Little Known Secrets About Your Credit Score
August 15, 2008
If you have ever tried to borrow money, get a credit card, or buy something on credit, then someone has probably pulled your credit score. Your credit score (at its most basic) is the odds which lending America puts on your ability to pay back money they lend to you. The higher the score, the more likely you are to pay. These numbers come from information found in your credit report.
All the financial activity you have engaged in over the past seven years is recorded in your credit report. If you have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy or closed an account that had been in good standing, this will continue to appear in your credit report for ten years.
How The Credit Score Rating Scale Works
July 24, 2008
If you’ve ever check your own credit score, you may have found the scale they use for rating you a bit confusing. There are a bunch of numbers that all have a different meaning. Learning to read your credit score properly means you need to understand the rating scale.
There are several things that companies will review when building your credit score, including the following:
How Have America’s Finances Changed Over 30 Years?
July 21, 2008
The answer to that lies in remembering just what we were like in the late seventies, and where we are now. There may be many who are not old enough to remember that time, and what our finances were like. Those of us who do, compare these two times with a mixture of nostalgia and good riddance. Let’s look at a slice of life back in the late seventies.
A loaf of bread cost .32 cents, a gallon of gas .65 cents, and the average home sold for around $58,000. We were but two years out of Vietnam, three from having removed a sitting president from office, and Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby both leave this world with tunes still ringing in our ears.
Star Wars brought outer space into our every day lexicon. The average income was a little over $10,000, and Visa and MasterCard are just now entering mainstream consciousness with the advent of electronic payment processing.
Ditch The Credit Cards To Save Money
July 2, 2008
Modern society has become tremendously dependent on credit cards, to the point where most people don’t know what they would ever do without them. Unfortunately, this reliance on credit cards has brought at least one unpleasant side effect: debt, and lots of it. If you find yourself stuck in steadily increasing debt, think about getting rid of your credit cards all together.
Incredibly, some credit cards come with interest rates soaring as high as twenty-nine percent! Some people are fooled by low interest rate cards that become high interest the moment one payment is missed. To avoid such problems, be sure to read all the details of any credit agreement. If you wouldn’t accept a high interest rate for car or home loans, don’t accept it for you credit cards either.
Even Celebrities Get In Over Their Heads
June 24, 2008
You think your credit card debt is bad?
Try juggling $750,000 in credit card balances, which is what Ed McMahon (of The Tonight Show fame) is reported to be dealing with.
It’s easy to think it’s all relative - he’s got lots more money, so it’s natural he’s dealing with more debt. The percentages all wash out in the end.
Credit Card Warnings: Two Cycle Billing
June 13, 2008
One of the ways that some credit card companies squeeze every possible cent of interest out of you is two-cycle billing.
The way this works is the interest is calculated based on two billing cycles instead of the more common single cycle.
If you don’t pay off your balance in full by the due date, the interest on those purchases gets back-dated to the original purchase date.
Thinking About Debt Consolidation To Pay Off Your Credit Cards?
June 12, 2008
I just finished putting together a special report about debt consolidation.
If you’re thinking about debt consolidation as a way of getting your debt paid off faster, there are some things you should know first - consolidation isn’t always the best option.
You can get more information about my Debt Consolidation Tactics report here:
Life Without Credit Cards
June 10, 2008
Does the thought of life without credit cards make you cringe? If the credit card companies suddenly ceased to exist, how would it affect your life?
Would you be able to go about your days with few or no hassles, or would your life as you know it fall apart?
Credit cards have their uses, and in today’s age of ordering things online and over the phone, they’re practically a necessity.
How To Stop Impulse Buying
June 9, 2008
The No Credit Needed blog has a great post about how to stop yourself from impulse buying:
The $100-A-Day-Rule Prevents Impulse Buying
If you struggle with buying things on credit when you really can’t afford them, it can lead to serious debt problems down the road (believe me, I speak from experience!)
How Unsecured Loans Help With Credit Repair
June 6, 2008
Need that extra cash? But you’re having doubts concerning your bad credit ratings? You can be relieved of such a predicament with latest developments in the loan markets. Having a poor credit rating is no more considered as the end of the world. You can now get unsecured loans, specially tailored to suit people with bad credit ratings.
These unsecure loans are designated for people with bad credit who do not have any collateral or other means of security. There are many new, flexibly designed loans for people who lack property or valuable assets to hold up in order to secure a loan, as normal loans require.
