Good loans require very good credit scores. If you still want to borrow money in this tough economy, you better have very good scores. Below are some ways to maintain it.

Believe it or not, credit monitoring services are actually a good way to make sure your credit stays high. There is usually a charge for it, but these companies will check your credit, and if it changes, send you an email about it so you can deal with it if it’s not an authorized use.

The government has made it law that the credit report agencies need to give you a free report every few months. This not only allows you to stay on top of everything within your credit report but also give you a chance to dispute any changes to it in a timely manner. Just make sure you request it because it won’t be automatically sent to you.

One way to keep your scores high is to keep your credit utilization rate low. What this means is that if you have a maximum credit of $10,000, don’t use it all up! Since lenders may check your credit at any time, it doesn’t matter if you pay off your balance every month because at the time that they are checking it, your balance may still seem high.

Don’t always try to apply for credit cards. Every time you apply for these cards, the companies will pull your credit report and that puts a mark on your credit. If there are many of these pulls in quick succession, the credit score will suffer because it is believed that only people who really need money will apply for so many lines of credit at the same time.

Don’t let any credit card be inactive because credit card companies are starting to cancel them now. If your card is canceled, the utilization rate will automatically go down because your available credit will go down. Therefore, you should use your cards every once in a while even if you don’t need it.

In general, having 5 cards or more is a good way to make sure lenders see you as a person that is able to handle debt and pay them off. If you only have one card and no other debt, it’s hard for companies to see whether you have the ability to pay bills on a timely manner and they will be hesitate to lend you money.

Different types of borrowing will help your credit scores because it shows that you have debt and are proven to be able to manage it. Without it, lenders really won’t know how you will react when the big bills come due every month.