For example, a higher amount owed on one credit card as opposed to another causes
more damage to your score than the card with the smaller balance.
While it typically won't be
as damaging to your score as a bankruptcy, it will still be significant and this will stay on your credit history for seven years.
Even with a ding from a credit check, you're not going to do much
damage to your score by upgrading, unless this card is the oldest — or only — card in your wallet and Chase reports the upgrade as a closed and reopened account.
There are additional late categories for 60, 90, 120 and 150 days, each of which tends to inflict a higher degree
of damage to your scores.
It's sometimes hard to tell if
significant damage to our scores has occurred, until undergoing a credit check for a car loan, an apartment application, or as is now the norm, as part of a job application.
Specifically, late payments, high card balances, and hard inquires can do more
damage to your score in the early stages of your credit history than in the future.
If you have a healthy credit score and have only applied for a couple of cards recently, then the effect on your credit score will most likely be insignificant enough to cause any
real damage to your score.
If the collector does not receive payment on the debt it can be passed from one agency to another causing many negative updates on the credit reports, therefore causing
greater damage to the scores.
Too many late or non-payments can do the
worst damage to your score, since it tells lenders that you're an irresponsible borrower and credit risk.
Maxing out business credit card
less damaging to score — Spending the monthly limit on your business credit card is one way to rack up rewards.
Here, a high credit card balance in relation to the card's credit limit (credit utilization) can do much
more damage to your score than a student loan balance many times higher.
The credit bureaus make mistakes, and any mistake can be
damaging to your score.
If you apply for several cards in a row,
the damage to your score can really add up.
The damage to your score starts when your utilization rate goes over 30 %.
Thus, this lessens
the damage to your score from having several credit checks.
Disputing inquiries can be time - consuming but it can help to reverse
any damage to your score they may have caused.
But it needs to be done carefully with a deliberate plan to continue paying down your debt, or you could potentially compound your problem and do more
damage to your score.
That's because a recent late payment is more
damaging to your score than a number of late payments that occurred in the past.
The bulk of
the damage to my score came from the late payments and maxed out cards before I entered the service.
While common sense may say that closing this new card should help undo
the damage to your score by making it less likely that you'll go more deeply into debt, it won't.
In that time, you can work toward undoing
the damage to your score by paying all bills on time and reducing your debts.
That way, you will potentially re-activate the debt but will also show payment in full, which will minimize
the damage to your score.
Before jumping to make a decision, discuss closing accounts with a credit specialist so they can give you an estimate of whether it will cause
any damage to your scores.