Credit: it's one of the modern economy's biggest driving forces, allowing people to buy cars, start businesses, and acquire homes without having to supply the cash out of pocket. Since credit is so important to the way people do business with one another, it's essential to have a standardized way to gauge a person's creditworthiness. That's where a credit score comes in. A person's credit score is a measure of how long and how responsibly they've used the credit available to them, as judged by the three major credit-rating agencies. The score, which typically falls between the 300 and 800,…

Unfortunately for many of us, VISA really is everywhere we want to be. Thanks to impulse purchasing and poor budgeting habits, the convenience of a credit card often causes us to spend a bit more than we should. In fact, according to CNN, the average household in America had $15,950 in credit card debt in 2012. On average, that debt was subject to interest rates that were in the mid to high teens (and sometimes even higher). This may be great news for credit card companies, but it is certainly bad news for consumers who struggle with money management. Worse still,…

Credit Scores are like the secret room in a government building that only the highest level security personnel can access. No one really knows how exactly they are scored, but we do know some things. Here are six things that you may not have known, but are very beneficial:  There is no absolute number: The comprisers of the widely accept FICO allow different lenders to customize their own system, so lenders will not all give you the same score. Also, each of the three bureaus --TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian-- has a proprietary scoring model. To make things just a little more…

How your FICO score is calculated is only partially known, but what is known can certainly be the armor you use to protect yourself against a plummeting number. So, the breakdown is as below, these five categories: 35% -- Payment History 30% -- Amounts Owed 15% -- Length of Credit History 10% -- New Credit 10% -- Types of Credit Used Importance of categories varies per person For some groups, the importance of these categories may vary; for example, people who have not been using credit long will be factored differently than those with a longer credit history. WHAT IS…

January 2014, also known as New Year’s resolution time. One of the biggest resolutions, along with losing weight, getting out from under debt, quitting smoking or even getting a new job, is improving credit. There is only so much a person can do improve credit as far as actions they take. What do I mean? As an example, if you have a bankruptcy, you may ask yourself what you can do. It’s there, like a big red beacon. A BK can be on your report for up to 10 years, and there’s very little you can do to change it,…

There’s a lot of things we tell ourselves we will do in the new year, lose weight, eat better, exercise more, be kinder to ourselves and others, volunteer, etc. But only 46% of all resolutions will survive the six month mark. If you have a financial goal, and if you have credit card debt, then your first goal must be to get out from under it. WHAT IS THE TYPICAL COST TO PURCHASE A TRADELINE? With the state of the economy, if you have credit cards in your name then you are one of the lucky ones. You have the…

Just a few days ago it was revealed that Target had debit and credit card data stolen from its databases for tens of millions of customers. It brings up the question, which one is safer to swipe, your debit card, or your credit card? People love their debit cards. They interface directly with their checking accounts. There are no bills, and no chance of spending more money than you have available, making it far more difficult to overspend or do an impulse splurge purchase. But when it comes to fraud, debit cards are "loaded with holes," according to Johm Ulzheimer, a credit expert…

The answer to this question isn’t a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Many times we will see people that have good incomes but have not paid the proper attention to how they are handling their credit accounts. It may not seem like a big deal to be late a few days here, a few days there, but after time this negative information adds up and drags your score down. Think of it like a neutrally buoyant object floating on the ocean’s surface. The more negative things on your report, the more weight you add, eventually causing you to sink, sometimes drastically.…

The factors that are used to generate your FICO score are fairly well known, and one of the biggest of all, is length of time you’ve had accounts established. It can affect the type of credit you get, and how good the rates you get on that credit. Length of Credit: One big question people often ask is, how can I extend the length of my credit history? The answer is, not a whole lot (usually), as there aren’t many quick fixes for quickly boosting the age of your credit history. This is why the older accounts you have, even if…

Your credit score is like any relationship. And while it may not require you to be quite as sensitive as a significant other, it does take paying attention to, but even with the best of intentions, things can get a little rough at times. Perhaps your bills have been late a few months in a row, and now your credit has taken a dip. You’re not alone as tens of millions of people in America have sufficient negative information on their bureaus to affect their ability to get loans and credit cards with reasonable terms. Or perhaps your credit is…