Hi, my name is Apurnashah and I lead the Director Consumer Business at Equifax. Today, we're going to talk about credit scores and some things that can hurt your scores. Number one, late payments. Your payment history on loans and credit accounts can play a big role in calculating your credit scores. Even one payment can negatively impact your scores. Number two, high debt to credit utilization on revolving accounts such as credit cards. That's a technical way of saying how much of the available credit you're using. A debt to credit ratio represents the amount of credit you're using divided by the total amount of credit available to you. Lenders and creditors generally prefer to see a lower debt to credit ratio below 30%. And a high ratio can impact your score. Number three, applying for a lot of credit all at once. Applying for multiple credit accounts in a short time may impact your credit scores and cause lenders to view you as a higher risk far more. There's one caveat. If you're shopping for an auto or mortgage loan, the multiple inquiries for that purpose are generally counted as one inquiry for a period of time. It's best to only apply for the credit you need when you need it. Number four, closing a credit card account. It may be tempting to close a credit card account that's paid in full, but doing so may affect your credit score. In general, lenders and creditors like to see that you've been able to properly handle different types of credit accounts over a period of time. And closing an account can affect the mix of credit accounts, things like credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans, and length of credit history on your report. However, if you intend to keep an account open, keep in mind that many credit cards, charge annual fees. Remember that regularly checking your credit reports is one way to keep track of your credit accounts and know what information is being reported by your lenders and creditors. To learn more about living your financial best, visit aquifax.com slash learn. Thanks for watching.