Jan
31
What are some ways to build credit history without a credit card?
Filed Under Credit History | 2 Comments
I am 20 with no credit cards or credit history. I am currently paying back my school loans. Does that work? I want to know what some other ways are to help build my credit WITHOUT credit cards. I am trying to stay out of debt as much as possible. All I have to pay is my car insurance, school loans, and cell phone bills. Any tips/advice? Thanks in advance!
Jan
28
Your credit score report can be affect by more than your available credit history. We talk about how credit cards, mortgages, car loans, and any type of loan that reports to all 3 credit bureaus will affect your credit score. We don’t always talk about utility companies and how they can have a negative impact on your credit report. Here are utility companies I like to consider non-creditors. In other words these companies don’t give you a line credit, they just provide a service.
Utility companies
Utility companies
- Phone companies
- Electric companies
- Security companies
- Cell phone companies
- Water companies
- Gas companies
- Cable companies
- Internet Companies
Let’s assume you are having a tough time currently, and you stop paying your cable bill. The cable company will give you a little time to pay off the debt for service rendered, but will eventually turn that debt over to a collection company. The collection company in return will report that obligation to the 3 credit bureaus wanting their money. This is how it works with any of the companies mention. Once this collection reports to the credit bureaus your credit rating just dropped about 100 points. Utility companies on the other hand don’t help your credit when you are in good standing, but will also hurt your credit score if you don’t pay. Once the collection hits your credit report, and you finally decide to pay off the collection, the collection will be on your credit report for 7 years. 7 years of negative information will be on your credit report. If you don’t pay the collection, the collection company can sell the collection repeatedly to different collection companies which will ultimately drive down your credit score even more.
Pay your bills on-time
If you get behind, call your creditors immediately and work out a payment arrangement with them. They will typically work with you, especially during tough economic times. A creditor or utility company would rather get some form of payment versus nothing. If you don’t pay your bills including utility bills it will affect your credit score report. With lending getting extremely tough currently, your credit scores are more important than ever. If you have credit issues, the banks may look at your credit history as too big of a risk for there portfolio.
Don’t assume if you don’t pay utility it will not affect your credit. Because it will affect your credit, and will not go away until you pay it off. If you are unsure what is on your credit report, get a copy of your free credit score report today.
By: Mike Clover
Jan
27
How can I get my credit card company to report account information?
Filed Under Credit Report | 4 Comments
I got my credit report today and it shows that my total credit amount is $300 and I have $296 available. After further inspection I noticed that only one credit card had reported a credit limit/max balance and that all of my credit cards hadn’t been reported since April. Is there an effective way to contact the credit card companies and get them to report accurate and up to date information to the credit bureaus? I feel that this issue is affecting my credit score, so I would like to fix this.
Thanks in advance.
Jan
24
Is it possible to get a no cost credit report? Yes, definitely. This is a good news to people who have serious credit score issues. Perhaps, you’re wondering what your credit score is. Perhaps, you’re considering taking out a loan for a new business or a new car, but you don’t know if you would qualify. You really don’t want to go through the hassle of applying for a loan just so you’d get rejected. You could avoid it by knowing your credit score before you even enter the doors of the credit agencies.
Getting it for free can be overwhelming when you don’t know where to go and how to get it.
It is very important for consumers to check on their credit every year. They do not remain constant. You cannot expect to have the same credit score five years after you last checked. This could cost you your job or your house. Knowing your credit score is crucial. Luckily, it is now available to you at no cost at all. Indeed, you can get your totally free credit report online.
Every citizen is entitled to their no cost credit report every year. You can get them from the country’s three major credit agencies. Before you can get it for $9.50, but these days, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are required to provide Americans their free reports once a year.
No, you will not get them automatically. You still have to file a request in order to get your copy. You can do this in three ways:
1. You can go directly to annualcreditreport.com, the only authorized consumer source online in order to access your no cost credit report.
2. You can get your free report via phone by calling (877) 322-8228
3. You can request via mail by sending in your request and mailing it to Annual Report Request Service.
Your report is the basis of your credit score. Once you have sent in your request, you can expect to receive it within a reasonable time. You’d get a summary of your payment history, balances, payment behavior and accounts listing. What you get is not automatically your credit score. However, credit agencies would base your credit score from your it. The better it is, the higher is your credit score. If it reflects bad accounts or worse, bankruptcy, you’d likely have bad credit score as well.
When you receive your free report, it is very important that you check for disputable accounts and items. Make sure that it is accurate. Otherwise, you would be saddled by these accounts. You will not be able to easily secure a loan. You could lose your home over an inaccurate reporting.
Nowadays, no cost credit report is available to everyone. It is your right to avail of them so you’d know how you stand financially. Your report could mean a huge difference between having a difficult or easy financial life.
By: Peter Lisdorf
Getting it for free can be overwhelming when you don’t know where to go and how to get it.
It is very important for consumers to check on their credit every year. They do not remain constant. You cannot expect to have the same credit score five years after you last checked. This could cost you your job or your house. Knowing your credit score is crucial. Luckily, it is now available to you at no cost at all. Indeed, you can get your totally free credit report online.
Every citizen is entitled to their no cost credit report every year. You can get them from the country’s three major credit agencies. Before you can get it for $9.50, but these days, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are required to provide Americans their free reports once a year.
No, you will not get them automatically. You still have to file a request in order to get your copy. You can do this in three ways:
1. You can go directly to annualcreditreport.com, the only authorized consumer source online in order to access your no cost credit report.
2. You can get your free report via phone by calling (877) 322-8228
3. You can request via mail by sending in your request and mailing it to Annual Report Request Service.
Your report is the basis of your credit score. Once you have sent in your request, you can expect to receive it within a reasonable time. You’d get a summary of your payment history, balances, payment behavior and accounts listing. What you get is not automatically your credit score. However, credit agencies would base your credit score from your it. The better it is, the higher is your credit score. If it reflects bad accounts or worse, bankruptcy, you’d likely have bad credit score as well.
When you receive your free report, it is very important that you check for disputable accounts and items. Make sure that it is accurate. Otherwise, you would be saddled by these accounts. You will not be able to easily secure a loan. You could lose your home over an inaccurate reporting.
Nowadays, no cost credit report is available to everyone. It is your right to avail of them so you’d know how you stand financially. Your report could mean a huge difference between having a difficult or easy financial life.
By: Peter Lisdorf
Jan
24
What is the best credit card for people w/o much credit history?
Filed Under Credit History | Leave a Comment
Hi, I turned 18 a while ago and I am interested in getting my first credit card. What is the best credit card for people with little/no credit history? I am looking for one WITHOUT an annual fee. The main things I buy are gasoline and food. Do you guys have any recommendations? What are your personal experiences?
Jan
23
One of the first things you need to do before undergoing credit report repairing is to take time to understand how credit scoring works. This article will explain what a credit score is, so that you will know what to look for when you start to fix bad credit items that show up on your report.
What is a Credit Score (aka FICO Score)?
The credit score that lenders use is called a FICO® score. Your FICO score helps those you approach to borrow money determine whether you qualify for a loan and what interest rate you’ll pay. It is a number based on the information in your credit file that shows how likely you are to pay a loan back on time.
The Highs and Lows of a Credit Score
Credit scores range from a low of 300 or 400 to a high of 800 or 900, depending on the source cited. The higher your score, the better. This means you will get lower interest rates on everything from home and auto loans to credit cards. Alternately, the lower your score, the higher the interest rate.
Credit Repair: Why It Pays to Fix Bad Credit
Bad credit costs. How? Consider this: Roughly, a score of 620 is necessary to qualify for a prime loan at conventional rates. Consumers with lower scores will be charged a higher interest rate, or denied altogether.
Falling below the 620 cut-off point can impose significant costs on mortgage borrowers. Over the life of a 30-year, $150,000 mortgage for example, a borrower paying a sub-prime rate of 9.84%, instead of a prime rate of 6.56%, would pay $317,517 in interest instead of $193,450 – a difference of $124,067 in interest payments over the life of the loan. As this example illustrates, it literally pays to clean up your credit.
Credit Repair Tips: Factors that Determine Your FICO Score
There are several factors that go into determining your FICO store. Following are four of the most important (there are several more):
On-Time Payments: How many times you’ve had late payments. FYI, this is the number one thing you can do to increase your credit score – make your payments on time.
Length of Credit History: The longer you have open credit accounts, the higher your score (if you’ve paid on time and if the accounts are of a certain kind).
Types of Credit Lines: As alluded to above, some types of credit can actually work against you.
Credit Available to You: Having too much credit available to you – even if you don’t use it – can lower your score. Note: It’s tidbits like this that most don’t know when trying to repair their credit that can have you going about it the wrong way.
Repair Your Credit and Have the Life You Deserve
The good news is that you can repair your credit and get on the road to having the life you dream of, eg, starting a business, buying a home, upgrading to a nicer car, etc.
By: Yuwanda Black
What is a Credit Score (aka FICO Score)?
The credit score that lenders use is called a FICO® score. Your FICO score helps those you approach to borrow money determine whether you qualify for a loan and what interest rate you’ll pay. It is a number based on the information in your credit file that shows how likely you are to pay a loan back on time.
The Highs and Lows of a Credit Score
Credit scores range from a low of 300 or 400 to a high of 800 or 900, depending on the source cited. The higher your score, the better. This means you will get lower interest rates on everything from home and auto loans to credit cards. Alternately, the lower your score, the higher the interest rate.
Credit Repair: Why It Pays to Fix Bad Credit
Bad credit costs. How? Consider this: Roughly, a score of 620 is necessary to qualify for a prime loan at conventional rates. Consumers with lower scores will be charged a higher interest rate, or denied altogether.
Falling below the 620 cut-off point can impose significant costs on mortgage borrowers. Over the life of a 30-year, $150,000 mortgage for example, a borrower paying a sub-prime rate of 9.84%, instead of a prime rate of 6.56%, would pay $317,517 in interest instead of $193,450 – a difference of $124,067 in interest payments over the life of the loan. As this example illustrates, it literally pays to clean up your credit.
Credit Repair Tips: Factors that Determine Your FICO Score
There are several factors that go into determining your FICO store. Following are four of the most important (there are several more):
On-Time Payments: How many times you’ve had late payments. FYI, this is the number one thing you can do to increase your credit score – make your payments on time.
Length of Credit History: The longer you have open credit accounts, the higher your score (if you’ve paid on time and if the accounts are of a certain kind).
Types of Credit Lines: As alluded to above, some types of credit can actually work against you.
Credit Available to You: Having too much credit available to you – even if you don’t use it – can lower your score. Note: It’s tidbits like this that most don’t know when trying to repair their credit that can have you going about it the wrong way.
Repair Your Credit and Have the Life You Deserve
The good news is that you can repair your credit and get on the road to having the life you dream of, eg, starting a business, buying a home, upgrading to a nicer car, etc.
By: Yuwanda Black
Jan
19
According to Bankrate.com the number one reason for getting turned down on credit is because of a charge-off. A charge-off is often seen as a negative indication that you have not been responsible in the past with your finances and consequently you cannot be trusted in the future.
However, as we all know, this is not necessarily true. Especially in this current economy, many people are facing financial challenges that they have never had before. In order to recover financially we all need to know what to do about negative credit showing on our credit reports.
Typically creditors will charge-off a debt if a payment has not been made on the account for 180 days. However, as a consumer you need to realize that this does not relieve you of the debt and you still owe the debt. The creditor can continue their collection efforts in any way they choose.
It is possible for these and other negative credit issues to end up on even the most credit-worthy person’s reports. A bill could have been inadvertently overlooked. You could have moved and forgot about telling the creditor so their bills were unable to reach you. You could have even thought that someone else was paying it, for example in the case of divorce when the courts gave it to your ex-spouse.
It is not at all uncommon for your first notification of a charge-off to show up when you are denied credit because of it. No one is immune to having bad credit information showing up on their credit report.
There is also the dilemma of what to do about a charge-off on your credit report. You can pay it off and think you are in the clear yet the negative mark may stay on your report. Another concern when you pay it off is that the seven-year period that it stays on your report starts anew whenever there is activity on the account. If you pay off a 2-year-old bad debt and the time starts anew, you could end up having the negative mark on your credit for 9 years unless you get them to remove it completely.
However, you can take steps to get negative information removed from your record. With credit bureau disputes or creditor negotiations you may be able to improve the status of the negative credit or even get it completely removed from your credit reports. You will probably have to deal directly with your creditors and you can do this on your own or consider the services of a professional credit repair service to assist you.
In many cases you will not have to wait 7 long years to improve the status or even remove the negative credit from your credit reports. You just need to take some intelligent action and get some results.
By: Kevin Lynch
However, as we all know, this is not necessarily true. Especially in this current economy, many people are facing financial challenges that they have never had before. In order to recover financially we all need to know what to do about negative credit showing on our credit reports.
Typically creditors will charge-off a debt if a payment has not been made on the account for 180 days. However, as a consumer you need to realize that this does not relieve you of the debt and you still owe the debt. The creditor can continue their collection efforts in any way they choose.
It is possible for these and other negative credit issues to end up on even the most credit-worthy person’s reports. A bill could have been inadvertently overlooked. You could have moved and forgot about telling the creditor so their bills were unable to reach you. You could have even thought that someone else was paying it, for example in the case of divorce when the courts gave it to your ex-spouse.
It is not at all uncommon for your first notification of a charge-off to show up when you are denied credit because of it. No one is immune to having bad credit information showing up on their credit report.
There is also the dilemma of what to do about a charge-off on your credit report. You can pay it off and think you are in the clear yet the negative mark may stay on your report. Another concern when you pay it off is that the seven-year period that it stays on your report starts anew whenever there is activity on the account. If you pay off a 2-year-old bad debt and the time starts anew, you could end up having the negative mark on your credit for 9 years unless you get them to remove it completely.
However, you can take steps to get negative information removed from your record. With credit bureau disputes or creditor negotiations you may be able to improve the status of the negative credit or even get it completely removed from your credit reports. You will probably have to deal directly with your creditors and you can do this on your own or consider the services of a professional credit repair service to assist you.
In many cases you will not have to wait 7 long years to improve the status or even remove the negative credit from your credit reports. You just need to take some intelligent action and get some results.
By: Kevin Lynch
Jan
18
There are a few items which have been reaged by a collections agency and they cannot do that. The SOL has passed and they should be removed from my credit report. Also, when you view your credit report where is the date of last activity? All I see is the open date and last reported date. The last reported date can’t possibly be the date to go by because then the companies can stay on your credit report forever. I have never had problems about stuff dropping off before but Capital One refuses to drop off and the three different collection agencies (for one card mind you) keep reporting a new date opened. This is ridiculous. How can I get them off? It has been 8 years now and they are still on there.
Jan
18
CREDIT Report?
Filed Under Credit Report | 5 Comments
what are some ways to make your credit score to go up?
I have mostly hospital bills on my report, I do have some other things on there too just five.
also when they get paid off how long does it take for the company to remove it off your credit report?
is there something out there that can consolidate your credit report, pay it off and you pay them monthly?
All this credit stuff is confusing%%%%%
Jan
16
I have a no credit history, I’ve applied for cards to get things going but have been refused because I have no history. It’s frustrating. What do I do now?