During tough financial times, people learn that it’s necessary to go back to the basics. All it takes to get through times like these is common sense and a good work ethic. If you’re ready to put in the work to get to the other side of these times, here are some budget and savings tips for you and your family. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Credit Cards’ Category
Three Budget and Savings Tips for Tough Times
Sunday, August 15th, 2010Secured Credit Cards Can Be the Safest Way to Help Rebuild Credit
Sunday, August 15th, 2010When your credit has been damaged by poor spending habits or because you experienced a financial emergency that affected your ability to keep up with expenses, rebuilding can seem like a nightmare. Many creditors are unwilling to change negative reports, and a late payment history can count against you for a number of years before your credit score starts to move upward. Unfortunately, the best you can do in these cases is often to create a pattern of positive payments to help overshadow the negative. (more…)
Making Sure the Debt You Owe is Actually Yours
Sunday, August 15th, 2010There are few things more annoying than constant pestering phone calls from debt collection agencies. Some of these collectors might be willing to go to great lengths to get you to pay a debt. They may resort to harassment in order to get you to just give up and pay the amount over the phone. Before you do pay a collections agency, you need to be sure that this is a legitimate debt. (more…)
Educate Yourself about Credit Cards
Sunday, August 15th, 2010It seems these days that money is almost an imaginary thing. So many people use digital technology to make payments straight from their bank accounts to pay their bills or buy goods and services. Even when buying items in a store, a quick swipe of your debit or credit card takes care of the purchase. The truth is that not very many people deal in cash these days. One of the reasons for this is that a lot of us live beyond our means and can’t actually afford to use cash to pay for many of the items we covet. (more…)
Credit Cards and Your Credit Score
Sunday, August 15th, 2010Many people aren’t aware of how much their credit score affects their lives until they try to buy a car or get a mortgage. A low credit score can even impact your ability to get a new job! If you’re ready to improve your credit score, one of the best places to start is with your credit cards.
Your credit score is made up of a variety of factors. They include things like how long you’ve had credit, whether you make your payments on time, and what types of credit you have. One of the biggest pieces of your score, though, is your debt to credit ratio. This is basically how much debt you’re carrying, especially in revolving credit like credit cards. Revolving credit can really harm your credit score because it’s volatile. (more…)
Authorized User Accounts Versus Joint Account Holders
Sunday, August 15th, 2010In the past, many credit repair companies and even individuals have used authorized user accounts as a way to fix credit. If one person who had bad credit became an authorized user on another person’s credit card, the credit card owner’s good credit and payment history could pull up the authorized user’s credit score. At first, this made a bit of sense. It allowed parents to help their children build credit history or their spouses to pull up their credit scores. Eventually, though, credit repair companies started to abuse this fact. They would actually pay people to add complete strangers as authorized users to their accounts. There wasn’t a huge risk for the card owners, since the strangers didn’t actually have plastic cards to swipe or credit card numbers at their fingertips. The card owners simply continued to keep their balances low and make payments on time, and they pulled up the credit scores of total strangers. (more…)
Don’t Let These Credit Mistakes Happen to You
Saturday, June 19th, 2010There are so many different ways that you can make mistakes on your credit report. In many cases, the mistake might not even be one that you made. If you are not diligent in keeping up with your credit history, then your credit score and purchasing power can suffer greatly. There are many mistakes that you can make that you should never want to appear on your credit report, however. These might happen because you just do not realize how negatively they might impact your life. Keep in mind that a bad credit score won’t just earn you a credit rejection, but it might cost you a coveted job. (more…)
Building Good Credit Habits
Saturday, June 19th, 2010Whether you are working to build a good credit history or to repair a bad one, there are several things that you should know. First of all, keeping an eye on your credit report is the very best thing that you can do. By ordering an annual credit report, you will be able to watch for any reporting errors or accounts that have been opened as a result of identity theft. Keeping these items off of your credit report is the very first step to maintaining a healthy credit rating. (more…)
Why Check All Three Credit Scores Before Applying for Credit?
Saturday, June 12th, 2010If you know anything about your credit, you probably know that you have three credit cards. This is mainly because credit reporting is an independent, money-making business, and there are three credit bureaus out there that will report your credit for you. These companies are in competition, even though they provide very similar information. Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian will all three have slightly different scores for you. Sometimes this is because of mistakes, and sometimes it’s based on slightly different information and calculation. (more…)
How Debt Settlements Can Help Your Credit Score
Saturday, June 12th, 2010The words debt settlement seem ominous, and many who are in debt don’t even know what these words even mean. Getting debt settlements can really help your credit score, though. Here is what these things are, how they work, and how they can help your credit score.
Basically, a debt settlement is when you go to a company to whom you owe money and offer to pay them one lump sum payment rather than having to continue to make payments over months or years. You can often pay just pennies on the dollar of what you owe to credit card companies, medical creditors, and on any other type of unsecured loan. Settlements don’t work for student loans, and they also don’t work for secured loans on things like cars or homes that can act as collateral. (more…)
©2010 Credit Umbrella Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable law. NOTICE: Your use of this product is subject to the license agreement included with the media. Terms, conditions, features, availability, pricing fees, service and support options subject to change at any time without notice. Credit Umbrella™, Credit Dispute Manager™, AddressDetect™, MyCreditUmbrella™, Dispute Manager™, Credit Report Dashboard™, If You Can Click It...You Can Fix It! ™ and the CreditUmbrella logo are all trademarks of Credit Umbrella Inc. Other trademarks or service marks which you may encounter are the property of third parties.