Credit Repair Blog
Summer Bucket List That Won’t Ruin Your Credit
Everyone dreams of visiting an exotic destination. The great pyramids in Egypt, the jungles in the Amazon, maybe the country of your family’s ancestry. Or maybe your bucket list caters more to the adrenaline-seekers, with items like skydiving, bungee jumping, or swimming with sharks. As fun as it is to dream of these adventures, we’re often brought back to stark reality when we find the price tags associated with them.
How Having Multiple Credit Cards Can Help Your Credit.. or Ruin It
The cashiers at the store offer them, your mailbox is always full of them, and even your bank seems to be constantly promoting them. Credit card offers bombard us at every turn, and a lot of them have some pretty enticing rewards and promotions that may have you wondering, “what would happen to my credit if I did apply for these? How many credit cards is too many?”
How Does Using or Being a Co-signer Affect Your Credit?
Being turned down for a loan can be discouraging, especially if you have little or no credit history to help you apply for another. To improve your ability to qualify for loans, you may consider asking a friend or family member to cosign on your loan. But does having a cosigner necessarily mean you’ll be improving your credit, and what will it do to your cosigner’s credit?
Can Social Media Affect Your Credit Score?
The precise formula for determining your credit score is information privy to the credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion), and can vary between the different companies. Traditionally, the information on your credit report that determines your credit score is a mix of your payment history, amount owed, age of accounts, new credit, and type of credit used. But could additional lifestyle information, like the information we share on social media, become an additional tool that predicts our ability to repay loans?
Should You Use a Balance Transfer Card to Pay Off Credit Card Debt?
Whether intentional or not, using your credit card regularly can rack up debt in the blink of an eye. It’s easy to get in over your head with credit card bills and interest fees, but there are some options to help you pay down that debt quickly and avoid paying huge interest fees. One of these options is to use a balance transfer card.
How to Use Your Tax Refund to Repair Your Credit
Finding out that you’ll be receiving a significant tax refund can be exhilarating, especially if you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck or finances are tight. Coming into a good amount of money can get your wheels turning about finally being able to take a vacation, buy a new car, or buy something you’ve always wanted. But if your credit score could use some TLC and spending responsibly hasn’t been your best attribute, consider using your tax refund to set yourself up for future financial success rather than contribute to the cycle of spending and debt.
How to Protect Your Email Address From Identity Theft
Much of the world’s business today is conducted online, and it’s likely that most of your daily life is conducted online in several ways. We’ve all been warned about the dangers of online hackers and identity theft, most often that our credit cards and financial information is at stake, but what about your email address? When you notice unusual behavior in your email account is there really that much to worry about?
6 Budgeting Tips That Will Improve Your Credit
Most people don’t spend a lot of time budgeting. Online bank and financial services have made “checking in” on your accounts fast and easy, and all but eliminated the need to keep a record of what goes in and out. But with everything automated these days it’s easy to lose track of what bill gets withdrawn on what date, if the amount of your automatic deposited paycheck was accurate, or if your bank account has over-drafted for some reason.
How Can I Tell If A Credit Repair Company Is A Scam?
When poor financial decisions catch up to you, it can be tempting to look for quick fixes. After all, a low credit score can cost you sometimes thousands of dollars over time in high-interest fees, application fees, and so on. And a recent report from the Federal Trade Commission revealed that 1 in 5 consumers had a mistake on their credit report, from no fault of their own.
How Does Taking Out a Mortgage Affect Your Credit Score?
One of the top reasons to maintain a good credit score is because it can help you secure a low interest rate on a home mortgage. In fact, a poor credit score can even disqualify you from a mortgage. But if you somehow manage to do get a home loan with a poor credit score, you’ll likely pay thousands of dollars extra in interest payments than if you had a better score.
How to Protect Your Child’s Identity
Adults are often on guard about protecting their personal information and aware of common scams that could leave them susceptible, but what about our children? Because children don’t have credit cards or lines of credit, we usually don’t think about protecting their identities, but their blank slate is exactly why they’re prime targets for identity theft.
Should You Hire a Credit Repair Company or Fix Your Credit Yourself?
Fixing your credit is usually one of the first steps of those who are worried about being approved for a mortgage, car loan, or other form of financing. After all, your credit score can potentially cost or save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest rates, insurance premiums, etc. over the course of your lifetime. So if you’ve recently been denied a loan or know that your credit score needs some TLC, where do you start?
101 Ways to Spend Less and Save More
You’ve probably heard it all by now: stop shopping, stop eating out, stop buying things you don’t need. But where to you start? How do you stop spending and start saving? It’s hard but it’s not impossible. Here are 101 sneaky ways you haven’t thought of to spend less and save more.
Here Are The Numbers That Look Really Good on a Credit Report
Your credit score is important, and knowing your credit score can be a good indicator of whether or not you’re making responsible financial decisions, or maybe headed down the wrong path. But there are a lot of factors that make up your credit score, and lenders are interested in specifics when it comes to approving a loan.
How to Help your Family Members Repair their Credit
Practicing sound financial principles may come easy for you, but you probably know someone who can’t quite seem to get the hang of managing their money. It can be frustrating and even heartbreaking to watch them make mistakes that can potentially be serious and life-changing, but you don’t have to just sit and watch. Chances are, they are just not informed about the tools and options available to them to help them manage their money, repay their debt, and repair their credit.
What to Do When Your Finances Have Been Hacked
Getting that dreaded phone call that there has been suspicious activity on your bank account, or checking your finances online and noticing charges that weren’t yours is a terrible feeling. And while that pit in your stomach may linger for a while, grit your teeth and buckle down, because it’s time to fight the perpetrators and hopefully regain your losses.
How to Navigate a Repossession on your Credit Report
Life is unpredictable, and tough times seem to fall on everybody at one point or another. Whether you’re facing the loss of a job, the death of a family member, a car accident, medical issues, or any other life disruption, losing the ability to pay your bills can often add insult to injury during this time. Seeing your car get towed away may seem like rock bottom, but there are steps you can take to come back after a repossession and build your credit again.
How to Write a Goodwill Letter to Repair Your Credit
A goodwill letter is a letter to a creditor asking for empathy based on your situation. By taking responsibility for your mistake and ensuring a clean record going forward, you may ask a credit reporting agency to remove an account of a late payment on your credit report. It’s important to acknowledge that a goodwill letter asks the reporting agency to remove the damaging account from your report, not to change it or to be dishonest.Credit reporting agencies are required to provide accurate reports, but they do not have to report everything. It is at the discrepancy of the individual agency what they will report.