Ok, so you've worked hard to maintain your credit score. However, during the new credit crunch, these five principles apply:
1. Pay your bills on time. Use your bank's online bill payment service and have them paid automatically.
2. Don't open too many credit cards. Also, keep the balances of the cards you have at 40% or less of the available credit limit, if possible.
3. Don't close a line of credit before paying it off, or close many credit cards at once. This can temporarily affect your debt-to-credit ratio, thus lowering your score for a short time.
4. Try not to close the accounts you have had the longest. 15% of your score is based on the length of your credit history.
5. Avoid opening new accounts to increase available credit. This can lower your score.
Resource: "Consumer Reports", July 2009.
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