Credit scoring plays a big role in your finances and if you don’t have a good score you will get left behind. Having a good credit score can save you thousands of dollars in the short term and hundreds of thousands in the long term.
If you allow your credit to go south you’ll pay a whole lot more in interest when you buy a car or house. If you let the situation get too bad you may not even be able to get a loan for such things. Also, don’t forget there are 100 ways your credit score can be affected, and 87 of them are negative. Talk about the scales being loaded huh?
The good thing is there are some things you can do to improve your credit and make sure it stays in good standing.
First, you want to pay down your debts. A good measure is to only use about 35 percent of your available credit. This is what they call “the sweet spot”. It will boost your score and keep it high. Next, you want to try and get the most credit you possibly can. So having three or four credit cards is a good thing. Just don’t use them too much. Maybe even keep a couple of the balances at zero and only use them in emergencies. Obviously, do that with the higher interest rate cards. The more available credit you have the better your score will be.
Finally, never miss or be late on a payment. This will ding your score a lot. Try to set up automatic billing with each of your credit card companies. That way on a certain day every month your bank account will automatically be deducted whatever number you set up. It’s best to try and pay double the minimum payment each month.
