It seems unlikely that any Arizona resident would willingly do anything to kill their credit score. However, you may be unknowingly wrecking your credit score by making one or more of these common mistakes. Having a low credit score in Arizona can make it harder to get good interest rates on loans, prevent you from renting an apartment, and cause you to pay more for car insurance. Luckily, even bad credit can be fixed. In order to get on the right track, though, it’s important to correct the habits that are preventing you from earning a good credit score.
The Five Mistakes that Arizonians with Bad Credit Scores Might be Making
If you’re like a lot of Arizona consumers, you have a lot to keep track of on a daily basis. Juggling work, school, family, and finances can be tricky business, so it’s understandable if your credit score isn’t always at the top of your priority list. Yet, it’s important to be aware of any actions that might be harming your credit score in order to revise your habits and repair you credit.
1 – Paying Bills Late
You’re bad with due dates and don’t think anything of it if your payments are a little tardy. At least you’re paying, right? Wrong. Meeting your financial responsibilities is crucial, but lenders will only view you as truly responsible if you’re meeting them on time. Not only can late payments hurt your credit score, but paying bills late can also be expensive. Often, late fees are imposed, and these fines can quickly add up and wreck your budget.
2 – Using Too Much of Your Available Credit
This is a sneaky one that surprise a lot of Arizona consumers. You may think that it doesn’t matter how much of your credit card spending limits you’re using as long as you’re making your payments on time. This isn’t the case, though. There’s something called your credit utilization rate (CUR) that is considered when your credit score is calculated. Your CUR refers to the percentage of your available credit that you’re using at a particular time. Ideally, your CUR should be 30% or less. If, on the other hand, you’re balances reflect 50% or more of your spending limits, it makes lenders think that you’re relying too much on credit. These lenders may doubt your ability to take on new loans or credit lines.
3 – Failing to Keep Older Credit Card Accounts Open
No, you don’t have to keep all of your credit card accounts open forever, but it is good to allow some older ones to linger. Your credit score is based on your credit history, after all, so it’s good to have a longer one as opposed to a shorter one. Older accounts that show positive activity are a benefit to your credit reports because it shows that your ability to manage credit goes way, way back. So don’t be so quick to eliminate credit card accounts just because you don’t use them very much.
4 – Letting Accounts Go to Debt Collections
Bad things happen, even in Arizona. You may lose a job, have a medical emergency, or suddenly incur an unexpected expense. These types of curve balls can make it difficult to keep up with your regular bills, but it’s important to at least make minimum payments. Letting an account go to debt collections will result in serious harm to your credit score. So if cash suddenly becomes extra tight, try to reach out to your creditors and let them know what’s going on. More often than not, they’ll be willing to work with you and possibly even make your payments more affordable until you’re in a better situation.
5 – Trusting that there are No Errors on Your Credit Report
The credit bureaus may be powerful, but they’re not perfect. Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian are all managed by human beings who are capable of making mistakes. In fact, about 80% of consumer credit reports contain errors of some kind, and many of these inaccuracies are significant enough hurt credit scores. Therefore, finding credit report errors, reporting them, and having them removed is the easiest way to instantly improve your credit score.
Of course, disputing items on your credit reports can be a frustrating process if you’re not used to dealing with the credit bureaus. However, Arizona residents can get a FREE credit repair lawyer to help.
How Arizonians can Get a Free Credit Repair Lawyer
Don’t let errors on your credit reports bring your credit score down. At, Arizona Credit Lawyers we’ve been cleaning up credit reports for consumers since 2008 for free. How do we do it? All of our fees come from the defendants in cases that are settled. This is why our clients pay nothing for the work we do.
Let’s start the conversation about what we can do for your credit. Set up your free consultation today by calling Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (480)771-6001 or contact us on our contact page.
