Do you know how you bad credit can affect you? You cannot rent a car. You cannot get a loan (However, you can get bad credit loans ). You cannot get mortgage. And there are many more. We should keep track what our credit scores are, so that we can stop making it worse and worse. However, I believe so companies only offer free credit report to per person once. If you need a credit report every year, you need to pay for it. So the best thing to do is, try to avoid doing things that will lead to a bad credit score. Here are the factors that contribute to your score: Payment history (35%). Your score is negatively affected if you have paid bills late, had an account sent to collection, or declared bankruptcy. The more recent the problem, the lower your score — a 30-day late payment today hurts more than a bankruptcy five years ago. Outstanding debt (30%). If the amount you owe is close to your credit limit, that is likely to have a negative effect on your score. A low balance on two cards is better than a high balance on one. Length of your credit history (15%). The longer your accounts have been open, the better. Recent inquiries on your report (10%). If you have recently applied for many new accounts, that may negatively affect your score. Promotional inquiries don’t count. Types of credit in use (10%). Loans from finance companies generally lower your credit score. FICO says this is most important when there isn’t a lot of other information upon which to base a score. |