Surprising Factors that Affect Your Credit Score
As a potential new home buyer at the Lake of the Ozarks, hopefully you have already begun some of the financial preparation for what could be one of the biggest purchases of your life. Our experts at Devine & Associates are here to help you find the Mid Missouri home of your dreams. First, make sure your finances are in order by reading about the top things that may affect your credit score.
Maybe you feel you have done your home-buying research. You have saved for a down payment, and you have been working to build your credit. That’s a good start, but you may be asking: what’s next? Building your credit is an on-going process. Just because your credit score is in a good range right now, make sure you continue to monitor it throughout your home-buying search. Below we will discuss some surprising factors that could affect your credit score that you may not have even thought of.
Paying Your Rent Late
Rent payments that you make usually are not a part of your credit report. However, if you have made a habit of missing payments or paying your rent late, your landlord may take it upon himself to report your delinquency to the credit bureau. All your landlord must do is to pay a fee and follow a few simple steps to report you. Then you have negative marks on your credit that could last for many years. So, although the late payments may not affect your credit score directly, they could possibly reflect negatively on your score in the long run.
Canceling a Credit Card or Moving all Your Debt to One Card
It can be very exciting to pay off a credit card - but wait before you cancel that card! Your credit history includes how long you have consistently paid on that card and how long you have used or not used it. By canceling that card, it could affect your credit in a negative way, because it kills part of that credit history (and your credit history makes up 15% of your credit score!). Moving all your debt to one credit card, or consolidating your debt to one card, can be a good idea. However, keep in mind that although having one card as opposed to multiple cards is nice, if that one card has a very high balance, it reflects negatively on your credit score.
Not Paying Library Fines or Parking Tickets
These may sound like tiny harmless debts, but you might as well pay them as soon as you can. Just like any other unpaid fine, your library dues and parking tickets can be sent to a collection agency. That agency has the right to report that debt balance to any of the three major credit bureaus. Experts state that one unpaid parking ticket can ding your score up to 100 points! Pay off those small debts now, so you don’t have to deal with the headache of negative credit report later.
These are just a few of the small things that can add up to create a credit mess. Now that you know more about what can affect your credit, keep saving and doing your home-buying research. When you are ready to purchase a home near Eldon, Missouri, we are here for you! Our experts can help walk you through the entire home-buying process. We look forward to helping you find your dream home near Lake of the Ozarks. Contact Devine & Associates at (573) 392-9900 when you are ready to start searching for that perfect home.
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