Finance & Loans

Be conscious about your payment history

Among five factors that drive your credit score, your payment history takes the center stage.  That’s why we are going to explore this aspect of your credit score bit further in this article.  Other factors that affect your credit score include balances, your credit history, type of credit and inquiries on your credit account.

Your payment history accounts for as much as 35 percent of your overall credit score and therefore, it becomes very important to pay attention to this.  Credit rating agencies consider certain activities as serious delinquencies.  These include foreclosures, short sales, repossessions, and bankruptcies.  These activities can drive your overall credit score down.  Next to these serious activities, late payments become more important in deciding your credit score.  When taking late payments into consideration being 30 days late is preferable over 60 days late.  Another factor, any recent delinquencies will hurt your credit score more than any delinquencies few years back.

If you are late paying a bill due to whatever reason, pay it as soon as possible.  One other thing, call the creditor as soon as possible about the late payment, they may be willing to not to report the late payment to credit reporting agencies that includes Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.