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.

In an effort to clean your cluttered finances, you close three zero balance credit card accounts. Lightening your wallet feels good now, but the potential hit to your FICO Score could weigh you down later.

Credit card perks can be very useful and with one or two good cards — you could be enjoying free airline flights, free hotels stays and more.

The only thing worse than getting a nasty surprise is getting a nasty surprise about your finances. For instance, you check your credit score and discover it’s much lower than you anticipated. You wonder, “What went wrong?”