 TITLE: How to Start Building Credit After College CONTENT: Maintain Smart Financial Habits\n-------------------------------\nOn that note, it's important to be aware of what factors help and hurt your credit. While making on-time payments to your student loans or other forms of debt shows responsible behavior and can help boost your credit scores, making late payments or missing payments altogether can tank it.\nYour credit utilization ratio, which indicates how much of your available credit you're using, is another important factor in your credit score. Creditors view it as a negative if you use more than 30% of your available credit. This means if you take out credit cards, don't charge up all of your available credit lines, and definitely don't max them out. So, for example, if your credit limit is $1,000, it's ideal to keep your balance below $300 at all times. For the best credit scores, keep your utilization below 10%, or $100 in this example. END