Unscrupulous credit card companies can break your credit In today's economy, having good credit means everything. Having credit card accounts can positively affect your credit rating by showing that you are responsible and pay your bills on time. It is good to have balances that are less than 50% of your credit limit and payments that are on time every month. What happens when you choose the wrong credit card company to do business with?~~ Well, if you are like many others, you may be surprised (and I MEAN surprised) by what you are not reading in the little tiny print when you sign up for one of these cards. I recently printed a credit report for myself to see what my bureau scores were because I was thinking of purchasing a new home. I knew I had plenty of income and not a lot of debt so I figured Iwas looking pretty good. Not so, said my credit report! Little did I know that 3 of my credit cards I opened severl years ago were reporting delinquent and even a chargeoff amount on my credit report! I thought it had to be wrong and here is what I found out when I called about these bad reportings. The cards each had an annual fee that was imposed sometime after I had paid off any balance for things I had purchased. I wasn't aware, or had forgotten that this would happen and all this time I thought my cards were good (I don't really use them), they were accruing late charges on just that annual fee! I never received a bill from any of these three cards, as I hadn't charegd anything. Now I am stuck paying off balances that are like $300-$400 on cards that I thought were paid off! Be extra careful when you are signing up for a credit card. Do not choose a card with an annual fee. Pay them on time and check every so often to make sure they are still zero and in good standing. I am in danger of getting turned down for a mortgage loan because of these dumb credit cards! | 
