Credit Repair. Increase Your Credit Score!

Credit card issuers offer a range of credit cards with great terms and not so great terms. Your credit score affects which credit card you’re ultimately approved for and, often, whether your credit card has good terms or bad terms. If you’re wondering exactly why you should repair your credit, access to better credit cards is a great reason. If you’re working toward creating a better score, here’s what you can look forward to.

More Likely Approval

One of the hardest parts of having bad credit is that you never know you’re your credit card applications will be approved or denied. But, when you have good credit, you’re more likely to have your credit card application approved. You can apply with confidence rather than fear. Applicants with low credit scores have fewer options when it comes to choosing a credit card because few credit card issuers offer credit card for people with bad credit scores. With bad credit, you may have to accept high interest rates or annual fees that you can often avoid with better credit.

Lower Interest Rates

Credit card interest rate is often the most important factor when you’re choosing a credit card. You’ll notice that many credit card advertise a range of APRs, for example from 9.9% to 21.9%. The credit card issuer decides your interest rate once they’ve checked your credit history. If you have a good credit score, you’re more likely to get the lower interest rate, which means you’ll have lower finance charges on balances you don’t pay off. Read more…

When you are attempting to improve your credit score and repair your credit mistakes from the past, there are certain loan types that can help the process. Part of the requirement for having excellent credit is the type of loans you have as well as how you manage those loans on a consistent basis. Your credit score will also benefit from having a variety of loan types. The more diverse your background, the better it is for you.

Why Do Loans Help?

Your credit score is a reflection of how you manage your credit, bill payments, and limitations of credit. While it seems counterproductive that the more loans you have the better your credit will benefit but it genuinely is the case when it comes to personal credit.

The logic behind this is that the lenders want to know you have the ability to juggle multiple account types and terms without problems. This ensures them you will be less likely to default on repaying their loan since your history shows strength when it comes to monthly obligations. Your ability to handle multiple account types also helps lenders to understand you are financial stable enough to see through your commitments.

What Kind of Loans Will Help?

A basic rule of good credit is to never have too much of one thing. For instance, you can have a great credit history payment-wise but if you only have Read more…

How many times have you dated someone only to have them back out once it started getting serious? Could you always pinpoint what it was that turned them off? Maybe you thought it was your appearance, but then how do you explain getting their number or initial dates? Perhaps it was your personality? But then you’d have to write off all those shared heart-felt laughs and moments of genuine connection that seemed to speak of something more. The answer to your question might be a little less obvious until you’ve actually considered its implications.

What I’m proposing isn’t that there’s something inherently wrong with you, but instead, something might be wrong with the financial decisions you’ve made, which set off red flags in the eyes of your object of desire. No matter where you are in your career, if someone genuinely is interested in you, they won’t care what you do for a living. But, if you’ve dug yourself into a financial hole with no clear plan to unearth yourself, you’re going to have subsequent love problems, guaranteed. Not many sensible people are interested in marrying someone and taking on their debts, especially in this financial climate.

You’ve heard about avoiding people who carry “emotional baggage,” but a new rising expression in our lexicon that’s on many daters’ minds is Read more…

You may have trouble getting approved for a new credit card when you’re trying to repair your credit. It creates a dilemma since you need to add new positive information to your credit report. Fortunately, there’s a product that can help you.

A secured credit card is a type of credit card that requires you to make a security deposit against the credit limit. Other than the security deposit, the secured credit card acts like a regular credit card. If you make your payments on time for several months, you can get your security deposit back. When you choose a secured credit card, there are several features you should consider.

Does the credit card report to the three major credit bureaus?

When it comes to secured credit cards, this is one of the most important things to consider. Any credit card you choose for credit repair must report to the major credit bureaus – at least one of them. Otherwise, your timely payments aren’t doing anything to help your credit history. The major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. There are other credit bureaus out there, but they’re not the major ones that most lenders consider when they’re calculating your credit score.

What are the fees?

A certain number of fees are expected with a secured credit card, but these fees shouldn’t Read more…

Very often people get in trouble with credit cards and promise to stay away from all credit cards and other debt instruments forever. The problem is that you may not build the best credit score by making this choice. After all, how are you going to rebuild your credit score if you don’t have any credit cards or loans to pay.

You Must Borrow Money to Borrow More Money

When you apply for a credit card or loan, the bank looks at your past credit history to decide whether to approve your application and at what interest rate. Credit repair may remove some of the negative information from your credit score, so while that won’t hurt you, your lack of new credit may hurt you. Lenders often want to see you with a certain number of active accounts within recent history before they’ll give you a new credit card or loan. If you don’t have this recent credit experience – positive or negative – your loan may be turned down.

You may think you won’t need a new loan after credit repair, but most people will need to borrow money again to buy a new car or house. Chances are you don’t have the money on hand to buy one of these without getting a loan. Using credit cards responsibly can help improve your chances of loan approval.

Your Credit Score May Plateau

Since you’re trying bring your credit score back from a low point, you’ll have to add some Read more…

When you are working to resolve unpaid debts in an effort to repair your credit history and score, it is important to understand the rules concerning the Statute of Limitations on the debts you carry. There are many occasions where a consumer will come across an old debt still listed on their credit report and make a mistake by making a payment towards a debt. The mistake occurs when the debt is old enough to meet the requirements of the statute of limitations in their state – meaning the consumer was no longer legally obligated to make good on the debt.

Why Statutes Matter

Old debs that still appear on your credit report may already be past the statute of limitations time period. The statute of limitations, or SOL, is the length of time you are legally obligated to pay a debt. The time begins from the day you fail to abide by the agreement or contract with the creditor, which typically means when you fail to make a monthly payment as required. The SOL timeline continues to run from the day you fail to make payment on an open account and lasts for the time period dictated by your state. Every state has different statute of limitation periods but typically the range averages between 3-6 years. Some states can go as long as 10 years. There are also different time lines for written, oral, open-ended and promissory contract and agreements.

This is not advocate not paying your debts and simply letting the clock run out. Rather the statutes can help your credit repair when an old debt, long forgotten is discovered on a credit report. Before attempting to make a payment or negotiate with the creditor to pay off the balance due, the consumer should look into their state’s statute time period. If a partial payment or payment in full is made on the account, it my retrigger the SOL time period making you fully responsible to pay back the debt. However, if the time of limitations has passed on the debt, you will not have to pay the debt back. The statute of limitations will not affect how long the debt remains on your credit report as unpaid.

Obviously not making good on your creditor payments will Read more…

Clearing up your credit history often will involve handling collection agencies that have assumed your old debts. Collection agents are infamous for using tactics that are less-than-nice when trying to get back money owed. In many cases, a collection agent will get paid a percentage of the debt they are collecting on so they utilized no-holds-barred techniques to get a payment.

For some consumers who show collection agency information on their credit report, it can be difficult to negotiate the removal of the data from the report. But there are methods to be considered when trying to clear a collection agency debt from your consumer credit report.

Here are four options you have for handling a collection agency debt:

Pay Up In full

If the collection agency is able to validate your debt and it is a relatively small amount, it may be in your best interest to pay the balance off in full with the contingency that the debt information will be removed from your credit report. Not all collection agencies will be cooperative but many will agree to remove the data once the debt has been satisfied in full. They want to get back as much money as possible so they will be somewhat open to working with you. Too many consumers fail to ask for the incentive when they agree to pay in full so they end up with no real changes on their credit report. Get any agreements in writing.

Ask for a Settlement

For larger debts you can not afford to pay in full, discuss Read more…

Consumers who are trying to reestablish good credit and are working towards their credit repair goals need to consider adding at least one savings goal to the mix of financial steps forward. While living paycheck to paycheck, it may be difficult to put any cash to the side but it is essential to tuck at least a few bucks every week into a savings account for emergency purposes.

The Point of Emergency Savings

For many people, an emergency fund is a component of their financial plan for the long and short term. For those working on repairing their credit, an emergency savings fund is an added layer of protection to ensure that they will not fall back into the same debt traps and credit problems of the past. An emergency fund is built up slowly to ensure that the funds are available for use when needed and only for emergencies. For those who hope to save up for a new car or other non-essential, another savings account should be established outside of the emergency fund.

How to Save Emergency Funds

The best way to get started is to select a high interest yielding account. You may have to look outside of your traditional bank to find a better interest rate. Many online banks are offering higher interest rates but it is important to research all of your options.

Once you have selected your bank, sit down with your budget and decide where you can make some cuts to begin putting cash into your savings. You may need to cut out your daily breakfast run or the like to find the spare cash. If you can only find $10 a week, Read more…

The top reason you may have to go through the steps of credit repair is due to your mounting debts. Debt is one of the biggest issues among families today as the costs of living continue to skyrocket. People are finding themselves more in debt than ever and as a result, their credit score is dropping lower and lower.

There are a variety of reasons why people find themselves in debt. Dire financial straits are typically the result of the following eight reasons and we are here to offer some tips of how to repair your situation and your credit status:

1. Increased Expenses/ Same Income

As the cost of nearly everything continues to rise, employers are being particularly cautious about the economy and are not quick to hand out raises or bonuses in the last few years. For many people, their income will remain the same but they end up accruing more expenses just to get by day by day.

How to Cope: If a raise is out of the question at work, it may be necessary to either look for new employment or find a supplemental source of income (ie: a second job). You have also work to live below your means and for some, budget cuts need to be made. Cut off the cable and downsize your other living expenses as much as possible so you can start saving more money.

2. Not Following Budget Guidelines

A budget is an essential component of good credit. With a budget, you have outlined Read more…

It was just recently announced by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Trade Commission that there will be new proposed legislations concerning the disclosure for credit score requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These proposed measures are meant to make it easier for consumers to grasp the realities of their personal financial situation.

The Board has proposed to amend Regulation V of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The content is expected to be revised concerning the risk-based pricing notices. The Board also proposes to amended parts of the Regulation B related to the Equal Credit Opportunity which combines the adverse action notice requirements for Regulation B and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Both of the amendments would change the model notices to include the new credit score disclosure requirements as they have been proposed. Previous amendments to these regulations went into effect on January 1.

What Would the New Legislation Mean?

If the proposed amendments are accepted, the changes to the risk-based pricing notices would include: Read more…

A guest post by Nathalia Aryani, writing for The Dollar Stretcher.

We all could use a little extra cash. With high unemployment rates, a new marketplace where people are buying and selling services for $5 flat per “gig” has been created. The days of high rates and tedious bids for simple projects are gone. Elance and ODesk certainly have their place and established freelancers.

Founded in February 2010, Fiverr.com is the pioneer in this market. You may be an expert at something or willing to do certain things that others can’t or won’t. You may be looking for a service on the cheap. If you own a business, you may be looking to outsource a task or upsell a service.

You create a seller account, profile, and gig. When someone orders your gig, he or she will pay $5 when the project is completed. Fiverr takes a clean cut of $1 per payment received. Paypal charges a nominal service fee when you withdraw your money. Buyers can post positive feedback, which will boost your rating as a seller just like eBay.

Take a look at these offerings: Read more…

A credit score of 680-700 used to be enough to get great loans and mortgage rates, as well as credit cards with low APRs, but since the Financial Crisis of 2008, many lenders have raised their expectations of consumers, making it hard to get good loans and credit extensions with a score under 720-730. To obtain scores of that caliber, one must not only be financially responsible with paying on time, but also cautious in the utilization of credit.

If you are just starting out on your credit repair journey, one of the key elements of rebuilding your credit will be your close association with your credit history report. Some consumers have never even seen their credit history report let alone have an understanding of what is contained in the report.

For all intents and purposes, getting to know your credit report is a requirement of fixing bad credit. It is this report that will dictate the steps you need to take for getting better credit scores and reestablishing a solid credit history. Because your credit report plays a large part in your credit repair adventure, it may be helpful for you to understand where the data comes from.

Forming a Credit Report

From the very first time you open an account with a creditor, a credit profile is established on your behalf. Moving forward, your credit profile will continue to gather information from creditors and companies where you have current open accounts in addition to the accounts you have since closed from the past. It is your creditors including banks, mortgage companies, retailers, credit card providers, and collection agencies that provide the data pertinent to your credit report.

As you use your credit accounts, your creditors will report back to Read more…

Many young people get bad credit right out the gate because they haven’t learned the fundamentals of credit repair before when they get their first credit card. Unfortunately, it can be harder for someone under age 21 to repair their credit because of recent changes in the credit card law.

Trouble Getting New Credit Under Age 21

One of the keys to credit repair is rebuilding your credit score by making timely payments on a credit card account that’s in good standing. For young adults under age 21, this can be difficult.

Recent chances to the credit card law requires credit card issuers to verify income of young adults before giving them a credit card. If you don’t have any income, or at least enough income, to qualify for the credit card, then you’d have to get a co-signer to open a new credit card account. It may be hard to convince someone to cosign your credit card application, especially if you have a history of not making your credit card payments and you don’t have a job.

What Can Young Adults Do to Improve Bad Credit?

There are still some things you can do to improve your credit even if Read more…

You have two choices when it comes to credit repair. You can either hire a credit repair company. Or you can do-it-yourself. (Doing nothing is a third option, but, for your credit score’s sake, let’s assume you won’t take that route.) Many people choose to hire a credit repair company because they don’t know where to start, but there are many benefits of repairing your own credit.

You Avoid Scams

Even though there is a Federal law dictating what credit repair companies can and can’t do, there are still many companies who scam consumers. These unscrupulous companies mislead consumers about what can and can’t be done for their credit scores. They charge upfront fees, something they aren’t supposed to do. And some even make promises they never intend to keep.

When you choose to hire a credit repair company, you have to take the time to find a reputable company who will follow the law, not lie to you, and will charge you fairly. There are reputable companies out there, but when you do your own credit repair, you don’t have to take the time to find one.

You’ll Save Money

Credit repair companies charge hundreds and even thousands of dollars for their services. Even if you have the money to pay for the service, Read more…