed payment will also show up on their credit report and has the ability to lower their credit score significantly. 

Not Securing Personal Information
Another common mistake many people make is not keeping their credit card information secure.  There are thousands of scam artists and thieves using tricks designed to get a credit card account number or security code for the credit card.  This is all that criminal needs to make purchases on the internet and have the items delivered to a different location.  These mistakes are common when people are distracted or not paying attention to what they are saying to a person that they do not know.  Often, the person will not even know that their credit card has been used until they receive their credit card statement and find charges that they have not made. 

Carrying Balances
When using a credit card, the person should only charge what they are able to pay off each month.  Paying off the balance each month allows the person to save a lot of money in interest payments and finance charges.   This also demonstrates to the credit card company that the person knows how to use credit responsibly, making them more credit worthy and increasing the chance that they will be approved for credit line increases and other types of loans. 

Maxing Out The Credit Card
Another common credit card mistake is to use most or all of their available credit.  People that use over 30% of their available credit are considered to be a credit risk by the credit card companies.  Credit card companies base their decisions on who to extend credit to on formulas that do not take anything but statistics into consideration.  In recent years, there have been many people that were not approved for loans, mortgages, or credit cards because they had used too much of their available credit.

Making mistakes when using your credit cards can end up costing you a lot of money in the long run so it is important to avoid making these common credit card mistakes.