First find out what your score is. You can enroll in our credit monitoring service and get your score today, and then track it over keeping a tab on your score. OK great, now that we have our scores its time to dig in and get to work.
Second. Get a credit card if you do not already have one. I know much of what we talk about on this blog is managing your credit, and not using a card unless you absolutely have to, but this is all about raising your scores, so we need some tools. There is evidence that carrying a small balance, 20-30% will increase your score faster than not having a balance. If you feel you do not want to carry a balance and pay any interest that is perfectly fine, you just want to make sure that you are using the card, and that you are paying the bill on time1
Third. Get an installment loan. These are loans you pay a set amount month after month until the balance is gone, like a car or a mortgage. These types of loans show that you are responsible with both major kinds of credit, the revolving, your credit card, and the installment loan.
Read more…
So you have decided on hiring a potential financial advisor for help with your finances. Have you clarified the fee structure and fees with him or her though? The fees a financial advisor charges varies from one to another. In fact, there are several various ways in which financial advisors charge their fees, and it helps a lot to understand how they work beforehand.
One of the most common ways an advisor uses is to charge a service fee as a percent of your account value. This way, your advisor has an incentive to grow your account value as he or she will make more money. If your financial advisor is compensated this way, you should find out if he or she is providing both investment management and financial planning or just the former alone. If your advisor is providing both, the fee will definitely be slightly higher.
Another mode of compensation is by commissions, which are paid to the advisor from insurance or investment products that you purchase from them. Read more…
With the holidays approaching, many of us are looking forward to large meals, time with friends and family, and all the activities that come with the holiday season. And all this fun does come at an expense, I just read that the average person will gain 1.5 lbs the week of thanksgiving! And just like our food intake we often over indulge during the holidays financially. So if we think about our credit like we think about our weight, most of us will be packing on a few extra pounds. That in it self is not really all that bad, its what we do the weeks and months after that matters!
Just like with packing on a few pounds after the big turkey day meal, we have to work hard in the next few weeks after to get back to where we were before we had the great meal. Same with your credit, it is important to work hard in the upcoming weeks to get your credit to back to where it was before the holdiays.
The most important tip we can give is to make sure you pay your bills on time! This can get tricky as we get so busy from now until after the Christmas holidays.
Read more…
In a day a
nd age when identity theft is constantly running rampant (requiring more and more people to seek out credit repair), social security card replacement is a major issue. Unfortunately, the Social Security Administration doesn’t get involved in resolving identity theft issues. However, if you inform them that your social security number has been used by someone else, they will review your earnings and ensure that no one else is using your social security card for work purposes.
Replacing your social security card should not be taken lightly. Failing to replace a social security card can be especially detrimental if you yourself are looking for a job. Virtually every job requires a copy of your social security card, and if that’s not provided, your employment process could be drastically hindered.
If you need to collect social security benefits, replacing a social security card cannot be delayed. What happens if you go days without required medication? That’s one case in which failing to get a social security replacement card can result in death!
In the unfortunate event that you lose your card, be sure to get a replacement social security card immediately. It requires no fee, and everyone is entitled to three replacement social security cards annually (and ten replacement SS cards in your lifetime).
All it takes is a visit to your local Social Security Administration Office. Make sure you have personal identification and proof of citizenship (i.e.: birth certificate, certificate of naturalization, passport) on hand. Once your identity is proven, you will be granted a Social Security Number Certification letter, which can be used in lieu of your card temporarily. Your replacement SS card should appear in the mail in approximately two weeks.
To avoid needing to request a duplicate social security card, keep your SS card in a safe place. Unless you know you’ll need to show your card at some point during the day, do not keep it in your wallet. Keep it in a safe place in your house, preferably along with other important papers and documents.
Getting a free credit score rating online today is a fairly simple task. There are websites which give you access to your credit score report and are a very useful tool to avoid unpleasant surprises, especially when you have applied for a loan or are mortgaging your property.
Difference Between Credit Score and Credit Report
A credit score is a numerical value. It is calculated based on the information from your past credit transactions. Usually, landlords, credit companies, banks and other financial institutions make use of this number. Banks and creditors use this number in order to assess the credit risk involved in processing a loan for you. In other words, they are basically assessing your capability of repayment of the loan that they have given you or will be giving you.
Most credit reporting companies use complex mathematical formulae in order to take factors such as payment history, the amounts owed, the duration for which the amount was owed and types of credit among other factors into account.
A credit report however, is a report or a summary of how financially reliable you are.
Read more…
We are always striving to bring our customers the absolute best product they can have for the best price. Currently we offer credit monitoring of all 3 credit reports, but you only have access to your Transunion Report and Score. If there are any changes to your Experian or Equifax reports you are notified within 24 hours. Its a great way to monitor all 3 reports.
Coming very soon, we will now offer a way to not only monitor your 3 reports, but to also have access to all 3 credit reports, and all 3 credit scores. In addition to many other great tools.
We understand that right now the economy is still very tough for many of our fellow Americans, and that getting a job is tougher than it ever has been. As you noticed down below many states are using credit scores to show how worthy you are of getting a job, which as I said below is a outrages thing to do! Regardless of what we think it is happening. And with this we felt we needed to find a company to partner with that would show all 3 credit scores.
Look for our new product launching later this week!