How I Maintain High Credit Scores With Low Income

A few days ago someone ran my credit. To tell you the truth, I was pretty nervous about it because I had not checked it for a few months and, well, the economy has affected me as much as anyone. So they ran the report as I waited with bated breath, half expecting a poor result.

As it turned out, the result was excellent: 783. This surprised me because, as I said, the poor economy has affected me.

Upon inspecting the report, I was able to suss out a few of the reasons that my score was so high even though my income has dropped significantly in the past two years. If you are trying to raise your scores, please take this as non-scientific observation, not gospel truth. Anyway, here are...

The Three Reasons for My Great Credit Scores:

I have closed a lot of accounts in good standing. Closing accounts while owing nothing on them is kind of like breaking up with a lover without any hard feelings. It won't diminish your social status and actually makes you look pretty good to potential new lovers. In the same way, paying off a credit card and closing the account makes you look attractive to other lenders.
I don't have any 30-day (or more) late payments. This has involved a bit of juggling, but I always take care to pay my bills more or less on time. Even if you need to be a little late, make sure it's just a few days. Stay under that 30-day bar.
I have big credit lines but only a little bit of debt. I have something like $100,000 in credit available but less than $10,000 in debt outstanding including my car payment. If you always pay your bills on time but don't have any lines of credit -- or if your credit lines are almost maxed out -- it hurts your scores, I reckon.

It is not exactly rocket science, as it turns out, and even if your income drops significantly, you can still maintain decent credit as long as you keep paying the piper more or less on time.