A: Your credit score is composed of five things: your payment history, the amount of debt you have, your credit history length, your credit mix, and the number of times you’re applying for new credit.

A: It depends. While having more credit cards can increase your overall credit limit and reduce your balance-to-limit, you have to be careful. If you have a high balance on multiple credit cards, your score might be negatively impacted.

A: Yes and no. When someone with healthy credit cosigns on a loan, you may potentially qualify for a better finance rate. However, the risk falls on the cosigner. When someone cosigns, they are saying they will pay for the loan if the other person falls behind on payments. It’s very important to understand the responsibilities of having a cosigner before signing.