3 decisions that can be bad for your finances

Money isn’t everything, but your personal finances matter. Lenders look at your accounts and your credit score to decide what kind of loan you’ll be able to get and what interest rate you’ll have to pay. If you want to keep your finances in good shape, here are some situations you should avoid…

Cosigning a loan: You’re a nice person and you do nice things for people you care about. You should never cosign a loan. EVER. You’ve got to look out for your own personal finances. If the borrower starts missing payments, your credit score will take a hit. The last thing you want to do is have to make payments just to keep your credit from taking a hit.

Closing a credit card account: The first credit card you ever had probably wasn’t a rewarding one. You probably got it so you could build credit or just to have in case of emergencies. You may have paid if off and decided to stop using it, but don’t close that account. For one thing, that card has a long credit history, which is good for your credit. Also, closing the account will lower your amount of available credit which could negatively affect your debt utilization ratio. That’s one action that can damage your credit score in multiple ways.

Not paying attention: You should always keep a close eye on your finances. If you don’t keep an eye on your credit report, you could have your identity stolen and not know it. Even if nothing malicious is happening to you, there could still be inaccuracies. The day you find an error is the day you’ll be super glad you checked. And keep an eye on your checking and credit card accounts. If your identity is stolen or account hacked, you’d rather find out about it sooner than later.