5 credit mistakes that can come back to bite you Published: Dec. 24, 2020 at 5:04 a.m. ET By Missed a payment? Ouch. iStock Email icon
.
Some credit mistakes are a lot worse than others. Little ones, like paying a credit card bill a day late, may cost you a penalty fee, but that’s a relatively minor irritation it’s not going to stand between you and a mortgage. Other seemingly small slip-ups can lead to full-fledged disasters.
What makes a credit mistake haunt you?
Some things can be reversed quickly. Running up credit card bills can tank your credit score, for instance, because the portion of your credit limits you’re using is weighed heavily in credit scoring. But when you pay down the debt, the damage disappears as lower balances get reported to the three major credit bureaus, Equifax