Credit Roulette

There are close to 50 different things that influence your credit; some good, some bad. Within those 50, there is some 14,000 variations…talk about a fragile balance! Did you know that, if you pay off a collection, it might actually lower your score! Don’t worry most lenders don’t know it either.

Also, beware of credit counseling services that promise all kinds of miracles. The only things that can be legitimately removed from your credit are things that are invalid, erroneous, or outdated.

Aside from that, if it is yours… it’s yours. There may be ways to “flower it up” but it isn’t coming off. (Being intellectually honest, you know it shouldn’t either.)

If you are going to be hunting for a home, be sure to Avoid The Temptation to go out and make purchases that may affect your credit. Obviously you wouldn’t want to go buy a car, but other things that may not be quite as obvious may be the purchase of furniture or home improvement items that would need financing. Chances are you may need these things, but wait till after closing.

You wouldn’t believe how common it is! The biggest credit mistake that most of us make is closing our old paid off credit cards. I know that is seems like the right thing to do when you pay off the balance but 15% of your FICO score is made up of your credit history. If you close a credit card with no current balance that you’ve had for years, you are getting rid of a lot of your credit history.

Another 30% of your FICO score is made up by your Debt to Credit Limit ratio. With this component, you show how well you manage the credit extended to you by using it wisely and judiciously. Let’s say that you had two cards with $2,000 limits and one was maxed out and the other one was just paid off. Well you have $4,000 of credit extended to you and you’re using almost $2,000 of that credit (you don’t want to go over 50%). Now you cancel the paid off card and your new debt to credit limit ratio is 100% ($2.000 out of $2000). Ouch, that hurt your credit score.