Last year, I published a brief article Your Credit Score, in which I described the different components that make up your Fico Score. Since then, we’ve reviewed Age of Open Credit Lines, Number of Open Accounts, and Credit Utilization.
Today, let’s talk for a moment about on-time payments. This one should be obvious to you. Pay your bills on time. No matter what. When I was young and stupid, I probably had too many cards, chasing one deal or the next, and my utilization may have been pretty high for a time, but the one thing that remained sacred was the on time payment. The snapshot above from my Credit Karma report card shows how even if 1% of your payment history is late, you take quite a hit to your score which can really cost you in the long term.
Disclaimer – I receive no compensation for any reference to Credit Karma, if they ever decide to send me a t-shirt, I’ll disclose it to keep the FCC happy.
This assumes banks will report you for late payments. I think they will report you eventually but they give you a grace period as long as you don’t make a habit of it.