Nov 20

Establishing good credit

Posted by Karen

There is a point in your life that it is required to move on from having no credit and building up a good credit score to secure your financial future.  It makes no difference if you are trying to rent your first apartment of if you are applying for a loan to get something huge, you will have to have a good credit history for your name so that the person that you are working with will understand that you are reliable and very responsible for their investment.  However, there are some people that do not know how to establish credit.

Having bad credit is much worse than most understand.  You can be denied loans and have trouble with some of the financial institutions because you will find that you are labeled as high risk.  Identity theft is a very good reason for the false negative credit to your name.  It is a bad circumstance but you should not think that anyone is going to go easy on you.  If you put it all out there, you will not loan money to a friend that has been slow to repay others in the past.  There are unreliable things that people will notice first and they will not care to hear the excuses no matter how good you think they are.

The key is to be safe and to build credit without risking mistakes that will result in a bad credit history.  For example, your parents could put one of their monthly household bills in your name while you are still going through school.  If these bills are not paid on time, you will gain good credit.  On the other hand, it is vital to understand that if you miss some payments, it is going to get you started off on the wrong foot.

Another factor that plays into your worth to the creditors is to keep the same job for at least two years or longer and have the stable checking or savings account with a good bank are just a few things that you can do.  You should also think about having a stable cash flow and responsibility with finances.  You can make deposits and keep your balance at a positive number with a bank account and have a steady income show that you are not at risk for missing any payments or leaving town to avoid facing any collectors.  Your address, bank, positive bill history, and employment information can be added to your credit report at your request if it is not already there.

Your credit is an important part of everyone’s life.  Having good credit will help you in being accepted for automobile, home, and other loans.  If your score is bad, you will often times be rejected for loans because you will be labeled as a bad risk and it is assumed that you may not be able to pay back the loan on time.  Building good credit is going to be good when you do it early so that you can get a head start in the right direction for your financial future. 

Nov 17

You should know that identity theft has become worse with the major problem of shopping online.  There are sammers that are setting up clone web sites like the ones that are very popular to make purchases so that they can fool you to enter your personal information.  You can also have your personal information stolen by not disposing of bank statements and other pieces of mail properly.  You need to shred anything that has your personal account information and social security number immediately.  This will help protect your identity and your good name as well.

Any woman that knows that it is very scary to have your purse stolen. This is going to cause a dreaded nightmare.  You will end up losing your money and all of the things that are in it.  You will have to get all of your personal information cards cancelled or replaced.  You will have to have your debit account closed or changed.  You do not want your bank account to be completely emptied by someone that has your debit card number.  If you do not freeze your accounts and stop this from happening you will be broke.  The other important things that you will need to do are to file a report with the police and place an initial fraud report on your credit report.

You will be taking a chance anytime that you give your personal information on the phone or Internet.  Before you enter your personal information like your credit card number to make a purchase, make sure that you check the web address to be sure that you are on the companies official web site instead of a fake clone with the same appearance but with a very wrong address.  This is something that is often not taken into consideration and many thieves have exploited this issue too many times.  If you see this happening, you should report the fake site to the official site and this can help to prevent any other person from fraud by this company.  This is going to help save your own credit and keep you save from anyone that is looking to take over your identity. 

The right thing to do id you feel that you are a victim of identity fraud is to get an very accurate credit report and look for the activity that you are sure of that is not yours.  In the event that you do find a new account is open or activity is not anything that you did contact the companies and try to get the signatures that was made by the thief.  The faster that you do this means that you will find it easier to keep your credit report safe and unharmed.  Make sure that you are taking note of every action that you take and make sure that you are asking many questions about your credit score to make sure that is all correct as it should be.

Nov 14

If you are having trouble maintaining good credit, you might find yourself being irritated by phone calls from the collection agencies. If your debt has been handed over to one of these agencies, you already have a black mark put on your credit report.  However it is important to know your rights when it comes to being in debt.  Phone calls from the collection agencies are unethical and if you understand the laws regarding good credit, you can protect yourself from the problems and all the illegal doings of these companies.

The most crucial law to know and review if you think that you are being treated badly is the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, or FDCPA.  This is a law that will give you all the information that you may need so that you understand if that company is doing something wrong. If they are not, contact your government officials and police to file a compliant. 

The first thing that you should understand that you have 30 days to review the debt that they are putting upon you.  You should know that people do make mistakes, so this is a 30 day grace period that will give you enough time to make sure that it is all correct and in order.  Before this, the debt collectors should not start to all you and harass you by phone or any other form of contact.  After the 30 days are up, your phone may start to ring so much and this is going to be the collectors calling you to pay your bills.  Be aware that what they are saying is not only unethical it is also against the law.

The debt collector may not threaten you with anything that he or she says.  They do not have the power to do this.  For example, bill collectors cannot threaten to use your lack of good credit to ruin your reputation and tell others like your friends, boss or employer about your debt problems.  Most cases the collector may only share the information about your debt with you and your spouse and the lender.  Anything else is a violation and you can have the opportunity to sue a collection agency if they tell any of this private information to anyone other than that.

The collector cannot threaten to ruin your credit history. This is a very unacceptable threat.  The damage is already been done to your credit report.  Debts are not allowed to be reported for 7 to 10 years and this will depend on your credit-reporting agency.  The federal law does not allow a collection agency to further ruin your credit in any other way.  If they threaten this, or to tell anyone about your debt, the collection agency is in violation of the FDCPA and it is your obligation to report the agency to the authorities.  A collector cannot threaten to arrest you or garnish your wages in any way.

The only thing that a collection agency can do is taking you to court. If they are threatening anything other than this, you should not only get off the phone, you should also call the police and they will assist you in filing an official complaint.  Having good credit is on the line and if a collection agency is not doing their job right, they could be mis-reporting your debt as will. You need to know your rights and protect yourself too. 

Nov 11

If you are checking out your credit report and you see an error what should you do? There are things that you may not realize and this is going to happen all the time.  There are mistakes that are accidental on your credit reports all the time.  However there is something that you can do about it.  Wrong numbers on your credit report may bring down your score and you should make sure that you get this fixed right away by contacting your credit agency.

You do not have to pay a lot of money and see someone to get this fixed. You first have to get a copy of your credit report and circle any items that you think is wrong and make sure that you are inspecting it again very well to make sure there is nothing left out of it.  The next thing that you need to do is write a letter to the credit agency and telling her of all the disputes.  The address for the agency should be listed on the credit report.  You need to be sure that you include all the copies of paperwork that is going to pertain to the disputes that you are reporting and that all of the documents that you are sending are copies and not the originals. You need to keep those for yourself.  You should send this all by certified mail and get a receipt to be sure that it was shipped and it was received.

It is up to the reporting agency to investigate your disputed claim and verify that there is a problem with the credit report information.  If the creditor cannot prove that the information is correct, the entry must be removed with no questions asked. It is probably that it is just an error on their part and they will tell the reporting agency about it and it will be removed from your permanent record.  Once the investigation is finished, and the changes are made, the agency will give you a copy of your credit report free so that you have proof of the changes that have been made.

There are errors that will occur in all stages of life and there is no surprise to learn that credit reports are not any different.  Keep your temper to a low and deal with the mistakes.  Your credit agency should take care of this and help you with no problems.  It is your responsibility to take care of your credit and to review all the paperwork that you receive all of the time.  If you do not go over them you may not even know if your credit score is being affected by these false entries.