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Try to pay more than the minimum
“If you really want to lower your score in a hurry, keep it below 10 percent,” says Beverly Harzog, a consumer finance analyst and credit-card expert at U.S. News and World Report. “Your goal is to have a 10 percent ratio on each credit card, not just overall. The Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) score looks at your total ratio as well as the ratios on each individual card.”