If have too many credit cards, or may be financing big-ticket items with installment loans without considering how the payments fit within the limits of your current income, some changes to your credit management strategy will have you on the path toward good credit development and a higher credit score.

However, you may be past the point of creating a budget, or limiting the amount of revolving and installment credit accounts. How can you tell if you are not only mismanaging you credit, you are nearing credit crisis?

Below are some typical credit behaviors of consumers at a point of excess debt (see http://www.provantacorp.com/getstarted.jsp#danger for more information). Such actions, taken holistically, have the reverse effect of the rules of developing good credit----you run the risk of financial crisis, and have to make serious efforts toward debt management before even considering redeveloping your credit.

1. Credit is the main source of purchasing power: If you are buying day-to-day necessities like food or gasoline with credit cards, or are paying utility bills with credit card advances, you probably lack available cash due to extreme overextension of your available credit. This suggests you would not otherwise be able to operate your financial life without credit.

2. There is no grasp of credit obligations: You have a history of making only minimum payments on your credit cards, and only partial payments on installment accounts. Or you are unsure of the total balances due or how many more payments are left. Overall, you have not sufficiently budgeted your credit accounts, and may be in a state of excess debt.

3. Signs of poor payment history: You may pay all of your credit accounts late, or even all of your bills. You may also be at a point where creditors are calling you due to your overdue bills. This indicates that you have not maintained your credit accounts, and you may be on the road to collections or more serious activity

4. No available credit: If you regularly use your credit cards to their available limits, or are applying for more new credit cards, then your income is being used to pay debts from purchases that could have been paid with cash.

If you meet any or all of the above criteria, you are beyond a level of credit mismanagement. You may be in a financial crisis, and should review your options for debt management in order to avoid legal action from creditors, or personal bankruptcy.