Maintaining Good Credit

Have you worked hard at building up your credit, and are worried that it could begin to go bad again? Well if you take a few simple steps, you can make sure that you are well on your way to maintaining good credit. To make the process as easy as possible for you, here are four of the most common (and effective) methods that you can use to ensure that your credit stays on the positive side.

• What are your spending habits? Make sure that you know exactly what your spending habits are. By keeping track of this information you will know exactly how much money you have available at any given time, as well as what payments are still due, and when these payments will hit your account. Double check this information against your bank statement each month to ensure that you are not faced with any surprises.
• Know your limits and stick to them. Credit cards and checking accounts typically have a spending limit to them, you need to know this and never exceed it. Going over these limits usually have some kind of financial penalty associated with it. For example, even if you go over your checking account by only five dollars, you can end up paying an additional $30 to $50 in overage fees. These fees will quickly add up, and just by themselves lead to some serious problems.
• Watch your debt. As you are keeping track of your spending habits, make sure that you also keep track of what you owe, and to whom you owe it. This doesn't just refer to your credit card bills, but all your bills. One of the quickest ways to find yourself with some type of credit rating problem is to loose track of whom you currently owe money to. By keeping track of this information you can help ensure that you don't have a surprise charge creep up on you.
• Pay what you owe quickly. Perhaps the single best way to maintain good credit is to pay what you owe as quickly as possible. Often with things like credit card bills, there are additional charges applied for an "existing balance." By paying these existing balances off as quickly as you can, you will help to reduce the total amount that you owe, while also showing that there is a positive action taking place on your account.