Prepaid Credit Cards – The Alternative for those with Bad Credit
In today’s technological era, it seems that more and more business and personal transactions are being done over the phone or online. As opposed to the old days when things were done through the mail or you had to go in person, the electronic age makes everything quicker. You can conduct routine transactions, from the comfort of your home, during almost any time of the day. You can do almost anything within minutes from making hotel reservations, booking airline tickets, or purchasing something from across the country on EBay or Amazon.
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Credit Repair Companies-Buyer Beware!
After some unfortunately bad financial decisions, you find yourself with a very low credit score and collections agencies hounding you on a daily basis. You are desperate to find a way out of this mess that you have landed yourself in. The credit repair commercials on TV and radio seem so attractive. They claim they can make all your credit woes go away with magic solutions that seem almost too good to be true. Well, most of the time these claims are really not true and may even be illegal. Although legitimate credit repair companies do exist, you must be aware of some very key facts if you plan to sign up with one.
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Build Good Credit from the Get-Go
As a young person just starting out, the best way to ensure your credit file stays healthy is to take all the right steps from the get-go. It’s never been more important to have a solid credit history than it is in today’s world. Creditreportblog.com offers some basic steps to ensuring that you get started in the right direction.
· Open up checking and savings accounts, if you don’t have one already. Having a bank account is sort of sign of stability in the eyes of lenders.
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Credit Card Consolidation-Making Life Simpler?
When consumers have mounting debt on their hands and interest rates keep rising, some look towards finding ways to consolidate their credit card bills. If you are a consumer that falls into this category, Creditreportblog.com recommends that now is the time for you to consider transferring high-interest balances to 0% or low interest cards.
When looking towards doing balance transfers, shop for the lowest interest rate, not the lowest payment. Some companies that offer lower monthly payments are just stretching out your repayment, which ends up just costing more in the long run. Although many credit card companies offer this option to transfer balances, you should read the fine print so that you know exactly what the terms are and what costs they may incur if you choose to balance transfer.
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Avoid Digging Deeper into Debt
So you’re already in as much debt as you can possibly handle? The key now is to stop digging yourself a deeper hole that might be impossible to get out of. You need to stop and tell yourself that enough is enough! Once you have started down that road to financial ruin, it is sometimes hard to get off unless you really just stop and think of what are the real important things in life. Most people will discover that the material items that they “must have” take a back seat to the peace and tranquility you feel when you are debt free. Creditreportblog.com recommends looking at the following tips that can help you get on that right path of financial responsibility.
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Maintain the “You” in Your Credit Union
However, when it comes to credit, too much togetherness can be bad for your bottom line. Even though there’s no such thing as a “couples” or “joint” credit report, if you both are named on a loan or listed as joint account holders, any flub-up (late payments, defaults) on the account will mar both of your credit files, no matter who forgot to put the mortgage check in the mail.
CreditReportBlog.com recommends that all couples make looking at each other’s credit reports a part of the screening process once things start to move towards the marriage phase. As skeptical as it sounds, there is never a guarantee that any marriage is going to last forever. An uncomfortable conversation now can avoid an even more uncomfortable situation later, if things turn sour with your finances.
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Increasing Credit Worthiness
If you have none to little credit history, there are steps you can take to start building that credit history and in turn, improve your personal credit worthiness. Until you have a history of favorable transactions in your credit file, lenders do not know whether you are a good credit risk or not. Here are some unique steps you can try to increase your credit worthiness:
· Try applying for multiple credit cards within 1 year. Although they say that any inquiry into your credit file as a result of a credit card application automatically lowers your score, there is a hidden secret behind this. An inquiry for 1 credit card application has the same effect as 10 inquiries from 10 different applications if they hit the credit bureaus within 1 calendar year.
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FICO 08 May Change Your Credit Score
The credit scoring formula has been periodically updated over the past 20 years, with changes in technology. FICO 08 will make the scoring system more sensitive to multiple late payments and less sensitive to isolated incidents of late payment or those that occurred a few years ago,� states Craig Watts, Public Affairs Manager, for Fair Isaac Corporation, the creator of the credit scoring system.
CreditReportBlog.com - As credit reports are increasingly being used as the basis of making major decisions concerning many facets of a person’s life, it is more and more important that the FICO score be as precise as possible in giving a true picture of one’s financial well-being. As we all know, your FICO score can affect possible employment, all loan applications ( big or small ), rental applications, etc. Read more
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Easier, cheaper credit report freezes
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday signed legislation to put the deep freeze on fees charged for freezing credit reports.
http://weblog.signonsandiego.com
CreditReportBlog.com - Well, we can hardly call this piece of legislation a “deep freeze”. There a few good changes, but anything huge. It calls for the fees charged by credit reporting agencies to now be $10 instead of $12, gives seniors a rate of $5, and calls for agencies to comply to all freezing requests within 3 days. Another little tidbit, requests can now be made through regular mail, instead of only certified mail.
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Reasons to Check Your Credit Report
Most people don’t check their credit report until it is time to make a purchase that requires a degree of creditworthiness, i.e. buying a house or a car, opening up a credit card, etc.
Credit Report Blog.com would like to take this opportunity to reinforce to its readers the importance of consistently checking their credit reports for various reasons, as mentioned in this report. When an important decision is to be based on your credit report, it may cause unforeseen delays or rejections, if surprises pop up on your credit report which you were not expecting. The causes of these surprises could be the result of identity theft, reporting errors, mistaken names, etc.
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3 bureaus’ credit scores can be widely varied
Most lenders look at a consumer’s credit scores to decide whether to grant a loan and how much to charge. Consumers can buy a report on their credit scores, but these scores vary — sometimes widely. “There is a pervasive myth that there is one credit score,” said Rod Griffin of Experian.
CreditReportBlog.com advises that everyone get a copy of their FREE credit report from each of the 3 credit bureaus. Although most of the time the information should not be too different on all the credit reports, your credit score may vary somewhat depending on few bits of info that one credit bureau may or may not have. Before applying for any type of loan, a consumer should be aware of where they stand, in terms of their credit score. Read more
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Re-establishing your credit
If you have fallen victim to bad circumstances in the past and your credit report has suffered as a result, there are still some steps you can take once you are on your feet again, to start re-establishing your good name, in terms of credit.
· If you are looking at purchasing a car, making a substantial down payment can make up for your bad credit history. Creditors will be in favor of this because they assume less risk and think that you will have more incentive to repay them since you’ve already invested a substantial amount. Once the loan is repaid in full, you will have taken a step towards re-establishing your ability to pay and thus it will be easier to obtain other credit in the future.
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Credit Restoration Service Announces Contest for the Worlds Worst Credit Report
July 2, 2008 — Lee Harrison Credit Restoration is looking for the world’s worst credit report. They will clean the worst credit report each month for 6 months for free. To enter the contest, applicants must send a copy of their Experian, Equifax, transunion and CSC.
CreditReportBlog.com – Well, this sounds like a great deal if you are the lucky, chosen few. With the enormous number of Americans sinking in debt these days, there will the credit restoration company is likely to be flooded with applicants for this new “contest” to find the worst credit reports in America. If you think you’re situation is bad, there will probably be many others with stories 10 times worse.
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College Students-In Debt already?
While in college, students are constantly hounded by credit card companies enticing them to apply for their credit card. Students see applying for credit cards as a great way to start building credit. However, if you are not careful with the way you start charging things, you may end up in a whole heap of debt. With not enough income coming in, usually a part-time job, many students end up spending well above their means. If you are a student and are looking at some of the credit card offers out there, here are some things you may want to think about before signing up:
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How do I correct a mistake on my credit report?
Everyone should take advantage of their right to obtain a FREE credit report for themselves, every 12 months from each of the three credit bureaus. This is the only way you can monitor your own credit file, without paying high fees to a credit monitoring service. Although the FREE credit report will not include a credit score, it will let you view any negative information included in your file. If the negative information is true, complete and accurate, then you can take actions to start improving your credit situation. Read more
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Foreclosure stigma haunts would-be renters
As if losing a house on the court steps wasn’t enough, some former homeowners may fiand themselves turned away by apartment owners spooked by the foreclosure history on their credit reports.
CreditReportBlog.com sympathizes with individuals hit with such a dreadful experience as foreclosure on their home. Along with bankruptcy, foreclosure can be one of the most devastating experiences in one’s life. Being forced out of your home, can cause enormous stress, shock, and even depression to an otherwise content person. Read more
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Looking for a job? Clean up your credit report.
Julie Lawrence interviewed for a job in March. Lawrence believed the company was going to make her an offer after a background check. She was unaware that included a credit check.
CreditReportBlog.com would like to advise its readers of the importance of maintaining a clean credit report for so many reasons, other than the obvious. Not only are lenders looking at your credit reports, but these days other parties that you would not have thought of, are also peering into your credit records.
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Can you get a Business Loan with BAD CREDIT?
Getting a business loan with bad credit can be very difficult. Banks will not even entertain the idea of lending to a business with bad credit, so you are better off not wasting your time there. Fortunately for some business, there are institutions out there that will approve bad credit applications for a business loan. At the same time, they will charge substantially higher interest rates for making these loans to a high risk client and will require substantial collateral from your business or personal assets.
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Tech offers students interest-free loans for bicycle purchase
The Tech Outdoor Pursuits Center has initiated a new program that will allow students to receive a $500 interest-free loan for one year, so they can buy a bicycle.
http://media.www.dailytoreador.com
CreditReportBlog.com commends the Tech Outdoor Pursuits Center in its initiative to promote this program. This program has so many good purposes that we would highly recommend every educational institute in the country try to adopt a similar program.
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Getting a Loan with BAD CREDIT
There was a time when having bad credit was like having some type of incurable disease in the eyes of lenders. No creditor wanted to touch anybody that had a low credit score, no matter what the circumstances. Lenders did not care what may have happened in a person’s life that got them to the terrible point of having bad credit. Creditreportblog.com finds that this attitude among lenders has really started to change in the past few years. They have started to understand that sometimes circumstances come up in life that are sometimes beyond our control, and a person who once had very good credit makes some bad decisions and ends up with a terrible stain on their credit report.
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