 TITLE: 7 Common Credit Mistakes and How to Avoid Them CONTENT: Only Making Minimum Payments on Your Credit Card\n------------------------------------------------\nPaying just the minimum amount due on your credit cards that carry interest will cost you more money in the long term than paying all, or most of, your debt every month. And if you're not careful, it can also damage your credit.\nThat's because as you make just the minimum payment every month, you may end up carrying a high balance on your credit card. This increases your credit utilization ratio, which is the percentage of your available credit you're using at a given time. How much you owe is another important factor in your credit scores, so a high utilization rate could cause significant damage if left unchecked. A credit utilization ratio above 30% can start to drag down your scores, but the lower it is, the better.\nPaying down your balances so they're all under 30% utilization is a good start. But if you have a significant amount of debt, consider attacking it with the avalanche method or snowball approach to pay down your cards' balances. END