Keep in mind that changes in your FICO score take a long time to occur but if you live by the following guidelines, your credit score will improve over time.

One of the major casualties of divorce is the damage incurred to both party’s credit. Not only do you incur the expense of divorce proceedings and attorneys, but divorce can send you spiraling into bankruptcy. Until your former spouse’s information is completely irradiated from your credit file, his or her mistakes with money can also reflect on your credit score. This is why it is advisable to take the following steps sooner rather than later.

A 0% balance transfer offer can seem like an amazing way to eliminate credit card interest payments. Yet some credit card users remain concerned that taking advantage of these offers will hurt their credit score. In fact, the opposite may be true as there are several reasons why receiving a 0% APR balance transfer credit card may actually improve one’s credit score.

While on a shopping spree, you open credit-card accounts at several of your favorite department stores to snap up discounts of 10% or 15%. You’re saving a bundle, but you may be chipping away at your credit score.

Minimum FICO credit score requirements for store credit cards are different for approval from store to store. While credit card companies do not disclose their credit requirements, we can estimate credit requirements for a particular card based upon surveys of previous applicants’ experiences applying for the particular credit card.