One day, you may decide to retrieve your FICO score, only to discover it has taken a tumble because of a seemingly small mishap on your part.
This happened to me a few years back because I misplaced a bill for a whopping $12.70 that ended up being reported to the credit bureaus. Worst of all, the problem stemmed from a charge through automatic billing on a credit card I no longer used.
The result was an 80-point decrease and several months of regret. My credit score has rebounded since then, but thinking about this small oversight still haunts me.
