There is most likely nothing more surprising or, honestly, more humiliating than to beready and waiting to qualify for a purchase, only to be told you've been declined. almost everyone at one time or another has given in to the check out cashiers credit card sales pitch, just to be turned down flat in front of a long line of customers. The lamentable truth is that a drop in your credit score, occasionally even a large one, isn't always caused by anything that would be immediately obvious. Fluctuations in your credit score can occur from the most innocent and inadvertent activities, often purely by accident. The simplest means to keep this situation from happening is by increasing your credit education:
3 Ways to Hurt Your Credit In a Hurry
The first and most unmistakable means to hurt your credit is simply by not paying your bills on time. Late payments can have an immediate, devastating, lasting effect on your credit score, Having a more and more detrimental effect the more late they are. For example, a 90 day late payment will be much more damaging to your credit than a 30 day late payment. Collections will leave a mark as well. A bankruptcy or a foreclosure will absolutely trample your credit score, and the better your credit score is to begin with, the more it will be damaged by all of these things.
The second, lesser known way to hurt your credit score is to max out the balances on your revolving credit accounts. Say you had, for example, a $3,000 limit on three credit card accounts, with each one carrying a $1,000 balance. Were you to transfer the balances to one of the cards to clear up the other two, but max out the third in the process, there would almost certainly be a drop in your credit scores. For the purposes of your credit score, it is a lot better to keep your balances spread evenly among all of your different credit accounts than to focus it all onto one.
The third, and likely most misinterpreted, way to hurt your credit is through inquiries. Urban legend has a lot of people overly paranoid when it comes to these types of hits to their credit. If your credit score is pulled two or three times in a month, you most likely won't even see a ripple. If, however, your credit score is pulled by a many different types of credit inquiries and frequently (say for example 3 mortgage lenders, 7 credit cards, 4 auto lenders, 2 cell phone companies, a gym, and a partridge in a pear tree) , It's almost certain that your credit scores will take a dive. This, however, is more short term, as inquiries "drop off" your credit reports after 90 days, so your credit scores will typically recovery from this type of impact quite rapidly.
Without a doubt, the best way to not be a casualty of the fluctuations of your own credit score is to take control of it through credit education. it is much easier to learn the things that hurt your credit as well as helps it than you may think, and with this knowledge, it will be like second nature to you. As well, with more and more of your purchases being swayed by credit (even your auto insurance rates can now be affected by it), it's worth money to be proactive, just to be sure.
Author Resource:
Behind the scene secrets from the industry professionals themselves are available at Credit Education: Guides and Workbooks . This feature has been abridged to fit the layout of this website. For the entire, original article, including additional supporting information and resources, please visit Credit Education: Three Ways to Hurt Your Credit Quickly .
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