If you are thinking about filing bankruptcy, you probably already have a few dings on your credit report, and are wondering how much more bankruptcy can lower your credit score. Your overall credit score is based on your income to debt ratio, how long you’ve had a credit history, how often you pay late, how many times you apply for credit and other factors.

Your credit score is important not only for gaining additional credit such as a mortgage or car loan, but for employment, insurance, utilities and other daily life needs. Knowing your credit score and how it will be affected is important unless you are independently wealthy and don’t need credit at all. So let’s see how some common financial mistakes will affect your credit score.

Judgments – Judgments are basically lawsuits that creditors have brought against you and won. A judgment can lower your credit score 50-150 points depending on how large the judgment is and how earlier late payments have already affected your credit score.

Late Payments – Probably the biggest culprit of lowered credit scores is late payments, meaning you have simply paid your debt late one or more months. Late payments are usually reported as 31-60, 90, 120, 180 days on your credit report, and the later the payments are, and the more late payments you have, the more your credit score is affected. Late payments can affect your score 50-200 points, especially if you are late paying large debts like your mortgage.

Charge Offs – If you are seriously behind on payments, eventually a company will “charge off” your debt, basically wiping it from their books. That doesn’t mean you don’t still owe it, you do, and they may even sell it to another company to have them try to collect it, but on their books they have written you off and notified the credit bureaus. Charge offs can lower your credit score 50-125 points depending on the type of debt.

Bankruptcy – While a bankruptcy lets you wipe out your debts, it definitely doesn’t clear your credit up immediately. When you file bankruptcy, your credit score can fall 100-300 points depending on how long you waited to file after you were unable to pay your debts. If you waited a long time it may not fall far due to your other late payments, charge offs and judgments. If you had fairly good credit and file bankruptcy it will likely fall farther.

It’s important to think about the consequences of paying debts late and filing for bankruptcy as your credit score can affect your ability to get a new job, get a mortgage and even be approved for a new rental. Depending on the types of debts you have, filing bankruptcy may not make sense at all so it’s important to speak with a bankruptcy attorney or get a free bankruptcy review.