Credit Score

Few Simple Steps Towards Excellent Credit Score

April 20, 2012
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What is credit score? It’s a barometer of your financial health. The reading of this barometer is used to measure your credit worthiness. Its a measure of how well you managed your available credit in the past. A good credit score will ensure the following benefits for you. Lower mortgage rate and home equity loan rate Lower car loan rate Lower insurance premium Better employability Better acceptability as a renter Better rate on your credit cards. If we quantify all these, we are talking about saving 1000′s of dollars worth of saving in our life time. Credit score affects our finances. Whether you buy or rent, a good credit score enables you to save money either ways.  Below are few immediate steps you can take to build and maintain an excellent credit score. Check your credit report In case you don’t know, you are actually entitled to one free credit report every year. You can get it from TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. These are our U.S. credit bureaus. Have yours printed and delivered into your doorstep. There are plenty of reasons why you need to do this. First the document gives you an overall picture of your financial health. Are there loans

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5 Steps to Introduce the Concept of Credit to Your Teens

January 2, 2012
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5 Steps to Introduce the Concept of Credit to Your Teens

I stated on many forums that I got a sound education on finance from my dad. Quietly strangely I learned investing first before learning how to manage personal finances. This seems quiet reasonable to me and I can’t thank my father enough for taking this route. I learned all the benefits of investing, how money grows, why banks pay interest to depositors. It was a natural question for me to ask, “how the money for investing come then?”. My dad explained that my monthly salary or business income would be the only money I will have. He taught me how I can save money from my paycheck to fuel the investment. The more I save the more investment I can make. During my childhood (almost 25 years back) the concept of credit card was not there in India, where I grew up. When I joined the workforce in the year 2000, Indian economy was growing at a rapid pace, multinational corporations were setting shops there and within my first month of employment, I was offered a credit card. Fortunately my credit limit was too low to incur any debt, but, soon I realized that credit cards are too dangerous for

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How to Improve Your Credit Score During Hardship

December 2, 2011
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How to Improve Your Credit Score During Hardship

Once I heard someone saying “credit score are for people who aren’t a home owner yet”. Buy home and stop worrying about credit score. Well imagine what happened if you lose job before paying off debt and you are out of your sweet home. Be careful, financial disaster can strike anytime, credit history and credit score are your ingredients to weather this storm. Even when you are going through financial trouble, you can build better score, just don’t lose heart and have faith in you. Improving credit while you are financially sound is easier but ,during hardship its really hard to improve your credit score. 1. Check your credit report In case you don’t know, you are actually entitled to one free credit report every year. You can get it from Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax. These are our U.S. credit bureaus. Have yours printed and delivered into your doorstep. There are plenty of reasons why you need to do this. First the document gives you an overall picture of your financial health. Are there loans you haven’t paid faithfully yet? Second, errors in credit report can have a profound impact on your score. Just imagine, a loan you’ve already

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Plan on Saving Thousands on Mortgage Loan by Repairing Credit First

October 22, 2011
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The following is a guest post When you first anticipate the reality of wanting to become a homeowner, it will also be the time when you get serious about where your credit card stands. Consumers that tend to pre-plan for all things financial should recognize the importance of getting the financial house in order, including attention to their credit scores. However, that is not always the case with perspective homeowners and as a result they end up losing thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a loan. Importance of Advanced Planning For those who are not advanced planners, getting approved for a mortgage may prove more difficult than initially thought. Mortgage lenders in today’s economy expect a lot more from borrowers than they have in the past decade. Lending requirements are much stricter and borrowers will need to be prepared to meet these expectations. Time for Credit Repair The first place all consumers need to start concerns their credit score. Approaching a lender with little more than a decent score likely means a credit risk red flag will be thrown and the lender will only be able to offer a mortgage loan at a higher-than-average interest rate. The difference between a decent credit score and an excellent score can literally

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How Can a Credit Score Affect Your Finance?

September 14, 2011
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The following is a guest post from Ross Jackson, a blogger who likes helping consumers understand the difficult terrain that is credit, debt, and finance. He is currently working to build the website Great Credit Score into a finance community. How Can a Credit Score Affect Your Finances? Most individuals do not understand how a credit score can directly affect their financial life. This score is a number that helps a company decide if, you as a customer, are a good fit for their business model. This three digit number is one of many elements that is looked at to establish whether a person may or may not be a risk to their business. Combined with other factors like employment history, income, and savings, a credit score will influence a lender to decide whether to lend you money. A bad history or score can affect your business with lenders and lead to higher interest rates or less favorable terms. It might also lead to higher auto insurance premiums, more difficulty renting a property, and even affect your ability to be hired. The Negatives of a Poor Score If you have a low score it can mean that you will have less access

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Wise Use Of Credit Card Can Help You Avoid Debt

July 20, 2011
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This is a guest post from Paris Mitchell who is contributory guest columnist for various websites and communities including Oak View Law Group. She has completed Masters in Finance and is currently working with an Investment company located in California. she has written many articles on topics like mortgages, refinance, credit-card-debt-consolidation, credit-card-debt-relief, credit-card-debt-settlement, bankruptcy, working from home, investment opportunities, etc. Credit cards can apparently seem to be convenient for the consumers. But the susceptible consumers are exposed to high risks due to bad spending habits as they spend more than they can afford. A considerable number of US consumers have multiple credit cards, and each card has a large amount of outstanding dues on it. So, the debt stricken consumers opt for credit card debt settlement programs to pay off their owed amount. The cardholders should get a formal training on personal finance management. This will help them to behave responsibly towards their finances and avoid debt that will lead to build a good credit score. The consumers should remember that handling credit in a prudent way can make them economically cautious and can avoid associating with frauds. Here are the 3 basic tips to keep in mind before an individual decides to apply for a credit card Check for hidden costs The consumers

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The Complete Guide To Understand Credit Score

July 12, 2011
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This weekend I was doing some de-cluttering exercise at home. Many unwanted papers I got rid off. While doing so, I came across a hand written note at the back of my old bank statement, probably it was the first bank statement I received after opening an account in Bank Of America. The title said “A complete Guide to credit score”. I came to America in August 2005, I belonged to a country where there is no system for maintaining credit scores. There, Lenders, and probably government too, believe in the fact that money can be re claimed by force. Any ways, that’s another story, which I will touch upon bit in various upcoming blog posts. Today’s topic is about that handwritten note. I don’t exactly remember which online sources I used to put the notes together, it had three headings, what it a credit score, why it is important to have a good credit score and how to improve credit scores. I wrote these on the back of my three-page bank statement, which showed a bank balance (and my net worth at that time) of $2600 (August 2011). So many things have changed since then, 6 years have passed

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