The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice; instead, it is for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not be current. This website may contain links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser; we do not recommend or endorse the contents of any third-party sites. Readers of this website should contact their attorney, accountant or credit counselor to obtain advice with respect to their particular situation. No reader, user, or browser of this site should act or not act on the basis of information on this site. Always seek personal legal, financial or credit advice for your relevant jurisdiction. Only your individual attorney or advisor can provide assurances that the information contained herein – and your interpretation of it – is applicable or appropriate to your particular situation. Use of, and access to, this website or any of the links or resources contained within the site do not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship between the reader, user, or browser and website owner, authors, contributors, contributing firms, or their respective employers.
Credit.com receives compensation for the financial products and services advertised on this site if our users apply for and sign up for any of them. Compensation is not a factor in the substantive evaluation of any product.
[Update: Some offers mentioned below have expired. For current terms and conditions, please see card agreements. Disclosure: Cards from our partners are mentioned below.]
I was visiting a house of worship last Sunday – no, I didn’t have to wear a name tag – and while listening to Pastor Ryan (who coincidentally is also a lawyer) talk about the ways in which one can gain wisdom, the life lesson he discussed has applications far beyond the realm of morality or matters more spiritual.
In particular, I was struck by a three-part prescription at the center of his sermon that was seemingly tailor-made for the thousands of folks who, over the past two decades, have daily asked me how to improve their credit:
Now, in spiritual terms, these three suggestions aren’t necessarily earth-shattering. It goes without saying that we can learn from the miscues of others and, in so doing, hopefully avoid making the same mistakes. The same goes for our own private missteps, and the painful lessons to which they give rise. Obviously, the third is preferable to watching others fall on their swords or personally putting ourselves through an experiential meat grinder.
Learning from the credit mistakes others have made shouldn’t be too difficult. We all know someone who has been turned down for a loan or didn’t get approved for a lease because they had a bad credit score. Examples of friends and family overspending abound. You don’t need to accumulate a mountain of debt to know that it isn’t a great idea.
Learning from our own mistakes, while often unpleasant, is even easier in a sense, because it doesn’t require compromising another person’s privacy (or dignity). It is not unusual for a person to make a late payment—whether through temporary negligence or lack of funds. Accounts get closed, credit limits get lowered and divorces happen, without this or that shared account getting severed. Credit mistakes are a part of life.
If you want some expert knowledge regarding a good credit score, there are a few rules that can be extracted from a basic knowledge of how credit scores are concocted. Once learned, the basics of how credit scores work will become the equivalent of muscle memory in your daily life and help you build good credit.
Your credit score is compromised of five components:
You can get a look at how your credit scores are impacted by these five major factors by getting a free credit report summary every month from Credit.com.
A central story in the Abrahamic tradition—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—highlights an apt illustration for the first of the above three suggestions. Adam and Eve’s eviction from paradise is, among other things, an instructional (and cautionary) tale. The essential lesson—put into secular terms—is that authority matters. The original couple only had one job: to co-exist with creation. They could till the land and eat the fruit from any tree, and they could be happy and content, so long as they did not disobey one house rule. Don’t eat the fruit. Well, you know how that went, and we’ve been talking about how we alternately like or dislike them particular apples ever since.
While the theological ramifications of one of the world’s central creation stories are profound, a simple take—obedience to a fixed set of rules—is something we can all understand. Applied to your credit, it can mean the difference between a new house or a new landlord; the 2016 model of your favorite car or off-market parts bought with a high-interest credit card. It’s your decision.
This story is an Op/Ed contribution to Credit.com and does not necessarily represent the views of the company or its partners.
Image: iStock
June 14, 2023
Credit 101
January 25, 2022
Credit 101
February 19, 2021
Credit 101