Showing posts with label credit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credit. Show all posts

Monday, March 12, 2018

Understanding Your Credit Report Score

Understanding your credit score is important since it may help you determine your chances of being approved for your credit applications. Your credit reports score usually will help lenders and credit institutions to determine if you are good enough for credit that you have applied for. Lenders would need to be ensured that people they lend money to are able to pay back their loans. That is the purpose of a person's credit report.

When a person applies for a personal loan or mortgage on their homes, lenders would usually check upon a person's credit history to see if one is a good borrower in that he or she pays back on credit dues on time.

A person's credit history would help lenders determine the risk of that they put themselves in when approving a person's credit. In a way, credit institutions are trying to protect their own investments (in terms of handing out credit) by checking out a prospective borrower's credit report score.

In essence, a person's credit report is part of the lender's background check. It is a detailed history of a person's borrowing habits. From it, lenders are able to extract the following information about the credit applicant:

• It provides a person's identifying information such as one's complete name, past and current addresses, date of birth as well as a person's employment history

• A record of accounts that previous lenders have submitted to who the individual has loaned from in the past. This record includes the type of credit extended (mortgage, credit card, car loan, etc.), the amount of credit, the date when it was opened and a record of payments already made as well as the remaining balance.

• A record of inquiries made on the credit report for a period of two years. This includes voluntary inquiries made for previous credit applications as well as involuntary inquiries made by the lender without the knowledge of the credit report holder. 

• A collection of information of state and county court records associated with previous loans made. The credit report also includes recorded information about previous bankruptcies, lawsuits, foreclosure of properties, liens and other judgments that can be attributed to previous loans made. 

When availing of the credit report, the lender or credit institution may also get hold of a person's credit score. A credit score is calculated based on the information that is provided by the credit report. This is usually done by credit reporting agencies that consider the information and provide the necessary score to help lenders better assess your future credit risk level. 

Your credit score is also being more commonly referred to your FICO score. The reason for this is because most of the credit scores are calculated using a software developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation, also known as FICO. Your FICO score can range from 300 to 850. The higher your FICO score figures, the lower your credit risk is perceived by lenders, thereby giving you better chances of being approved for credit.

Understanding your credit reports score makes it also easier for you to determine your own chances of being approved for a particular credit application. If you know that you have a high FICO score, you can then try your best to maintain or even improve on it in order to increase your credit chances with a number of lenders.

Knowing that you have a low FICO score may also do you some good. This knowledge will motivate you to act on improving your credit score in order to make yourself less of a credit risk to lenders the next time that you apply for another loan.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Credit Score Scale

The credit score scale is an indicator used by lending institutions to find out if you are credit worthy. This could be from 340 to 850 and the higher the score, the better off you are. 

You can get a copy of your credit score scale by getting a copy from an accredited credit agency by giving them a call or requesting for one through their website. 

These three credit agencies are namely Expedia, Equifax or Transunion and you can get a copy from one or from all three at the same time or after a few months. 

Majority of Americans get a score 700 or higher on their credit score scale. Sadly, there are a few who score lower. How this is determined is based on 5 factors.

The first is your credit history. This includes the number of loans that were approved or disapproved, your credit card transactions and other financing which you may have acquired over the past 2 years. 

The creditors will also review if you have had any late payments in the past. If you have always paid this one time, then that is great. 

Another indicator will be the length of your credit. If you have had this for years, then you have an advantage compared to someone who is just building up their credit. New credit is also a factor together with a few other things that could make the scale go up or down.

If you happen to be delinquent in any of them, you must do whatever it takes to correct it so there will be an improvement in your credit score scale. 

You can start by cutting down on your expenses and using the money saved to pay off the debt. 

For those who have a lot of credit cards, you should pay off first the one that has the highest interest rate then work on the rest. The objective is to be debt free and only have 2 credit cards left in your wallet. 

Worse case scenario if you don’t have the money is to sell some valuables so you pay it off without worrying anymore of the growing amount due to interest.

If you can’t handle the situation, get help from a financial advisor. This person ma help you negotiate with creditors as to how this problem can be solved.  

Only when you are debt free can your credit score scale ever improve. You should know that this is not going to be easy and this could take months before things look better but if you put in time and effort, there is no doubt that you will be able to apply for a loan once again. 

There are some who say getting a new credit card will help just make sure that this one offers low interest rates and that you only use up to 30% of the maximum limit at times that is just about right. 

The credit score scale changes so it is best to get one annually. It can go up or down depending on your behavior so if you keep your nose clean, there won’t be any red flags on your record. You should also remember that sometimes, it is not your fault if it goes down which is why you should check if there are any errors so this can be corrected. 

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Credit Card Debt What You Should Do

Unfortunately, throughout the years, more and more people are becoming victims of enormous credit card debts that they probably will never get paid off. It is a shame to know that so many people feel that they NEED so many things but realize the only way that they could possibly get those things is by using their credit cards, and they normally have plenty of them to choose from!

Credit card debt has increased drastically throughout the past several years and it does not look like many people are yet realizing just how bad this problem is. If you are struggling each month, trying to figure out how in the world you will ever have the ability to pay all of your credit card payments on time, then you should definitely continue reading this article. 

It is very important for you to understand how dramatically credit card debt can affect your financial standing, or lack thereof. Credit card debt is one of the leading causes why an individual would end up having to file for bankruptcy or take out mortgage loans on their homes or other drastic things such as that. People become so caught up with trying to make purchases that are just not feasible, never considering how much it is going to cost them down the road, because of the enormous interest rates.

Start choosing to simply throw away all of those credit card offers that you get in your mail so regularly, trust me, you do not need anymore debt! These credit card bills will continue adding up and the next thing you know, you are going to be skipping payments and when that does happen, be prepared for an outrageous monthly bill, which you know for sure there is no way you can afford it!

To all of you young adults that have not yet gotten in severe credit card debt yet, do not do it, do not let this endless cycle of unbelievably expensive debts take over your life. If you can start your adult life out without too many unnecessary debts, such as credit cards, your life is going to be much more enjoyable and much much less stressful. 

Because of the fact that credit card debt has gotten so unbelievably out of hand, perhaps you could start a new trend and try staying clear from getting yourself into so much debt. So, start now by trying to focus on doing positive things to make your life easier and once you start achieving those goals, you are going to sleep much better at night and feel much more positive when it comes to every aspect of your life. 

Be responsible for your actions and if you have gotten yourself into a tremendous amount of credit card debt, make those monthly payments or try working extra hours so that you can start doubling up your monthly payments or even paying some of them off completely.