High debt will not only affect your credit reportbut it will affect your personal life. Living debt free does require some life style changes for the better. Having too much consumer debt is like a black cloud lingering over you. In this article we will discuss some money saving tips so you don’t have to get into a debt consolidation program or even file bankruptcy. By following some of these money saving Tips you will be able to pay down debt and save more.
• Car Pool With the cost of gas prices sky rocketing and no end in sight, car pooling is a great way to save hundreds of dollars each month. Find a few people that live close by and start car pooling.
• Bulk Stores There are stores where you buy everything in bulk, like groceries, furniture, computers, etc…. By using one of these stores there is usally a membership fee once a year, but the savings will quickly recoup that cost. A bulk store example would be Sams and Costco.
• Don’t eat out Going out to eat everyday for lunch gets very costly. If you were to bring your lunch to work everyday, could save you hundreds a month. Alos not eating out everyday will not only save you lots of money, but it could save your health. Fast food is bad for you anyways.
• Coupons By cutting out coupons in the Sunday paper you can save a ton of money. Some stores will match or beat competitor’s offers as well. Just by taking the time to cut out coupons in the Sunday paper, you could find yourself saving hundreds as well.
• Garage Sale If you are like most people I am sure you have the pack rat syndrome. With all that STUFF you have been saving, you could probably have a garage sale and acquire a nice savings.
• Utilities You can save money with on utility bills by doing the following 1. Turn down the heat 2. Turn up the air condition 3. Turn off lights and TVs when not using them. 4. Turn of the water when shaving and brushing your teeth
With your credit being so important these days, make sure you are heading towards the wonderful goal of financial freedom. It will be hard to get there if you are not being frugal.
Debt consolidation can help reduce your monthly payment with multiple credit card companies, but with debt elimination you can relieve your debt and burdens more effectively by eliminating debts. Debt consolidation requires you to pay back your debts on the principal plus interest. With the service we provide you reduce you debt paid on debt balance, save money, and eliminate your debt in less than 36 months.
Debt Consolidation Debt consolidation loans combine all debts into one payment for an extended period of time with a low interest rate, which will extend the total interest payments throughout the life of the loan.
The program we are able to provide will eliminate debt and save large amounts of money. During this process a highly trained representative will act on your behalf to resolve debt by bargaining with your creditors to negotiate a payment. An advisor will resolve debt reduction for you.
Reduce Debt Quickly By only having to pay on a reduced credit card balance with the service we are talking about, you resolve your debt quickly. Debt consolidation typically puts all your credit card debt into a 15 to 30 year mortgage. With the interest paid on a debt consolidation you end up paying more on the balances owed due to the term.
The service we are talking about will save you more money and eliminate debt a lot quicker than debt consolidation. Plus this service will look a lot better on your credit report than a bankruptcy.
Q: Hi Mike, I have a question about my credit score. In today’s market what is really considered a good credit score to get the best interest rates and terms on any thing I borrow? I have always paid my bills on-time, and don’t have any collections. I was just curious what that benchmark might be. Also how often should I pull my credit report? Is once a year good enough?
Sandy Morton New York, New York
A: Hi Sandy, These are some great questions. In today’s market a credit score about a 720 is considered good credit for the best rate and terms. Some lenders have their own bench mark for better rates. They might require a 740 or above to get a quarter better or so. With the current FICO score model, a credit score 720 or above is considered excellent credit. If you score is around that benchmark, I would not sweat it.
How often should you pull your credit is a question I get quite often, here is something to chew on. The current revolving credit you have, re-reports every 30 days. That means anything can happened to your credit scores and credit report within a 30 period. So since your credit score is so important these days, I would recommend pulling your credit report at least once a quarter. Pulling your credit report is just good management of your credit health, and a good way to watch out for identity theft. Remember pulling your own credit report does not affect your credit score; this is considered a consumer credit report which is a soft pull on your score.If you want your credit scores you will have to pay for them, which I recommend since they are part of the decision making process in lending.
There is a new trend going on in Health Care, what’s your credit score? Hospitals are starting to check credit reports to see whether a patient will pay their medical bills and which ones just need to be written off. There are concerns about whether a patient will get the quality of health care they need if their credit report has bumps and bruises on it. Is there such a thing as credit score discrimination?
Some advocates are concerned that this process could lead to some patient not getting the health care they need. Hospitals are denying this. But we have to remember Hospitals are a business too. Advocates are also concerned this might force some patients to get high interest rate credit lines to pay for medical services. This currently goes on in the Dentistry industry. In order to finance a crown, you pay high interest on the money borrowed. Nether less it looks like everybody’s credit score will be pulled if services will be rendered.
Currently some of the big players trying to sell services such as health care risk models. Equifax is one of the key players that has a score that will predict the likelihood that a patient will pay back medical obligations. With the new digital age, and the instant response of the internet, Health care organizations can get your risk in a matter of seconds.
Currently the hospital chains such as Tenet and Fair Isaac’s the developer of the FICO credit score are some of the top supporters of health care analytic s, a company that is putting together bill-collection data from hospitals for predicting patient payment habits.
This is just another example of how the wonderful credit score is so important these days, this 3 digit number is creeping into our health care sector currently.
The American dream is to own a home someday. We all have this passion deep down in side. Most Americans don’t have the money to pay cash, so they turn to lender to assist with the purchase of there first or second home. With all the new guidelines in banking I will give you exactly what you need to do to secure a mortgage. I know everyone’s situation is different, but there are some steps you can take so you will not have problems in today’s lending market. This will also help you regardless of what the lending market is doing.
Know what’s on your credit report Most people have not idea what is on their credit report. They also have not idea what their credit scores are. This is amazing to me, since the way to financial freedom is to manage your credit health. Otherwise you are probably paying too much in the way of terms and rates. Get a copy of your credit report with credit scores regularly to mange your scores.
Pay all your bills on-time If you think paying a bill late every once in a while is ok, you might want to rethink that logic. A single late payment on any obligation will lower your credit score between 100 and 150 points. So if you had a credit score of 750, now it’s a 600 score. If you are having financial problems and think you might be late, call the creditor to make arrangements. Make sure once you work out something, that you get something in writing stating they will not report any payments late with the arrangement. So the idea is to not be late on anything. Lenders don’t like to see you late on anything, because this looks like you are having financial problems. This ultimately means you are not ready to buy in a underwriters eyes.
Save your money When applying for a mortgage, having savings is a big plus. This shows you have stability and the ability to save money for emergencies. Most loans are run through a automated underwriting engine, and with savings in the bank could mean the difference between a approval or a denial. A good goal to have is 6 months worth of mortgage payment in the bank. If you are buying a house around $200,000 six months payment would be $12,000 in savings.
Pay your Rent on-time, and don’t break a lease.
Being able to pay rent for at least 12 months on-time is a plus. It looks better to pay rent and all your utilities on time for 12 to 24 months. This shows a underwriter you are able to handle responsibility. Lease agreements are one of those contract deals that if you break it and don’t pay the fee to break the lease it can show up on your credit report, plus the apartment complex typically will not give a good verification for rent due to the lease being broken.
Some borrowers that have sallie mae student loans were shocked last week when they checked their credit report with Equifax, only to find that their credit scores have dropped. Some of the borrowers were delinquent, and some were not.
Here is what happened Last Thursday May the 8th Sallie Mae made a error in the way some student loans were reported to the credit bureau. They reported graduated or extended repayment plan as arrangements for partial payment. This caused Equifax the biggest and oldest credit bureau to code the accounts as delinquent, even if they were current.
An extended payment plan allows the borrower to pay the loan out over 12 to 30 years. The standard plan usually is in repayment over 10 years. A graduated payment plan starts out as a low payment, and gradually increases every two years over a term of 12 to 30yrs.
“ There are some repayment plans that on our system are considered a partial payment. They are still in current status, but they are essentially for an extended or graduated repayment plan, and with our understanding of these industry guidelines on how to code that is where we made an error,” Says Martha Holler, spokeswoman for Sallie Mae. “
Borrowers with extended or graduated repayment plans who applied for credit or pulled their credit scores in the last three business days may have had “one or more of their accounts show up late, and had a negative impact on their credit scores,” Says Tom Joyce, spokesman for Sallie Mae
Some students that had these types of loans complained in the FICO forums that their FICO scores had dropped a total of 100 points because of this mistake.
Joyce says ” less than 10 percent” of their 10 million borrowers, or less than 1 million borrowers were affected by this mistake.
Action being taken Sallie Mae plans on working with Equifax to fix this problem with borrowers who’s credit reports were affected. These errors will be deleted from the Equifax, and the borrower’s credit score should return to the scores they were.
Meanwhile Sallie Mae said they would provide letters to those that need them. Sallie Mae urges borrowers concerned about this mistake to call (888) 272-5543
This is a great reason to pull your credit report; you never know when a creditor is going to make a mistake. Current statistics show that 80% of credit reports have errors on them.
This is a common concern out there about having your credit reportpulled and whether or not this will hurt your credit score. There are certain inquiries that affect your overall score, and in this article we will discuss what really affects your score. There are two types of inquiries on your credit report, and they are called a soft inquiry and a hard inquiry. Here are the breakdowns.
Hard inquiries – this could affect your FICO score.
• Credit report pulls by a mortgage company or a bank
• Application for a credit card
• Application for a car
• Application for a bank loan
Soft inquiries – This does not affect your FICO score • Pulling your own credit report
• Having a creditor whom you already have credit with pull your credit report
• Credit checks by prospective employers
How interest rate shopping affects your score. When looking for auto or mortgage loan, this can trigger multiple credit inquiries. To compensate for this the score models allow multiple inquiries within a 30 day period before it scores you. The score model looks for inquiries within that 30 day period and only counts it as one inquiry.
How much could your scores drop as a result of hard inquiries? In some cases a hard inquiry will not affect your score at all, and in some cases a hard inquiry could lower your score around 5 points. If your credit is in good standing as far as you know, you really don’t have anything to worry about. If you are getting ready to make a purchase or have been turned down for credit, go ahead and see where your credit scorestands. FICO recommends that your check your credit often just in case there is something on there that could hinder a credit approval.
If you decide to use a lending institution, your ability to buy will be based on your credit score. Do you currently know yours? Here is some advice from Stephanie AuWerter, Editor of Smartmoney.com, on learning and improving your score.
During times like these, a good score should be top priority. Because of the current and ongoing credit crisis, lenders have got tough in credit score requirements. If you are looking for a mortgage, credit card, small business loan, the bar has been raised. If you want to get the best rates your FICO scores needs to be high. According for Fair Isaac credit scores range between 300 – 850 and you should shoot for a 750 or higher. The great news is you can improve your credit score fairly quickly. The first step is to know where you stand, and you can pull a copy of your FICO score at CreditScoreQuick.com
One of the worst things you can do to devastate your credit score is to be lat on a payment. If for some reason you pull your credit report and there is a late payment you knew nothing about, you usually can call to get the late payment removed if you are a good paying customer. If you were actually late, you can still call and ask them to remove the late payment, but of course they have no reason to re-move it. But it does not hurt to ask, you have nothing to loose.
You should also pay down yourcredit carddebt. Credit card debt hurts your score. FICO does not like to see your credit card debt reaching its credit limit. This can be a little tricky because some credit card companies are lowering credit lines for some customers. According the Fair Issac you want to keep your credit card balances below 30% of your total credit line. So pay down your debts.
Don’t cancel credit cards you don’t use. Credit cardsthat have no balances actually are helping your fico score. Having credit cards with credit lines help your credit score, and it does not hurt to charge occasionally on it and pay it off that month.
Finally correct credit report mistakes. Almost 80% of credit reports have mistakes on them, 29% of which are serious enough to result in a credit denial. So pull a copy of your credit report with credit scores and give it a good review. Get a copy of your credit report at http://www.creditscorequick.com/. If you find a mistake on it the bureaus has 30 days to remove it if the credit bureau finds that the dispute is accurate.
The home buying process can become the biggest nightmare if not done correctly. I am sure you have heard of all the stories out there about somebody’s loan not going smooth and what a humiliating experience that can be. Since buying a home is the single biggest purchase you will ever make, you need to make sure the process you are giving is the correct one. Since most of us are emotional buyers, and would like to go look at homes before getting a loan in place, this might seem like to best process to follow. I will be the first to tell you, that if you go look at homes before you get a mortgage loan in place, you very well could be part of the nightmare mentioned. Take our advice and remember this.
Get approved for a mortgage loan Most people like to lead the cart before the horse, only because it seems easier. Unfortunately that is not the process when buying a home. The first step is to get a mortgage loan secured. The reason for this is anything can go wrong when buying a house if you don’t dot your I’s and cross your T’s. It probably sounds like more fun to run out and look at a bunch of homes, before getting you’re financing in place. With all the current tightening up in the mortgage industry, and your credit score needing to be higher these days, you cannot afford to assume you will be able to get financing. The lending requirements are a lot stricter these days. Let’s assume you go out and find the home of your dreams, but you have not idea what you qualify for. Nor do you have any idea what your payment would be on the homes you are looking at. Here is a list of situations that could happen if you don’t get pre-approved before looking at homes. Also if you know you have good credit, you still may get denied, so don’t assume anything.
1. Find a home only to get let down because you don’t qualify for it.
2. Thought the payment would be lower.
3. Need money for down payment you don’t have.
4. Got something on your credit report you knew nothing about.
5. Your credit scores are too low for your type of loan scenario.
6. Someone has stolen your identity and you just found out.
7. You don’t have enough credit to get a mortgage loan
This is just some key problems that could take place if you don’t get your pre-approval first. If you go out and write a contract up on a home, and find out later you cannot secure financing you have wasted your time and everyone involved. Plus it could cost you your earnest money which could be between $500 and $1000 dollars.
Get a seasoned realtor to help with your search After you are pre-approved for a mortgage loan, you need a highly qualified realtor. You don’t want to work with a realtor that runs you out to look at homes before you meet with a lender. If a realtor does this, you are going to have problems. I promise. Most seasoned realtors will not allow you in their car until you are approved with a reputable mortgage lender. This may not sound like the process you want to follow, but it the only way to get matters rolling and it’s the correct way.
Whether you have thought about buying, or maybe you were just denied for a mortgage, what every your situation is, most people are pulling a copy of their-credit report to get an idea where they stand with their credit. Don’t take the easy way out, because it will make matters hard for you.
We all know credit scoresare pretty much the ticket to a lot of things these days. This is a question that has two sides to it. Over the years most credit repair companies will tell you not to pay off collection accounts because it gives an updated collection to the credit bureaus. I will be the first to tell you, that if it’s a new collection you are better off settling on the collection and asking for a letter to delete from all 3 credit bureaus. There is also a trick of the lender community, where we ask you to pay off a collection and get a a letter from the creditor reporting the collection, Once you provide the letter we go to our credit reporting company and do what is called a rapid rescore. What this entails is we get the credit bureaus to update the status of a collection from balance being owed to “paid in full” or “settled” depending on what was negotiated.
Once a collection is updated here is what typically happens. 1. Your score will increase depending on how many accounts you paid off
2. The status of the account will change
3. Balance being owed will be $0
So the answer is yes typically when you pay off collection accounts your credit score will increase. We have been doing this for years, and it works. The reason is you are changing the status of the account from balanced owed to either settled or paid in full. This is the secret that most don’t know. Why do credit repair companies tell you not to pay off collections, I personally believe it’s because they don’t have access to do rapid rescore process like mortgage companies do.
In some cases when you pay off collections your credit score could drop, but will eventually go up. There is no miracle when it comes to repairing your credit report, it is always better to pay off your debts you owe though. Typically when you pay off a collection your credit scores will increase. Just remember as you are working on paying off old bad debt make sure you are not late on anything. If you are late on a obligation that reports to your credit report, you are defeating the entire purpose of increasing your credit scores. Late payments will drop your credit score between 100 to 150 points.
If you are uncertain what is on your credit reportgo ahead and get a copy of your credit reportToday.
Disclaimer: This information has been compiled and provided by CreditScoreQuick.com as an informational service to the public. While our goal is to provide information that will help consumers to manage their credit and debt, this information should not be considered legal advice. Such advice must be specific to the various circumstances of each person's situation, and the general information provided on these pages should not be used as a substitute for the advice of competent legal counsel.
High debt will not only affect your credit report but it will affect your personal life. Living debt free does require some life style changes for the better. Having too much consumer debt is like a black cloud lingering over you. In this article we will discuss some money saving tips so you don’t have to get into a debt consolidation program or even file bankruptcy. By following some of these money saving Tips you will be able to pay down debt and save more.
