Credit Scores - Do They Really Matter?

By Rich Ruzic

Well, like it or not the answer is Yes. Unfortunately they actually play a bigger role in our lives than most people realize. Not only are your credit scores factored in when looking for any type of financing, they also come into play in other areas such as insurance and employment.

In today’s technological world everything is centered on being as efficient and productive as possible, in other words, let the computers handle as much of the workload as possible. Since we all know that computers are not at the point of being able to reason or make decisions based on judgment, it stands to reason that computers must be fed a number of facts before a decision can be made. One of those primary facts is your credit score. This is a number between 450 and 850 made up of a number of complex factors (so many factors that even most credit company insiders cannot tell you the formula used) that basically predicts how well you will pay. The higher the number, the more likely you are to pay your bills.

Insurance companies are interested in this because they bill out most of their premiums. In other words, they become one of the many bills received every month and they want to know how likely you are to pay the bill. If your score is below a certain level one of two things could happen; you will be turned down for the insurance or you will be charged a higher premium to offset the risk that based on your score you may not pay the bill. As you can see neither of these option are preferable.

Employers like to see higher credit scores because to them it represents stability. This is especially important for climbing the corporate ladder into management positions and outside sales where a person may not be supervised at all times. If you will notice on almost any employment application these days you are authorizing the potential employer to check your credit, read the fine print.

These are just two examples outside of the loan process, which almost always will involve your credit scores, that shows how your scores can save or cost you money. So what does this mean? Know where you stand. Know what your scores are and learn how to keep them as high as possible. This could potentially save you thousands of dollars in fees, interest, premiums, etc...

Here is one little bit of information that will help your scores tremendously; keep your balances on your credit cards below 75% of the credit line. In other words, if you have a credit card with a $1,000 balance, keep your balance below $750.00. Credit cards can be very dangerous to a consumer and it is usually the first thing that does not get paid when someone is struggling financially. Because of this credit cards are weighted heavily in your credit score and higher balances usually indicate that someone is having to use the cards to survive or is spending out of control. Keep your balances low to avoid a major hit in your credit score. Use this and any knowledge you can get your hands on to keep your scores high and enjoy the savings.

Rich Ruzic has been in the mortgage business for 15 years and publishes articles on the subject for both individuals and corporations.

http://www.loaninfonline.com

Eliminate Debt Through Credit Cards with Low Interest Rates

By Peter H. Wilson

Credit cards are great inventions, as long as they are properly used. If you can obtain a credit card with a low interest rate, you can really use it to your advantage. Even though you may have been working with the same credit card company for a long time, it may be worthwhile to shop around with new companies to see if you can obtain a lower interest rate.

It's not just Visa and Mastercard these days. There are so many credit card companies to choose from and so the competition is fierce. They have to offer all sorts of incentives in order to attract customers. With this kind of competition, you, as the consumer, are sure to find a credit card with a low interest rate. The rate you obtain will depend upon your credit rating. But you don't know how each company will view your rating. If you have a few marks against your credit, you may still obtain a rate that is better than the one you have, if a credit card company is anxious to get your business. The only way to know is to ask.

Most people who have credit cards carry a monthly balance on their cards. If you do too, you will be much better off with a lower interest rate to save money. Let's say you have decided to get out from under credit card debt, and so are paying off a bigger portion of the debt each month so you can pay it off completely. This will be accomplished much more quickly if you have a lower interest rate. You may even be able to obtain a zero percent interest credit card. These kinds of offers are made to induce you to transfer the balances you currently carry with another company. With an interest rate like that, you can very quickly pay down the debt.

If you are one of those people who make sure to pay off their credit card balance each month, you may feel that a lower interest rate is of no benefit to you, since you never pay interest anyway. But, you should always be prepared for the unexpected, and if you did have problem one month where you couldn't pay the whole balance, it would be better to carry that balance over at a low interest rate.

The offers of very low of zero interest rates are just incentives to get your account, so they are usually just for a six month or twelve month period. If you use the period to pay off all of the credit card principal, you will really save a lot of money, and plus be free of credit card debt. Watch out, though, once the introductory period is over, the rate will increase. The credit card company has to advice you when the rate is increasing, but if you are not watching out, you may be back into a high interest rate card.

If it is possible, it is best to pay off your whole credit card balance each month and have no interest to pay at all. You will save a lot of money on interest over the years. If you pay only the minimum on the balance, you must realize that you are extending the debt further and further and paying more and more interest. Imagine how much money you can save if you had a low interest rate credit card. If you have any questions about the rate on your credit card, or how interest is calculated, just contact your credit card company. This call may avoid problems in the future.

The technical writer Peter J. Wilson is specifically interested in questions about investing. His articles on how to eliminate credit card debt can be discovered on http://www.debtania.com .

Are Too Many Credit Applications Bad For Your Credit Rating

By Alex Lowe

Even if you manage your money wisely, too many credit applications can have an adverse effect on your credit rating, especially if you are making these within a relatively short period of time. Many people do this as they are seduced by the many good offers which they perceive at any given time as all the card companies try to compete for additional business. However, applying for multiple cards within a short time span does impact negatively upon your credit rating so it’s wiser to do your homework on the comparison sites and stick to only making one or two (at most) applications in quick succession.

As a general guideline, wait a few months between applying for alternative sources of credit. This also includes mortgages, loans, store cards as well as credit cards an even a mobile phone application.

Whenever you make an application for any kind of credit, a ‘footprint’ is added to your file. This notification is then visible to the next provider that comes to look at your file as a result of another application for credit. They can then also view your credit history, see what other credit cards and financial obligations you have, what the limit of the credit is on each and what the balances are. They are also able to check on whether or not you pay off your cards in full each month or if you are simply making the minimum repayments. Therefore, if you are making applications for credit in rapid succession, they may deem that you’re becoming more of a higher risk and, therefore, you may not get offered the preferential rate you’d bargained for which they can offer to other customers who they deem pose less of a risk.

It is estimated that over 2 million people in the UK are at risk of damaging their credit rating by repeatedly making applications for a credit card after they’ve been turned down previously by the same lender. Having too much available credit indicates to lenders that you may be over-reaching your capacity to make the repayments on all your financial obligations.

So, there are a few golden rules to enable you to maintain a good credit rating in addition to avoiding making multiple applications for credit.

Firstly, try to pay off in full, or at least reduce, all of your outstanding balances each month if you can afford to. This is an indication to lenders that you are managing your money well and that you only borrow sums which you can afford to repay. This will have a positive impact upon your credit score.

Try to pay off in full any credit cards which have the highest rate of interest and then cut them up. Holding multiple credit cards with high balances on is an indication to lenders that you may be over-stretching yourself.

And, although this might seem painful, work out a budget and then stick to it!

There's no doubt that Alex Lowe has some great advice on managing a bad credit rating. You'll benefit by reading her bad credit guidance on the website http://www.completeconfidence.co.uk

How Can I Improve My Credit Rating

By Ryan D.

How can I improve my credit rating is something that get's asked a lot, simply because many people are not very good at handling credit or maybe they weren't in the past or maybe it's just someone young looking to find out how they can make sure they have great credit for the rest of their lives, well, I am going to share with you, in this article, some tips on how to improve credit, I hope you finf them useful.

How can I improve my credit rating?

Here are some tips for you:

Make your payments on time - This is very simple to do yet is also very important to do, you need to make sure you make all the neccessary payments at the correct times, just keep up to date on what you need to pay out and make sure it is all taken care of when it is supposed to be, you can't make people wait for money or else it will be reflected badly in most cases.

Don't get new credit often - Many people belive they can sort of "fool" the system, they think they can get new credit with one account the first week then go and apply for a different account the next week and so on, well, this will only do you damage, you will end up with a lot of overdue payments and in debt and you won't have any chance of getting new credit for a long time, if ever.

Your history is important - This is one that will not neccessarily apply to the younger people at the minute, however, it will in the future, your history with credit will play a role in how you are considered for new credit, for example, if you have bad history (not meeting payments, etc) then you will have less chance of getting any more credit, you need to keep everything in order.

These are just a few tips to help answer your question, how can I improve my credit rating and I hope you found them helpful.

Discover The Credit Secrets For Success:

http://the-internet-marketer.com/ImproveYourCreditEasily

It's So Simple You Won't Believe It!

Steps To Eliminating Debt

By Ken Barnes

Debt is easy to get into. We all buy things on credit, take loans out to get instant money or pay for goods on credit cards. Credit can take minutes to build up, but years to pay off. When debt builds up we end up paying regular monthly payments that simply increase every time we get more credit.

The first thing we all have to do to clear debt is stop getting into any more debt. If you never took out another loan and cut up your credit cards then after a while you will pay off all your debt (provided you are making regular monthly payments).

However, there are lots of clever ways to pay off debt quicker and help you to become debt free. Simply make a list of all the debt you have. This is everything that you pay to a creditor and includes any loans, credit cards, financed items such as the finance on your car or furniture and also the big one, your mortgage.

You should know:

1. How much the debt is for or the total amount

2. How much is left to pay off the debt

3. What you pay every month

4. How many months you have left to pay

5. AND the interest rate you are being charged

If you add the amount of debt (number 2 above) you have left on each one of your debts then this is how much you owe to creditors. If you then add up all the monthly payments (number 4 above) then this is what you have to pay every month. Once you have worked this out then you are in a good position to start working out the fastest and cheapest way to clear this debt.

Paying off the debt as quickly as possible:

There are several ways you can pay off debt quickly. Some will be better than others and it also depends on the type of debt you have.

The interest pay off – Targeting number 5 on the list above

If you have a credit card or mortgage then you should be charged interest monthly on the amount of credit you have left to pay. If you pay off larger amounts off this then amount you have to pay every month goes down. The more you pay off the less you have to pay in interest every month. If you take the credit card or loan that charges you the highest rate of interest, then paying this off earlier saves you the most amount of money every month. Once it is paid off, you move to the next credit with the biggest interest rate. Because mortgages usually have the lowest interest rate out of all your loans or credit cards and is secured debt you should leave this until last on your list.

For some loans, creditors can sometimes charge the entire interest on the full amount across the time you have to pay the loan so that if you decide to pay a loan off early, you may still end up paying the same amount as if you continue to pay the loan every month. In this case you are probably better off not paying that specific loan early and focusing your efforts on a different loan.

The minimum loan pay off – Targeting number 2 on the list above

If you take a look at all your loans and start paying extra on the smallest loan then this will be paid off the fastest. Once you pay this off, take the amount you were paying on that loan and use it towards paying off the next smallest loan. Eventually you will again end up with only your mortgage left which if you use all the money you used for your other loans this will also be paid off much faster.

The biggest payment pay off – Targeting number 3 (or 4) on the list above

This works best for small loans with fixed payments and is great for people who find themselves with lots of loans with money to pay off on all of them. Because you want to reduce the amount of time and money you have to use to pay off the loan you simply target the largest payment you have to make every month. This may be the loan with the highest interest or the one the one with the highest balance. Once you put everything you can into paying this off your monthly payments will suddenly drop.

You can also do this by targeting the loan that has the least number of months left to pay off the debt. This will reduce the monthly payments quicker.

This will leave you with a lot more money every month and helps to control your finances better especially for people that struggle to pay off their loans. Clearing the loan that takes the highest payment every month has the biggest effect on your bank balance every month. Clearing the loan that has the least number of monthly payments left has the fastest effect on your monthly bank balance.

The clever part is to then use the money you save once you have paid off the loan to pay the other loans off faster and not to get comfortable with the debt you have left.

For more debt help and advice on the steps to take to eliminate debt, credit, loans, etc try http://www.1stfinanceguide.com

This article comes with reprint rights. Feel free to reprint and distribute as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is include, and that the links above are intact.

Using Credit Agencies to Manage Your Finances Better

By Joseph Ducat

Savvy consumers are now using the World Wide Web to manage their finances better. Modern technology now makes it possible for you to consult online credit agencies for information about your credit rating. You can monitor changes to your credit report and promptly revise your financial activity in response. And it’s not at all difficult or complicated. In fact, you just have to turn on your home computer and connect to the Internet to gain access to your financial information.

Credit agencies provide informational websites that have much advice to offer the financial-minded consumer. For example, many websites will allow you to access online tutorial on helpful topics such as how to interpret a credit score. Other instructional guides will teach you how to recover from a decline in your credit score and how to ensure yourself a good credit rating. You may even be able to consult articles written by financial experts on useful subjects such as personal debt reduction and credit card identity theft protection. The reason all of this knowledge is made available is to help people realize the importance of maintaining a healthy credit score and show them how they achieve such a goal.

There are also more specialized services available at certain credit agency websites. For example, some agency sites will allow you to do a vehicle history check. That would certainly be a useful service if you had to make a decision about buying a particular vehicle. Learning all about its history would help you decide if it would be a good purchase or not.

Another service that may be offered by credit agencies is doing a background check on a company. If you are looking to hire a particular business, you can instigate a credit check on it to discover whether it has a good financial reputation and is reliable when dealing with its clients.

Of course, not all of these services are free. Most of them require at least a basic membership at a credit agency website. Fortunately, many websites do offer a 30-day free trial that you can take advantage of to ensure you are getting the services you need. During the trial, you should be able to access most of the agency website’s features, such as viewing credit reports that have been submitted on you, and absorbing a wealth of information that can help you to improve your financial standing.

For more information and tips about Using Credit Bureaus and What Credit Agencies Are For please drop by at http://getbettercredit.info

Student Loan Discussions

By Mabel Van Niekerk

Most scholars who have set their sights on further education will not have the privilege of paying cash for their studies. They will require some help from loans. It is very wise to start checking out all your options before you have finished with school so that you will be prepared for what the best action is to take.

Many lenders start granting loans on a first come first served basis so those students who apply early will have the loan approved by the time they require the loan. It will be very awkward if your loan is not yet approved and the semester has already started. You will not be allowed to attend classes until you have paid your tuition fees. Starting early definitely has its merits.

There are always scholarships and grants that can be worked for and earned. If it is at all possible set your sights on one of these options and work towards gaining access to one or the other. It is a great help to get a full scholarship or one that pays only your tuition fees. This will also be a great help to you. What ever is paid for makes less for you to have to borrow.

Fortunately there are many banks and financial institutions that make provision for student loans. The interest rates are very low and the same goes for the loan charges. This is a great help to students. The loans are only repayable once the borrower has graduated. This means that the student can borrow more than one loan if necessary and only have to start paying the loan back after graduation. Many banks will give the student time to first secure a job before they commence paying.

The down side of this scenario is that the student will have to start out their adult life with a lot of debt. The amounts of the loans will have accumulated in this time and it seems scary to have to start life out being in debt.

The parents or guardians can be of a great help by taking loans that they can pay off to help the student. There are a number of loans that can be used for this reason, like a personal loan, home equity loan or ever a second mortgage on their homes.

Mabel van Niekerk writes informative articles on a variety of subject including Student Loans. http://www.studentloanswebs.com