Just because your team is performing poorly doesn't mean you should walk away. By the same token, you should think twice before you quit your credit habit cold turkey.

Winning strategy: Although you may have the urge to cut up your credit cards if a balance or two has gotten out of control, giving up on credit altogether will not necessarily help your score. "If you stop, you've frozen your history in a negative state. You're not adding anything positive," says Sweet. On the other hand, she says, if you keep using your credit minimally, pay on time and work to reduce your balance, you can rehabilitate your scores over time.

In fact, your score is always in a state of flux and will change as often as the information in your credit report does, similar to how a player's batting average changes with every plate appearance.

"The score is not a piece of data that is filed away and then pulled up when requested," says Paperno. "It's calculated at the time that it's requested using the most up-to-date credit info that's available."