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Earlier this year on the blog we presented The Ultimate Guide to Credit Karma to tell you all about Credit Karma’s features and how to best use them to monitor and improve your credit health.

We started with the Credit Report Card, which was created to help you better understand the factors influencing your credit score. Then, we realized there was a lot more to tell.

That’s why we’re starting a new series, called the Credit Report Card Break-Down. This series will cover the following items in your Credit Report Card:

Open Credit Card Utilization

This is your total credit card debt divided by your total credit limits. It’s one part of your credit score that can easily change from month to month. We’ll cover exactly what this is and how to make sure keep your utilization low.

Percent of On-Time Payments

One of the best way to build your credit is to have consistent, on-time bill payments. We’ll discuss a few strategies for making sure you don’t miss a payment.

Average Age of Open Credit Lines

The longer your credit history, the better. We’ll discuss the importance of keeping some older accounts open, and when you should decide to close them.

Total Accounts

The total number of credit accounts definitely affects your credit score, as does your mix of credit accounts. We’ll discuss why lenders view you as a credit risk if you have too few accounts and a good strategy for opening new accounts.

Hard Credit Inquiries

These occur when you apply for credit and in some other instances. We’ll go over when a hard inquiry occurs and how to keep them to a minimum.

Derogatory Marks

These are negative items on your credit report. We’ll talk about different derogatory marks and how they affect your credit, as well as how long it takes for them to fall off your report.

Total Debt and Debt-to-Income Ratio

We’ll discuss how your overall debt situation can affect your creditworthiness and how your debt-to-income ratio is sometimes used to evaluate loan applications.

Stay tuned for the first installment of the Credit Report Card Break-Down!

Have a Karmic day!

Bethy, Social Media Maven

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