9 Year Mortgage: Seven Things That May Hurt Your Credit Score

9 Year Mortgage: Seven Things That May Hurt Your Credit Score

With today’s low interest rates, the last thing you want is to find out you don’t qualify because your credit score isn’t high enough. In today’s economy, there are some surprising things that can work to lower your score. 9 Year Mortgage presents ten things that you will want to avoid in order to keep your credit rating high.

Only correcting errors on one report. A recent study showed that one in of four consumers had an error on one of their three credit reports. The solution to this is requesting a credit report from each agency (Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union) yearly, and disputing any information that is incorrect. Make sure to do this on all three of your reports. In the study mentioned, one in ten consumers saw an increase in their credit score after correcting their reports.

Cosigning your children’s auto loans. Don’t be surprised if your credit score drops 5-20 points if you help a child buy a car. 9 Year Mortgage suggests considering having only one parent cosign, if you are in a married couple. Because your credit score is tied to your social security number, you would be helping your child while protecting the credit score of the other spouse.

Not paying library fines. When times are tough economically, libraries will often send a bill for seriously overdue fines to collection agencies. Many people don’t realize that these collections will show up on their credit report. The higher your credit score at the time a collection is sent, the bigger hit it will have on your score. For example, 9 Year mortgage knows that if your score is above 780, a hit like this could be around 100 points. If your score is in the mid- to high 600s this type of hit will typically be around 25-50 points. It is always best to make sure you do not have any overdue fines at the library.

Forgetting about final utility bills. 9 Year Mortgage recognizes that, especially for college-aged kids who move around a lot, it can be easy to end up not paying the last bill to the utility company. Any time you move, and forget about the bill, it can be a problem for your credit. If your power, gas or electric company goes unpaid for 120 days, they are likely to send a bill to the collection agency. If you are unsure about whether or not you received your last bill or paid your last month, call your utility company.

Ignoring parking tickets. Unpaid parking tickets often start multiplying if not paid by a certain date, and usually more than double by the time they get sent to collections. 9 Year Mortgage knows that a $20 ticket can quickly add up to $100 by the time it reaches the collection agency, and even a debt that seems small can often cost a lot more in regards to harming your credit.

Having too many store credit cards. Nearly every time you go to the mall, bigger stores will ask you if you want to open a store credit card to save on your purchase that day. If you go around and open every card that presents itself to you, you can cause damage to your credit. 9 Year Mortgage advises that it isn’t applying for a single credit card that will hurt you, but applying for a bunch of them in a short period of time. Your score could drop 20-30 points overnight by doing this.

Closing credit cards you already have. A credit score is partially based on how much of your available credit is in use at any given time. So even though closing credit cards and lowering your limit may decrease your temptation to spend more, it may ultimately cost you more by hurting your credit score, and raising your interest rates on loans. For example, if you have a total of $1000 in borrowed credit with a total limit of $20,000, you are only using 5% of your available credit. If you have the same amount borrowed with a limit of only $1000, you will be 100% maxed out. It is smart to keep your credit card utilization rate below 10% to keep your credit score high.

Will The 9 Year Mortgage Plan Work For Me?

 To learn more about 9 Year Mortgage, and to find out if you qualify for the 9 Year Mortgage program.  Find out how soon you could be completely debt free, including your mortgage, with the 9 Year Mortgage Financial Plan. Find out what thousands of satisfied clients already know about taking control of their finances, and using the power of reverse compounding interest to beat the banks at their own game! 9 Year Mortgage representatives are standing by to answer all of your questions about our program, including how soon you will be debt free, and how much money you will save in interest! For more great money-saving ideas visit 9 Year Mortgage on YouTube or go directly to the 9 Year Mortgage Money Saving Minute.  9 Year Mortgage recently launched their Eliminating Debt with 9 Year Mortgage site , which is also full of valuable, free information.