FICO Killers: The 5 Worst Things you can do to your Credit Score

1. Max out your credit cards (or worse, go over your limit):
2. Skip payments or pay late:
3. Have a foreclosure, short sale or deed in lieu:
4. Apply for a ton of new cards/loans at once:
5. File for bankruptcy:

How can a bad credit score impact you financially?

Bad credit can also have a long-term impact on your financial life. If you have high-interest credit card debt, you’re not able to put any money away for the future — at least not enough to balance out your APR fees. A balance transfer card can help knock out some interest payments if you have existing debt to pay off.

What will bring your credit score down?

Credit scores can drop due to a variety of reasons, including late or missed payments, changes to your credit utilization rate, a change in your credit mix, closing older accounts (which may shorten your length of credit history overall), or applying for new credit accounts.

What happens to your credit if you have bad credit?

Poor credit can make it harder to get car and home loans, and to qualify for credit card accounts—you may need to start off with a secured credit card to build your credit. Even if you are offered a loan, chances are it will be at a higher interest rate.

Can you get a job if you have bad credit?

Even in jobs that you wouldn’t expect to care about your bad credit, employers won’t hire you if they think your money troubles could start causing problems at work. Dealing with bad credit is just another one of those areas where most people won’t give you any help.

What can you do with a bad credit report?

You don’t have to close credit cards, just don’t use them. Get a copy of your credit reports and dispute any bad remarks on them. Start with any errors but you can even try to get a few legitimate bad marks off your report. Three options including P2P Loans, Bank Loans and Personal Loans.

Is it bad to have a subprime credit score?

So a subprime credit score isn’t necessarily bad credit but it will keep you from getting a loan at traditional banks. According to FICO, about four-in-ten people have credit scores below that prime cutoff.