 TITLE: Why Credit Scores Matter in Retirement CONTENT: How to Keep Your Credit Score High During Retirement\n----------------------------------------------------\nSo how do you maintain a high credit score (or build up a score that could stand to be higher) once you've entered retirement? The same way you keep up your score at any other phase of life: Understand the factors that promote strong credit scores and avoid decisions that can bring your score down.\nThe most important steps you can take to avoid hurting your credit score are:\n*   **Pay your bills on time.** Do this every month without fail. If your retirement will include a lot of travel, or if you'll be dividing time between two homes during the year, this may take some extra care. Schedule automatic payments for as many services as you can, and consider working with creditors, utilities and other vendors to keep all your payment due dates around the same time of the month to make it easier to organize your payments.\n*   **Avoid excessive credit balances.** Pay your credit card balances in full as often as possible (this also saves you from paying interest charges). When you must carry a balance from month to month, do your best to keep it below 30% of your borrowing limit. Experts agree that utilization rates in excess of 30% tend to lower your credit scores.\n*   **Resist the urge to close older credit card accounts.** Even if you're not using the cards regularly, unless you're paying fees for them, hang on to cards you've had a long time, particularly if you maintained a record of on-time payments for them. Why? Longstanding accounts help boost a credit scoring factor known as age of accounts.\n*   **Stay active.** It won't mean any major credit score increase, but active credit card accounts—those you use regularly—tend to elevate credit scores slightly more than disused cards. So consider using an idle card to make a small payment each month—for your video streaming service, perhaps. If you set up an automatic payment through your checking account to pay the credit card bill, this will keep the card account active without adding to your monthly activity.\n*   **Be vigilant.** Identity thieves can wreak havoc on your credit by hijacking your credit cards or opening new cards in your name, and senior citizens and children are among the most frequent targets. Review all your bank and credit statements carefully each month, check your credit reports at least annually, and report any unauthorized activity immediately. Consider using a credit monitoring or identity protection service such as those offered by Experian.\nRetirement is the time to relax, savor your free time, and enjoy the fruits of your life's labors and savings. Making just a little effort to keep up your credit scores can help ensure you have the flexibility to get the goods and services you want when you want them, make big or small purchases whenever the time is right, and pay for it all in whatever way is most convenient. You've earned that privilege. END