credit.com

I am one of those people that had been plagued by having been irresponsible in the past with credit that had been offered to them. After defaulting on a few loans, having made late credit card payments and a few court summons, I started to get turned down for anything I would apply for and I finally ended up with a County court Judgment for a student loan that I had taken out years earlier.

This seemed like an end to me getting any type of credit for the next six years, even though I paid the student loan back six months after the County court Judgment. After getting rejected for a mobile phone contract, I started to check with credit reference agencies about my credit profile because at that time I was thinking of buying a house.

I had grown tired of renting, as I had been renting for the last ten years and had been moving every year or so. What I found from my research was that a number of things determined how good or bad your credit will be. One of the most important is late payments on any type of credit you might have. It can be a credit card, loan, mortgage, mobile phone bill etc. and the other is how long you have been on a voting register.

After getting offered a high interest rate mortgage I decided to carry on renting and I moved to a new address. The first thing I did was register myself on the voting register at the new address and get a new land line number, that was not ex-directory. The most important thing I did was not to bring any of my previous bank accounts, credit cards, mobile phone contract to the new address. So I ended every account that I had and did give my forwarding address to any company.

As soon as my name came on the voting register at the new address, which was around 2 months, I applied for a mobile phone contract with the newest network and in the application did not mention any of my previous addresses and to my surprise I passed the credit check. I was working at that time and was getting paid into a savings account that I had opened; the savings account was with a small building society that did not do a credit check. After a few months I applied to a high street bank for a current account and to a greater surprise they not only opened an account, they gave me a visa debit card.

After paying my wages into that account for six months, I asked for a credit card and was given a credit card with a six thousand pound limit. After that I have had no problems with getting any type of credit and I recently got a mortgage from high street bank at a very good rate. The most important lesson I learned was that to never make payments late to any type of credit you have and the best way to do this is to set up direct debits.

My credit history is now fantastic and the reason for this is I never miss any payment and I am very disciplined in how much credit I apply for and use. If you are young and new to being offered credit please be sensible and don’t make the mistakes I did.

objavio/la debt.com  # 06:19 0 komentara

The lending market is getting tougher. On the heels of the sub-prime market fallout, most lenders are implementing rules and policies that make it much tougher for people to get a loan approved. The end result of this is that if you anticipate wanting to get the best possible rates and terms on a future loan like a car loan, mortgage, or other big ticket items, you would be well advised to take the necessary steps to increase your credit score, and there are many ways to do that.

It is beneficial for you to become informed about how the credit bureaus calculate the credit score that is reported to a potential lender. Some of the things you should do may actually appear to be counter intuitive, but if you follow common wisdom to increase your credit score, you actually may be doing more damage than good. For example, closing credit card accounts is not always in your best interests when it comes to raising your credit score.

If you want to increase your credit score, sit down with all your accounts and check the credit limit on each of your accounts. If you are like most people, you probably have multiple credit accounts with Visa, MasterCard, and Discover, perhaps also American Express. Check your credit limits on each of these accounts and distribute your remaining balance as evenly as possible over the accounts. Almost all credit cards allow you to do a full or partial balance transfer from one card to another, and sometimes they offer interest incentives for doing so. If you can, pay off some of the accounts, but do not close the account that you pay off.

As you are getting copies of your credit report, make sure that you get a copy of it separately from each of the big three credit bureaus. Since the credit bureaus do not share information between them, your credit score is almost certainly different with each of the credit bureaus, so be sure to get a copy from each of them.

Make sure that your credit limit is being reported for each account. If an account is not reporting your credit limit, the system used by the credit bureau to calculate your credit score will assume that your account is maxed out, which is a negative when computing your credit score. You get a more favorable score as your outstanding balance is closer to zero. If your outstanding balance with an account is over 70 percent, this damages your credit score the most, followed by the next tier of 50 percent of your credit limit, followed by the lowest tier of about 30 percent of your credit limit. Your best score comes from being between 0 and 25 percent of your credit limit, and of course having a solid history of on time payments where you pay at least the minimum amount due and perhaps even 10 percent more.

The credit scoring software also assumes that consumers who have had credit for a long time are a lesser risk of defaulting on payments, which is why you should keep an account open instead of closing it when you have paid it off.

Maybe you have some late payments listed on your credit report as many people do. You may be able to work with the creditor if you have a recent history of good payments and request a "good faith adjustment". But be open and friendly, since people are more prone to work with people who are friendly and genuine as opposed to people who are frustrated and rude.

If you have an account in collections, you need to get that paid off. But you should contact the collections agency and request that they delete the account upon you paying the final balance. Not all collections agencies will agree to this, but many will and it is certainly worth the effort to try.

There are many more things you can do to increase your credit score, but the key is to start as soon as possible. It does not happen overnight, but it is certainly in your best interests to take these steps for the benefit of your credit score.

objavio/la debt.com  # 06:18 0 komentara

If you come under credit card company so called ‘review’ process, then they want you to sign a IRS Form 4506T, that gives them permission to get your tax returns from the IRS. Meanwhile, they will put your credit card on ‘hold’ so you cannot use the credit card. Isn’t that appalling?

I was just shocked when recently my credit card company put me under the ‘review’ process out of the blue. I have very good credit and have never been delinquent. And I am not a new card holder. I have been with them for more than 11 years. So they have a history on me that clearly showed not a single missed payment.

I called them up explaining that they have access to my credit file and my payment history with them. They would not listen. I was shocked!

I had not seen this ‘ugly’ face. No matter what I said, they would not budge. They kept repeating the same ‘mantra’; ‘we need you to sign the IRS Form 4506T so we can pull your tax returns’.

I talked to a lawyer, and he told me that you have no reason to share your tax returns with them and it may constitute ‘invasion of privacy’. They have your credit file and more than 10 years of payment history and that it should be sufficient. To protect my privacy, the lawyer wrote them a letter but to no avail.

I wanted this matter resolved just so that it does not show up adversely on my credit file. I finally offered them my bank statement to show I have the money to pay them. They would not budge. ‘We want your tax returns’ came the blunt reply!

Finally, I got hold of a VP at the credit card company and came to an agreement. He looked at my payment history and bank statements and reinstated within 24 hours my credit card.

Moral of the story is if you get caught in a credit card company ‘review’ and are asked to show your tax returns, it may not be necessary. Protect your privacy. Put up a fight. Because if you don’t, then next time they will ask for more!

objavio/la debt.com  # 06:17 0 komentara