Maintaining a good credit score allows you to incur many great benefits. You can save money on home and auto insurance, find lower interest rates on credit applications, and lower your security deposit numbers. The best way to have a low credit score is to use your credit with caution and knowledge.

If you want to keep that credit in good condition, here are some of the top ways that you can maintain a good credit score:

Get Your Bills Paid On Time

All of your bills should be paid on time, not just your loans and credit cards. There are a surprising amount of bills that get reported to the credit bureaus when you don’t pay them on time. These reports act negatively on your credit report.

Make sure to keep track of your monthly bills and always save enough to make sure you can stay on top of them.

Never Close Old Credit Cards

Card issuers will stop sending updates to the credit bureau when you close an account with them. Because of the way the credit scoring formula is set up, a closed card means less weight on that inactive account. After about 10 years, the credit bureau will completely remove that closed account from your history, essentially getting rid of all of that good credit and decreasing your overall score.

How To Maintain a Good Credit Score

Maintain a Low Credit Card Balance

You always want to keep your credit card balance as low as you can in comparison with the credit limit. The combination of your credit card balances should be under 30% of your credit limits. Essentially, if you have a credit card with a $1,000 limit, you should have $300 on it at the most.

Make sure to always reduce the amount to 30% before the end of the billing month.

Don’t Make Too Many Credit Applications

When you begin making too many credit inquiries, you increase your chances of negative impact overall. Only apply for credit when you absolutely need it, as new credit accounts will lower your overall credit score.

Manage That Debt

While credit cards always have the biggest social impact when it comes to talking about credit, loan balances are something to watch out for as well. The more debt you have, the more points there are that can be taken from your credit score. If you have a low debt, you will be able to easily manage your overall score.

Watch Your Credit Report

Even if you do everything right in terms of maintaining your credit score, you can’t always trust that the credit bureau won’t make mistakes. Credit errors happen all the time. These can lead to massive decreases in your scores.

If you’ve been a victim of identity theft or fraud, you may have inaccurate information on your credit score that you need to get rid of. Make sure to check your credit score periodically so that you can find these mistakes and get rid of them as soon as possible.

Of course, if you’re looking for ways to boost your credit, you can always look into obtaining a seasoned tradeline, which will help to cut the cost of loans.