Why Your Credit Score Is So Important
To many, the concept of their credit score is something that shrouded in mystery. Basically, it’s a score that determines your credit worthiness. The higher your credit score, the more credit worthy you are deemed to be.
If you are a consumer in the American economy, this is something that you need to know, whether you have a credit card or not. Your credit score, to a large extent, will determine your life style.
For one thing, it is the determining factor as to whether or not you get that loan. And if you manage to get a loan, it has a major impact on the amount of interest that you will pay. Your credit score will ascertain whether you are offered special credit card deals such as 0% apr cards, bonus miles, rewards program, and so on. And it determines whether you will be able to buy a home or if you will be forced to rent.
So, being that this score is evidently so important, what is it exactly that determines your credit score?
Your credit score is determined by a number of things. Among them, your payment history is probably the most important. A late payment on your bills drives down your credit score. The later it is, the more it is driven down. Multiple late payments drive this score down even further. Bottom line – if you don’t want your credit score to go down, don’t be late making your payments.
If you have a high debt to balance ratio, this will also drive your credit score down. That is, the closer you are to the maximum limit on your cards, the lower your credit score will tend to be.
Lastly, how long have you had credit? Or, more precisely, how long have you been in their database? A teenager, or a person who tends to purchase everything with cash, will most likely have a lower score than someone in their sixties who has had credit since they were in their twenties.
Read more from Susanna regarding credit card bad credit and college credit cards at her website.