Mistake #1:  Closing the wrong credit card accounts. Hold on to the cards you've had the longest.

Mistake #2:  Carrying high balances on your credit cards.  High balances signal that your debt ratio is too high.

Mistake #3:  Making late payments.  Thirty-day late payments can drop your score by a whopping 60-100 points.

Mistake #4:  Opening store accounts to save on store purchases.  Doing so means a hard inquiry which can shave 5 or more points off your score.

Mistake #5:  Not enough credit.  Insufficient credit implies that you might not be able to handle more credit.

Make sure you do plenty of pre planning before committing to a new home loan.  Making any of these mistakes can not only cost you more money, but often time can mean the difference in getting a mortgage loan or not.

Mortgage News Vol. 13 issue 2