1. Don’t apply for new credit card of any kind. Including those “you have been pre-approved” credit card invitations that you receive in the mail. Every time that you have your credit checked by a potential creditor or lender, you lose points from your credit score immediately.
  2. Don’t pay off collections or charge-offs during your loan process. Paying collections will decrease the credit score immediately due to the date of last activity becoming recent.
  3. Don’t close credit card accounts. If you close a credit card account it will appear to FICO that your debt ratio has gone up and it will affect length of credit history.
  4. Don’t max out or over-charge your credit card accounts. This is the fastest way to bring your score down 50-100 points immediately. Try to keep your credit card balances below 30% of their available limit.
  5. Don’t consolidate your debt into 1 or 2 credit cards. It seems like it would be the smart thing to do, however, when you consolidate all of your debit into one card, it appears that you are maxed out on that card and the system will penalize you. credit score
  6. Don’t do anything to cause a red flag to be raised by the scoring system. This would be adding additional accounts, co-signing a loan, changing your name or address. Read more about top credit tips here.