There are general guidelines you can follow to build your credit score. But what is often overlooked are the actions you take that actually affect your score, even if you were doing something that you thought was positive.

The good news is that many credit score problems are temporary and can be easily recovered. And often things like paying off a loan or applying for a new credit card will pay off in the long run once you get past the initial fluctuation.

Below, CNBC Select describes the five ways you can suddenly drop your credit rating whether you realize it or not.

Card issuers pull your credit report when you apply for a new credit card because they want to know your risk before giving you a line of credit. This credit check is called a serious investigation, or “hard pull”, and temporarily reduces your credit score by a few points. Serious claims stay on your credit report for two years, but FICO (which most lenders use) only considers claims from the past 12 months when calculating your credit score.

But serious credit inquiries aren’t necessarily bad when done in moderation. After all, applying for a credit card is a great first step in building credit. When you use credit cards correctly – by charging for purchases and paying them off in full when they are due – they can help boost your credit score. If you are seeks to build credit, Take into account Visa® Petal® 2 “Cash Back, No Fee” credit card, which offers cash back, or the Capital One® Platinum Credit Card which is designed for average credit applicants.

To reduce the number of unnecessary draws on your credit report, check to see if you qualify for a new card by using the prior approval or prequalification offers. These won’t guarantee that you will be approved for the specific credit card, but they will give you a good idea.

When it comes to applying for new credit products, be sure to spread your credit card applications over time. Only apply for a new credit card every three months, and maybe wait even longer between applications if your credit score is lower.

Credit cards are convenient for making large purchases because you don’t need to pay all the money up front, but leaving a high balance on your card will pay off. credit utilization rate (CUR) to credit bureaus.

Your utilization rate, or your debt-to-credit ratio, measures how much credit you use versus how much you have. You want to aim for a low utilization rate because using too much of your available credit limit shows that you present a financial risk to issuers. Experts recommend keeping your credit usage below 30%, with some even suggesting staying below 10% for get the best credit score.

Before you charge a large expense to your credit card, make sure you can pay it off in full before the end of the billing cycle. Having a high balance on your credit card is not only bad for your credit utilization rate, it will also incur a lot of interest.

Because your payment history is the most important factor which determines your credit score (constituting 35% of your FICO score calculation), missing a credit card payment will have an immediate negative effect on your score. Needless to say, lenders and issuers care a lot about whether you paid your old credit accounts on time because they indicate your risk.

According to FICO data, a 30-day missed payment can drop a fair credit score from 17 to 37 points and a very good or excellent credit score from 63 to 83 points. But a missed payment longer than 90 days drops the same fair score from 27 to 47 points and drops the excellent score from 113 to 133 points. In other words, the higher your credit score, the greater the negative effect.

How quickly your score bounces after a missed payment will vary depending on your credit history and payment behavior after missing a payment. If you get back on track soon after, it’s likely that your score will start to improve with your good payment history. A history of on-time payments is essential for a good credit score, and it’s even better if you can pay them off in full.

While paying off your credit card debt can increase your credit score, paying off installment debt, like a mortgage or student loan, has the opposite effect.

Paying off something like your car loan can actually lower your credit score because it means having one less credit account in your name. Having a credit mix is ​​10% of your FICO credit score because it’s important to show that you can handle different types of debt.

Don’t let that stop you from paying off your loans, however. Being debt free will help your overall financial health, and it doesn’t make sense to pay unnecessary interest charges over time just to save a few credit points.

Closing a credit card account, in particular your elder, harms your credit score because it lowers the overall credit limit available to you (remember you want a high limit) and lowers the overall average age of your accounts. The length of your credit history makes up 15% of your FICO score, which is why experts recommend building credit at a young age. The longer you can show that you have had credit, the better your credit score.

The exception to this rule is if you are paying for a credit card that you no longer use. In today’s world where travel is almost non-existent, this can mean closing your luxury travel credit card with high annual fees, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, for which new incumbents pay $ 550 per year. It could also mean closing your secure credit card where you paid a deposit to receive a credit limit, such as with the Capital One® Secure.

Before closing your card, talk to your issuer and see if you can either downgrade to a no annual membership card or, in the case of a secured card, switch to an unsecured credit card. This could help you preserve the line of credit so that it does not appear closed on your report, while also providing you with a card that is better suited to your needs.

The Capital One® Platinum and Capital One® Secured credit card information was independently collected by CNBC and was not reviewed or provided by the card issuer prior to posting.

Petal 2 Visa credit card issued by WebBank, FDIC member.