Unless you've already got a very high credit score, one in the 800 range or better, you need to know how to fix it. Your credit score follows you around like a lost dog looking for a home, and can not only get you the financing you need for a home or car, but can get you the best rates too. To top it off, your credit score helps control how much you pay on everything from credit to life and car insurance. As such, your credit score is one of the most important numbers in your life except for maybe your blood pressure and cholesterol, and a low credit score can raise your blood pressure to unhealthy levels. These days your credit score is vitally important. That's true not just when trying to get credit, as in the past, but for many more mundane parts of your daily life. One are where credit scores are used extensively is in the insurance industry. Many service providers, such as insurance companies have found they can correlate risk to your credit score with a fairly high degree of accuracy. You know what that means; as your credit score falls, your insurance rates rise.
Another area that you may be aware of where your credit score can make a big difference is the rental market. You may find yourself hard pressed to rent an apartment with an abysmal credit score. In some tight rental markets, your score doesn't even have to be all that bad. If the market is tight, landlords can afford to be more selective, and one of the criteria they'll use to help select renters is their credit score. Experience has shown that, as with insurance, there is a correlation between the reliability of a renter and their credit score. The lower the credit score, the more the landlord has to worry about. On top of all these other things, a low credit score will of course make it more expensive to get credit of all kinds; from auto loans to mortgages. With the recent shakeup in the sub prime mortgage market, prospective borrowers may find it difficult to secure a mortgage if their credit score strays too low.
"Bad Credit" Credit Card #1: This credit card charges a very low interest rate for an unsecured credit card. However, your first fine print glimpse reveals that there is a one time setup fee of $29. Not too bad. So far, since the next charge is a one time fee of $95. So far, we're up to $124 in expenses. That's got to be it, right? No. Add in another $48 for the annual fee and $6 per month in account maintenance fees. That's brings the cost of your new credit card to $244 the first year, and $120 each additional year. This is no small change, and a card such as this should be considered only if you cannot be accepted for a better unsecured credit card for bad credit.
The bigger and scarier issue that we uncovered while researching these companies is what we consider Fraud, misrepresentation, and false advertising. We found one company that charged about $20,000 to build a company with credit. We had some hope in them as they seemed to be the only company that utilized an advanced methodology when building business credit. Unfortunately, when we searched further we found that the owner of this company is a defendant in a $100,000,000 lawsuit and has had newspaper articles written in major newspapers that highlighted his companies questionable practices. These articles have caused major credit bureaus to key in on his business practices, will DnB be one of them? Do you really want to be associated with a company that can lose everything in a lawsuit who has a target on their back for questionable practices?
"Bad Credit" Credit Card #3: This credit card is available as both a secured and unsecured credit card, based on the issuer's review of your credit history. The interest rate is average, even competitive. Now, the fine print reveals that there is a one time setup fee. However, based on your credit, this fee can be as low as $0 or as high as $49. So far so good, especially if your credit is not that bad. But, there must be a huge annual fee. Not exactly. The annual fee for a secured credit card is only $35, and for an unsecured credit card, this fee can be as low as $39 or up to $79. So far, the cost of this card ranges from $35 to $128. Now its time for the monthly maintenance fee. This one has to be huge. Or not. Its $0. That means the most you could possible be charged to obtain this credit card is $128, about half of what competing cards are charging.
Other things that are used to calculate your credit score are the length of your credit history and the number of recent credit inquires by prospective creditors. The length of your history can be fixed by simply waiting for a period of time after you have opened your first credit accounts. That will lengthen your credit history. Credit inquires by creditors are known as "pulls" in the credit industry. There are 2 types; hard and soft. You need to be concerned only with hard pulls. They are generated when a prospective creditor checks your creditor. That happens every time you apply for credit, weather it's for a store card, a major credit card or a car loan. Every one of these will lower your credit score by about 5 points for 6 months, so if you're going to be financing a car or getting a mortgage in the near future, do not apply for other credit. The exception to this would be if you have no credit at all and are trying to establish a credit history before applying for your loan.
Another area that you may be aware of where your credit score can make a big difference is the rental market. You may find yourself hard pressed to rent an apartment with an abysmal credit score. In some tight rental markets, your score doesn't even have to be all that bad. If the market is tight, landlords can afford to be more selective, and one of the criteria they'll use to help select renters is their credit score. Experience has shown that, as with insurance, there is a correlation between the reliability of a renter and their credit score. The lower the credit score, the more the landlord has to worry about. On top of all these other things, a low credit score will of course make it more expensive to get credit of all kinds; from auto loans to mortgages. With the recent shakeup in the sub prime mortgage market, prospective borrowers may find it difficult to secure a mortgage if their credit score strays too low.
"Bad Credit" Credit Card #1: This credit card charges a very low interest rate for an unsecured credit card. However, your first fine print glimpse reveals that there is a one time setup fee of $29. Not too bad. So far, since the next charge is a one time fee of $95. So far, we're up to $124 in expenses. That's got to be it, right? No. Add in another $48 for the annual fee and $6 per month in account maintenance fees. That's brings the cost of your new credit card to $244 the first year, and $120 each additional year. This is no small change, and a card such as this should be considered only if you cannot be accepted for a better unsecured credit card for bad credit.
The bigger and scarier issue that we uncovered while researching these companies is what we consider Fraud, misrepresentation, and false advertising. We found one company that charged about $20,000 to build a company with credit. We had some hope in them as they seemed to be the only company that utilized an advanced methodology when building business credit. Unfortunately, when we searched further we found that the owner of this company is a defendant in a $100,000,000 lawsuit and has had newspaper articles written in major newspapers that highlighted his companies questionable practices. These articles have caused major credit bureaus to key in on his business practices, will DnB be one of them? Do you really want to be associated with a company that can lose everything in a lawsuit who has a target on their back for questionable practices?
"Bad Credit" Credit Card #3: This credit card is available as both a secured and unsecured credit card, based on the issuer's review of your credit history. The interest rate is average, even competitive. Now, the fine print reveals that there is a one time setup fee. However, based on your credit, this fee can be as low as $0 or as high as $49. So far so good, especially if your credit is not that bad. But, there must be a huge annual fee. Not exactly. The annual fee for a secured credit card is only $35, and for an unsecured credit card, this fee can be as low as $39 or up to $79. So far, the cost of this card ranges from $35 to $128. Now its time for the monthly maintenance fee. This one has to be huge. Or not. Its $0. That means the most you could possible be charged to obtain this credit card is $128, about half of what competing cards are charging.
Other things that are used to calculate your credit score are the length of your credit history and the number of recent credit inquires by prospective creditors. The length of your history can be fixed by simply waiting for a period of time after you have opened your first credit accounts. That will lengthen your credit history. Credit inquires by creditors are known as "pulls" in the credit industry. There are 2 types; hard and soft. You need to be concerned only with hard pulls. They are generated when a prospective creditor checks your creditor. That happens every time you apply for credit, weather it's for a store card, a major credit card or a car loan. Every one of these will lower your credit score by about 5 points for 6 months, so if you're going to be financing a car or getting a mortgage in the near future, do not apply for other credit. The exception to this would be if you have no credit at all and are trying to establish a credit history before applying for your loan.
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Frank Miller has a Debt Consolidation Blog & Finance, these are some of the articles: Year Of The Dragon Silver Coin By The Perth Mint You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.
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