Managing Debt And Credit Guide

MAKING MONEY ONLINE

2011-01-25T23:47:00.003-05:00

I've recently been looking into ways to make money online in my spare time. I'll be sharing my experiences with you here.
One of the first things I checked on was taking surveys. This is where you sign up to answer questions about products or services you use and get paid for it. First of all, never pay to sign up. There are many services out there for free. Second, don't expect to get rich. They don't pay much per survey, so you want to work on volume. If you have the right demographic, they can keep you busy.
Right now I can recommend Survey Savvy. They do send you surveys and they do pay you ( I just received a check in the mail).
As I do more research, I'll post more info.

Antique Car Insurance

2009-07-21T19:40:00.003-04:00

I was thinking the other day about antique car insurance. When I was a kid, we thought of antiques as 50 year old relics of days gone by. Now, any vehicle over 25 years old is considered an antique. So where do you go for your antique collector car insurance? Some standard carriers don't want the business so you might have to shop around to find a company to write a policy for antique vehicle insurance. Understanding that an antique could be a 1984 whatever, do you know if your company will cover you? Whether it's antique truck insurance, antique motorcycle insurance, or antique classic car insurance you need to know if you can get the coverage.

How To Get A Free Credit Report

2009-07-02T19:05:00.006-04:00

So now we want to get a free credit report. How's that catchy little song go? Oh wait a minute, those reports aren't really free. You have to sign up with their service just like the credit score we talked about. But it's not all bad news. The government allows you one free credit report every year.

This is the official free credit report website:
Annual Credit Report.com

Get all your personal information together and head on over there to request your report. You can get a report from each of the three big reporting companies, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. You can only do this once every 12 months but it is free.

As we discussed before, if you want to pay for service, you can have access to report on a regular basis. But if you're cheap, then this is a good deal. You're also allowed a free report anytime you've been turned down for credit. It's been a while since I did this, but I think you have to ask in writing within 30 days.

So go get your free credit report and find out just how much the world really knows about you. :-)

What Is A Credit Report?

2009-06-30T22:35:00.001-04:00

What is a credit report? A Credit report is a record of your debts, payments, or lack thereof, and any judgments filed against you. Bad things can stay on your record for seven years. Bankruptcies stay on for 10 years. Good things stay on longer.

It's important that you check your credit report frequently to maintain accuracy.

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How To Improve Your Credit Score

2009-06-22T14:03:00.001-04:00

Okay. So now you've seen your credit score. Please... stop crying. Seriously now, you have the information now what you do. Depending on how good or bad it is you can either sit back and smile or go to work to improve and repair. Let's assume since you're reading this that you're in the latter group.

The biggest thing you can do to improve your credit score is to pay all of your bills on time. Any payment more than 30 days past due is a real no-no.(technical term) Another important thing is credit card balances. Anything over 50% starts to count against you. Then it starts to get tricky. Old accounts are good. The older the better. A mortgage or charge account in good standing that you've held for 10 years or more is gold. The shows you are stable and consistent over a long period of time. By the same token new accounts can hurt because you haven't held them long enough to show anything. The number of open accounts you have can be a problem, but conversely if you don't have any that can really hurt you. High limits on credit cards can be helpful.

One thing you don't want to do is to close a lot of unused credit card accounts. I think in the credit score business closing an existing account hurt you worse than opening a new one. In these days of tightening credit, I know of a lot of people who have had their high limits on their credit cards cut. This could present several problems. First of all, it reduces their available credit and that's bad. Second, it reduces their high limit and that's that. And third it can take a card with a 50% balance and move it to a 100% balance. That's really bad.

This is just a rough sketch. I continued to dig looking for more information and I will present it here.

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The Really Free Credit Score

2009-06-17T11:51:00.002-04:00

So now you know how important your credit score is. How do you find it? That's where the problem comes in.

There many places advertising free credit reports and free credit scores, but in the fine print you have to sign up for their services. This can cost you between $10 a month to $90 a year. For this fee you get different services, maybe monthly reports, many reports whenever you want them, maybe monitoring alerts. If you want these things this could be a good deal for you. I had a service several years ago from one of my credit cards that allowed me to go online whenever I wanted to and see my credit report and credit score. They would also send me e-mail alerts if there were any changes on my credit report. This cost me $10 a month and I thought it was a pretty fair deal. If you really want these things for free you can sign up for these services get your reports and then cancel within the time allowed.
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As of now, the only place I found a really free score is a place called Credit Karma. They seemed safe enough and you don't need to do the credit card fake out trick. I have checked their feedback and the only negative thing I've seen so far is that their score doesn't track 100% with FICO. But for me it's close enough. They give you some really nice tools to compare and understand your score. Understand, that since you do have to give your personal information including your social security number to any of these people, that this is a decision you have to make for yourself.

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What Is A Credit Score?

2009-06-12T14:00:00.004-04:00

What is a credit score? It's a three digit number that has more control of your life than most people realize. It's based on your credit report and is basically a numeric representation of your willingness and ability to repay debt. It can decide whether you qualify for a loan and the amount and interest rate of the loan. It could also play a role in your employment and the price you pay for insurance. Interestingly enough, income is not a consideration.

Although there are many credit scores out there, the granddaddy of them all is FICO from Fair Isaac Corporation. It ranges from a low of 300 to a high of 850. The lower you are on this scale the less likely is your ability to get good cheap credit. I think today anything below 600 is considered deadbeat status and a lot of us are headed that way.

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You And Your Credit Score

2009-06-09T12:22:00.000-04:00

Everybody's heard of a Credit Score. But a lot of people don't understand how important your credit score is in today's financial environment. Your credit score can have an effect on many things in your life including your job, your ability to get good interest rates, even your ability to rent an apartment.

With so much depending on this three digit number, you'd think we would have easy access to what it is, how to get it, how to improve it, and how to protect it.

A big part of your debt and credit journey will revolve around this number. In the next few posts I'll show you what I've discovered in my search for answers and solutions.

Help Is On The Way

2009-06-02T19:31:00.000-04:00

After many months of searching around, trying to find answers to debt and credit problems, I finally decided to put together this blog to highlight some of the solutions I've found. From credit scores, to reports, to credit cards and loans, I'll let you follow along as I travel through the jungle.

I hope some of you find them useful.