Working hard to maintain your FICO score positive? Then pay a close attention to all your ongoing bills and fines! You are likely to know that late or missed credit card payments can leave a black mark on your credit report for years to come. But now, even your Internet provider, local librarian or municipal governments can lower your FICO score! A number of organizations and businesses that share data with credit bureaus is constantly increasing. Here are common little-known things that can be dangerous for your credit score.

Municipal and library fines

Don't care about unpaid library fines or parking tickets? It's time to change your opinion. In the face of budget crunches, local and state governments across the United States have turned to collection agencies to get money from people who don't pay library fines, speeding tickets or dog-catcher fines.

Credit bureaus regard collection accounts as serious delinquencies even if the debt is small. Collection accounts can knock as much as 100 points off your FICO score, making it difficult to get the lowest interest rates on a credit card.

Cell phone payments

Some cell phone providers (for example AT&T) can report cell phones as credit accounts, so they will appear your credit report. It makes sense because providing minutes can be regarded as a kind of lending. Regular, timely cell phone payments will indicate your responsible financial behavior. Vice versa, delinquencies can show that you are not a trustworthy borrower.

In other cases, cell phone providers (for example Sprint) do not report cell phone accounts directly to the credit bureaus. However, the unpaid bill can appear on your credit report as a collection account and damage your credit score.

Child support obligations

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, child support obligations are regarded as any other debts. Both ongoing and late payments are reported to the credit bureaus and included into your credit report. However, they will not have any influence on your FICO score.

Keep in mind that lenders and employers will be aware of your unpaid child support obligations when they look at a copy of your credit report. The "alimony dodger" status will lower your chances to get a job or profitable loans in future.

Medical debts

A medical debt will appear on your credit report only as a collection account. The name of the hospital will be coded. It helps protect consumers whose medical debt was owed to such facility as the Betty Ford Clinic, where people receive treatment for drug or alcohol addiction.

Luckily for delinquent borrowers, Fair Isaac Corp. is going to change the FICO scoring model. On its current and previous versions the amount of the collection accounts doesn't matter. Credit bureaus take into consideration the fact that the borrower has failed to make on time payment. However, in future small debts will be forgiven. In the newest FICO update, credit bureaus will ignore any collection accounts with an outstanding balance of less than $100.

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Comments

Alexander, 11:22 PM, September 08, 2008
I have 2 unpaid parking tickets, I have to pay them

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