Whether you are shopping for your home or are currently under contract it’s important to maintain your credit score and manage debt responsibly. This can be hard to do especially around the holidays. While shopping this holiday season, keep these tips in mind to help keep your credit score as high as your holiday spirit.
Open new accounts wisely
Be selective when opening new credit cards during the holiday season. While those discounts for opening a new store credit card are incredibly tempting, opening many lines of credit in a short period of time can have a negative impact on your credit score.
Don’t co-sign on any new loans
Cars are popular gifts during the holidays but co-signing on a loan means you are just as liable for that debt as the primary borrower. Added debt has the potential to disqualify you from your loan.
Keep up with payments
Failing to pay your credit cards on time each month can have a negative impact on your credit score and can even disqualify you from your loan. If you are unable to pay off those extra holiday charges at the end of the month at least pay the minimum payment on time for each account.
Don’t close old credit card accounts
Over time your favorite “go-to” credit card may change. As you change to this new favorite credit card, don’t cut up and throw away those old credit cards. Those old credit cards may be boosting your credit score. The length of time you have good lines of credit open and the amount of unused credit available to you weighs positively into your credit score. Ultimately, creditors like to see that you have a high amount of credit available but only use a small portion of it.
The information voiced in this material is for general information and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
