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What Affects my Credit Score?

From the day that you get a credit card you will start earning a credit score.  Credit scores are important and can help you get loans and show how financially responsible you are.  Certain things you do will affect your score either negatively or positively and will affect how good your score is.  What affects your credit score?  Continue reading below to find out!

Positive affects:

• Your score will raise if you pay your balances on time each month.  They must be paid before or on the date that your money is due.
• You should only use 25% of your credit.  The less you spend and less debt you have, the higher your score will be.

Negative affects:

• Opening up too many credit card accounts.  The more accounts you have the lower your score is usually.
• Paying your bills late even if it’s just a day.
• Not paying at least the minimum balance on your accounts.
• Going bankrupt.  This will just crush your score.
• Being unemployed and not having an income.
• Using almost all your credit and having large amounts of debt.  For example, if you have $10,000 worth of available credit and you use more than $7,500, you will lower your score.
• Going into foreclosure can also hurt your score.

As you can see, there are a few things that can positively affect your score, while there are a lot of things that can hurt your score.  If you’d like to have good credit and reach your goal of getting as close to 800 as possible, you will need to avoid the things that will have a negative affect on your score.

Generally, if your score is 700+ you’re doing pretty good.  You don’t want to fall behind 700 too much.  Once you’re reached before 650 you’re starting to hurt your score.  Keep your score up by having discipline and by using your credit cards wisely!

Tags: Credit Score, Score