They often say that continuously doing your bad habits is a pleasurable act – but definitely not for your credit cards. In the United States, around 35-percent of consumers live with debt that is overdue and unpaid according to HuffPost. Whether you are part of this circle or not, today is the right time to begin breaking old habits. You are worried about your credit scores getting low, aren’t you? Well perhaps, the secret to a maintaining a good credit rating lies on keeping good habits instead of the bad ones.
Stopping The Habit
In this article, we are going to present some of the most usual habits that worldwide consumers have when it comes to using their credit. As a consequence, these tend to lower their credit scores and make them ineligible to many different types of loans.
You are going to notice that a lot of the points that are going to be raised here are things that you may not be aware you are doing. They may be some acts that you have been used to having without actually knowing that they negatively impact your credit scores. Let’s get started.
- You Live Beyond Your Means, You Buy Things You Cannot Afford
This is just as simple as saying that you should not buy things that will make you a broke person. Even when you own credit cards, it is important to only focus on things that you can repay later on. The consequence of buying luxurious items that you cannot afford is a pile of debt that will surely stress you out.
- You Don’t Use Credit At All
If you don’t use your credit too often, will you still have lower credit scores? Yes. As long as you own credit cards, you are meant to utilize them and take advantage of the opportunity that they give. Unused cards will never raise up your credit rating so be sure to enjoy the perks and privileges.
- You Spend Until The Last Drop
This means that you max out your credit cards. People do this in order to pay for their bills without losing luxury along the run. So credit scores are more than just merely paying credit on time? Yes. Many people who max out their credit cards earn lower scores so try to take a leap and avoid using more than half of the available credit.
- Furthermore, it also benefits you if you start regularly checking your credit limit before making a purchase. People forget about this and the next scenario, they find out they have reached the limit.
- You Prioritize Spending With Credit Card Instead Of Your Debit Card
Several consumers have wrong connotations about how credit card works, causing them to pick this one up at the cashier instead of using their debit cards. When buying your daily needs such as food and vehicle gas, the debit card should be your way to go.
- Credit cards are present for dining, shopping, and booking some airfares along with expenditures that may involve large number of cash you cannot readily withdraw from the bank.
- You Get Used To Paying Bills Late
This pertains to credit card bills. When you ask some people if they pay bills, they will respond, “Definitely.” But you may not know the fact that they do not pay them on time. Never admire these people.
- It is important to train yourself to pay credit card bills on time instead of chasing the deadlines and running to the nearest payment centers only to find out you have extra charges on your account. You don’t want to end up with closed accounts and judgements against as your credit will pay greatly for it. If has happened to you already, make sure you learn how to remove a judgement from credit report.
- You Use Perks, Benefits The Wrong Way
Even banks have prepared “stimulus” packages for individuals who fail to pay off their balance just in order to save their credit scores. Some of these include balance transfer promotions and cash advances. But the habit of buying into them at most times will have negative impacts on your credit rating.
- Balance transfers, for instance, incur fees that will increase your total balance in the long run. Meanwhile, cash advances tend to have some of the highest interest rates among transactions.
- To solve this, try to live with this simple rule: Never look at credit cards as a cash source.
- You Don’t Read Your Entire Billing
Bills sent over to your homes can be a doomsday for many, but though this might be true, this should not be a reason for you to just throw these papers away after reading the figures in bold fonts.
- Take some time to go over the entire bill so you will not miss out on the other details about your statements. It is through this way that you can ensure you are never missing out on any payments, therefore never affecting your good credit rating.
Conclusion
Sometimes, we fail to realize that some aspects of our daily lives are actually being detrimental for our credit score. Careful assessment of our finances and the way we spend our money can help us get a better handle of the situation we’re in, and perhaps even increase our credit score in the future by stopping the bad habits described above.