And in today’s financial world, that’s trouble. Lenders of all type, whether they’re passing out mortgage loans or the financing for a new car, rely on your three-digit credit score to determine whether you’re too risky for their business. If your score’s too low? You either won’t qualify for a loan from traditional lenders or you’ll be hit with excessively high interest rates on the money you do get to borrow.

If you want to borrow money today at the lowest interest rates, and have access to the benefits of elite credit cards like Chase Sapphire like you’ll need a credit score of 720 or higher — usually — on the popular FICO credit-scoring scale.

To reach such rarefied levels, you’ll need a credit score that’s free from financial dings.

Unfortunately, credit cards when you use them irresponsibly can cause a lot of these dings, preventing you from getting that low interest rate loan, or better card.

Late Payments: Consider late payments. They’re killers for your credit score. If you make a habit of paying your credit card late, expect your three-digit credit score to fall steadily.

There’s a reason for this: If you pay your credit card bills late, there’s no reason for mortgage, auto or personal lenders to think you won’t do the same on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage or a home equity loan. These issuers of larger loans look at you as a high risk to default on the money they lend to you.

This gives you a lower credit score.

Missed Payments: Worse than late payments are missed payments. Let’s say you have a
gas credit card, and forget to pay your bill, not only will you get hit with a late-payment fee from your card provider — not to mention that many card issuers will bump up your interest rate to a sky-high penalty rate that can often reach 29 percent or higher — you’ll also do serious damage to your credit score.

Lenders don’t like to work with borrowers who miss their payments. That’s why if they’ll even lend to such borrowers they’ll hit them with high interest rates. These rates offer lenders who are taking a risk an added measure of financial protection.

Too Much Debt: You can damage your credit score, too, by running up too much debt on your credit cards. Borrowers with high amounts of credit card debt make lenders nervous. They view these borrowers are being far more likely to run into the financial problems that can cause them to default on their loans.

Carrying too much credit card debt from one month to the next is one of the three most common causes of a damaged credit score, joining paying your bills late or not paying them at all.

Credit Repair: There is some good news, though, even if you have committed the above credit card sins: Repairing your damaged credit is a relatively simple task, however it does requires a lot of persistence.

Vow to make all of your monthly payments on time. And vow to do this each and every month.

And remember this: While using a credit card in a financially foolish way will sink your credit score, using one wisely will improve it. If you pay your bill on time every month and refrain from running up too much debt, you’re showing lenders just how responsible you are with your finances.

Demonstrate this pattern long enough, and you’ll be rewarded with a high credit score.