Meet with a debt settlement attorney and you will likely hear that you shouldn’t be married to your credit score. Fact of the matter is that it is a fluid number. If you aren’t planning on utilizing your credit for a while, a decision to settle your debt and lower your score for a while shouldn’t be a concern for you. But for those out there either married to their score or looking to utilize credit in the near future, here’s a good list of things that WON’T hurt your score.
The author spends a majority of the article commenting on not carrying a balance. If you take only one thing from this article, take note that you do not have to carry a balance to show good credit. In fact, one of the common mistakes people make is a high utilization of available credit. The problem arises when an individual fails to pay off a balance prior to the creditor reporting to the credit bureaus. If you are utilizing the credit to build up rewards/miles, the key is to ensure that you pay the balance due before the creditor reports the status of your account monthly, which is usually at the beginning of the month
