My parents had opened and then closed a few credit cards in my name and that really hurt my score. Have you ever had the carpet pulled out from you like that?
Do you know what else ruins a credit score? Missing more than two payments on your credit card.
Having a good payment history is crucial to stabilizing your FICO score, here are three easy ways to maintain a good score.
As I have explained in a previous blog, your payment history makes up 35% of your FICO score. So make sure you're staying on top of it! Even if all the other parts of your FICO score are good, your credit score will suffer if your payment history is struggling.
That being said, here are the top three tips to improve upon and maintain a good payment history.
Please remember these details apply to your personal credit cards, not your business credit cards.
Card Transactions
No matter how many credit cards you have, make sure you have at least one transaction on every single card. Seriously, one transaction a month will really make a difference!
Let's say you have four credit cards and only use one of them frequently. You are only getting recognition for an on-time payment with that one card.
You are not being penalized for the other three, but you could be doing more! Take advantage of the other three and boost your score even more.
Keep You Card Active
If your have a card sitting without an active payment history, you’ll hurt the relationship with the banks you have your cards with.
Some banks will either reduce the spending amount you can have on your card or cancel your card altogether. Either option can hurt your credit score in the long run.
You want to make sure you have transactions on these cards for their entire life.
The more transactions you have on your cards, the better your relationship will be with your bank. Having a good relationship with a bank means you are being responsible for your account and they can trust you with more spending.
My strategy is to add a subscription to each card. That way, you can generate a controlled, consistent payment history on your card. Now, you are now getting transactions on all four cards every month.
Being able to have more spending on your credit cards mean you can access better rewards and benefits on your personal account.
On-Time Payments
On-time payments are the best way to keep your cards active and boost your credit score.
It’s a good practice to pay off your card about five days before your payment is actually due so you can guarantee your payment will be on time. Plus, it just looks better with the banks.
If you can set up an auto-pay system on your card, you’ll be able to more easily manage those cards and the subscriptions you owe.
This way you’re getting consistent payments on your consistent transactions through the different subscriptions you have on your card.
Take Control of Your Credit
Being in control of your credit is a power tool to help you achieve any financial goal!
Fixing bad credit is just the start! Once you get your score at a good number, you’ll can then unlock the wealth of benefits that come with a good relationship with your bank.
It’s aspects like these that we discuss in the Credit Stacking community.