You may not spend much time thinking about your debt-to-credit ratio, but it actually weighs heavily on your credit score and can determine your ability to get a loan. Debt to credit ratio, in lay-mans terms (or simple mans, for those of use who don't like fancy talk) is this:

  How much you owe verses how much you could owe. For example, if you owe $2,000 on a credit card and the credit limit on the credit card is $2,000, then you have a much too high debt-to-credit ratio. To the banks, it looks like you spend everything you can get your hands on. Now let's say you have two credit cards, each with $2,000 limits and you owe $1,000 to each credit card. Your debt is the same, you still owe $2,000 total, BUT now you have $2,000 which you haven't used up yet. You are only using 50 of Americans use at least 50, or even under 10 balance transfer card, and increase your credit score in the process. Click here for the best rated cards for this tactic.

And a higher limit isn't always better. "If you are a spender and the temptation is there to spend more than what you can really afford, [then a higher credit card limit] can send you into the debt spiral," Hardekopf said.   It's also possible that potential lenders will view a high credit limit as potential debt, which can count against you if you are trying to get a mortgage or a car loan. Ultimately, "it boils down to how you handle debt. If you handle debt responsibly, then go for a higher limit," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. Consider whether "that higher credit limit is going to represent temptation to run up additional debt."   Ideally, you want to illustrate that you can keep your spending under control, and that means "your focus should be on paying down debt, not racking up more," McBride said.

Avoid:

  Signing up for new cards to boost your total available credit and make your debt utilization appear lower can work against you, experts say. In fact, opening new accounts may even lower your credit score if you already have too many accounts.

  "Recent credit inquiries constitute 10% of your score," McBride said.

And each new inquiry means points subtracted from your total.   Additionally, closing unused cards is also a bad idea, since those are unused debt so that ups your score.  

"When you close an account the amount of 'overall' available credit decreases, which could cause an increase in your [debt] utilization and inadvertently lower your score," said Deanna Templeton, director of consumer education for Credit.com.