There are just as lot of ways to lower your credit score as there are ways to raise it. Unfortunately the ways to raise to accidentally lower your credit score are not so well known than the ways to raise your credit score. Here are some of the ways you could lower your credit score without really realizing it.
Some Ways You could Lower Your Credit
It is a bad idea to not have any credit cards. If you want good credit, you need to have credit in one form or another. It doesn’t matter whether it is a credit card or a loan from the bank with the credit card being todays most common form of credit. You can have too many credit cards but every household should have at least one, not matter if you use it or not. You should pay your credit cards off every month and never ever pay only the minimum required payment. If your credit card is maxed out by paying minimum payments it could literally take decades to pay it off.
If you have one credit card and have the need to get another one you shouldn’t close out your oldest card’s account. History is what a lot of your credit score is based on and closing your account with the most history will most certainly lower your credit score. Having more than 2 or even 3 credit cards shouldn’t make you worry if you are careful to not overextend yourself as too many cards can be difficult to keep track of.
Many people are right when they say their credit score is affected by a maxed out credit card and their are right with this estimate. But your score will also drop is your balance is more than around 30% of your overall limit. If you cannot afford to pay them off every month you should try to keep your cards paid down under 30%.
One of the worst things that can be done to your credit card score is co-signing on a loan for someone. It doesn’t mater how close you are to this family member, it is a bad idea. Even though the loan is not your responsibility your credit score is in danger of falling right after co-signing on the loan. You can only prevent this if you can make sure the payments on the loan are always made on time and there is some collateral for you to obtain possession of, such as a vehicle. If this is not the case you should steer clear of co-signing.
