When you close the credit-card account that you’ve had the longest, it will lower the average age of your credit accounts and drag down your FICO Score.

You charged thousands of dollars’ worth of appliances to a store credit card that doesn’t require payments for six months. As long as you make the payments in six months, your Credit Score will not be affected.

How many credit cards should you have for a good credit score? If you’re one of those people who holds up the line at stores because you’re trying to figure out which of your 10 credit cards to pay with, it may be time to do some consolidating.

Late payments are the “biggest foul” when it comes to credit cards, warns Ben Woolsey, director of marketing and consumer research at CreditCards.com — the consequences can include late fees, jacked-up interest rates and a lower credit score.

The average American credit score is 678, but there is a range of credit scores that auto loan lenders will find acceptable. You can qualify for a auto loan with a low credit score, but you may need to seek alternative lending options to do so. In order to secure a auto loan with a traditional lender, you will need to be in the medium to low-risk credit range — this credit score range includes all scores more than 650.