Tax Free? Never.

You have no idea how much your credit is costing you

Most people think that having good credit gets you approved, well, yes that's true, but what most people don't know is how much bad credit costs you--every month.

Here's how much more you'll pay each month for a home, your car, your credit cards, and more...

Again, I can't stress this enough - this money is literally getting thrown away each month...picture walking outside, going to the ATM and taking out money, then stepping up to a trash can and tossing it in (I'm serious, and this should be serious for you).

The annual percentage rate (APR) on a mortgage can vary by over 3.5% depending on your credit score. That may not seem like much, but it makes a huge impact on how much you pay over the lifespan of the loan.

To qualify for a decent mortgage, you typically need a credit score of 680 or higher. Here's how much your payments will differ on a 30-year, fixed-rate $250,000 mortgage, with 10% down, and excellent credit compared to having a 620 score...

740 credit score or above:

APR: 4.125%
Total payment: $1,321

Same situation, but with a 620 score:

APR: 6.6%
Total payment: $1,667

Total cost of bad credit for just your home: $346 more per month...money wasted, every month.

Again, it's not about whether you get approved or not, we're talking about how much more you'll pay.

Important note: Your credit score will be different depending on what you're applying for.  Yes, depending on who is pulling your credit (i.e. an auto loan lender, home loan lender, etc, versus your score from the reporting agencies, or a monitoring service like credit karma, or even us), your scores will often come up lower when applying through a lender.  

"Woah.  How am I supposed to know what my real score even is then?"

You don't.

Not really.  You won't know until you're actually applying for something.  

So, if you got your score through us, the reporting agencies, or anywhere else but the actual lender themselves, you can almost always bet your score is appearing higher than it actually is.  

This means that if you think you're sitting comfortable at a 684, or a 701, but the score was from anywhere but a lender, it's likely 20-80+ points higher than it will actually be when you go to apply for a loan.  Unless your score came up soaring above 700, you can bet you're not getting the best rate. 

We'll pretend for a moment though that you show up at the dealer ship and your score is actually 720 or higher, which qualifies you for the lowest auto loan interest rates, compared to any score below 590.

Let's go with a 60-month new car loan for $30,000 and using rate estimates...

720 or above:

APR: 2.79%
Monthly loan payment: $536

Same auto loan, but with below 590:

APR: 9.95
Monthly loan payment: $637

Total cost of bad credit for your car: $101 more per month (money you could be saving)

There are two ways bad credit can hurt you when you apply to rent an apartment.

First, the landlord may deny your application due to your credit. This will depend on both what credit score the landlord will accept and also the credit scores of any other applicants for the apartment. If another applicant has a higher credit score, odds are that the landlord will choose them.

If you are approved, you'll likely need to pay a larger security deposit. The advertised security deposit is typically on approved credit, meaning you only qualify for that if your credit is good enough. With bad credit, your deposit may be double that amount or the equivalent of another month's rent.

When it comes to credit cards, bad credit is crazy expensive.

First, if you have below 580, you'll probably only qualify for a secured credit card.  It still helps build credit, but yeah, no fun.  With secured cards, you pay up front for whatever you plan to use on the card.  You'll likely need to put up $100 to $200 just to open a secured credit card account.

Where bad credit will really cost you is in the missed opportunities. Many of the best credit cards offer sign-up bonuses worth hundreds of dollars and also earn rewards on all your spending. But you can only take advantage of those offers with good to excellent credit.

Now, let's say you have bad credit and get approved for a credit card.  How much is this gonna cost you?

Let's say you have $10,000 in credit card debt.  

With good credit, you'll pay around 9% interest.  With bad credit, you might be looking at 22%.  

This means the monthly payment for your credit card--at the minimum--would be $175 if you have good credit, and a whopping $284 if you have bad credit. 

You credit card debt ends up costing you $108 more every single month!

If we total up all the extra money you would waste just to have the things you need (home, car, credit cards), it ends up costing you $556 more every month. 

Now, you might be thinking "That can't be right, no one can afford to throw away an extra $556 every month and still financially survive?"

Yep.  They can't.  

So what do they do?

They get a cheaper car, less house for their money, and borrow more just to make it. (or simply live, with 'less' than everyone else)

This is why having a high credit score and good credit is so important.  

We can never understand why, especially when a service like The type we offer & provide is available, anyone would choose to throw money away.  

If you're in this situation---if you just discovered (or already knew) that you're throwing money away each and every month because of your credit.  Learn what you can do about it, or Let us help Either way, don't wait.  Just get it done...for the rest of your life, you'll be glad you did.  

Hey there We Are Here to Help the future member of the 750 credit score club | Please Understand there is a lot of content to read how ever this will give you a fair comprehension of the depth of our knowledge when it comes to finances, Happy Reading!

 need some assistance getting the credit score you need?  Are you fed up with being denied loans or credit cards because of mistakes on your credit report? Are you ready to take control of your financial future and fix those errors? Then you're in luck, because I'm here to spill the beans on credit reporting errors and how to fix them.

First things first: what are credit reporting errors? These mistakes can occur for a variety of reasons, including errors made by credit bureaus, lenders, or even identity theft. And let me tell you, they can have a major impact on your credit score and financial future. That's why it's so important to take action to correct them as soon as possible.

So, how do you fix credit reporting errors? The first step is to request a copy of your credit report from each of the major credit bureaus. You are entitled to one free credit report per year from each bureau, and you can request these reports at AnnualCreditReport.com. Once you have your credit reports, carefully review them for any errors or discrepancies.

If you find errors on your credit report, it's time to take action. You can dispute the errors with the credit bureau by contacting them online, by phone, or by mail. When you dispute an error, you'll need to provide documentation to support your claim. This could include copies of receipts, bills, or other documents that demonstrate that the information on your credit report is incorrect.

The credit bureau will then investigate your dispute and determine whether the information on your credit report is accurate. If the bureau determines that the information is incorrect, it will be removed from your credit report. If the information is accurate, it will remain on your credit report.

Now, I know what you're thinking: this all sounds like a lot of work. And you're right, it can be a time-consuming process. The credit bureau has up to 30 days to investigate your dispute, and it may take additional time for the error to be corrected. But here's the thing: the effort is worth it. Correcting errors on your credit report can significantly improve your credit score and financial situation.

So don't let those pesky credit reporting errors hold you back any longer. Take control of your financial future and fix those mistakes. Your credit score (and wallet) will thank you.

 How to lower your credit utilization

Let's take a look at five ways (some of them pretty clever) you can improve your credit utilization...

 Pay down your credit cards (obvious, right?).  Ideally you want the balance on your credit cards to be no more than 30% of the available limit.  A simple strategy is the 'avalanche method' to pay down your credit cards.  You simply pay the one with the highest interest rate the most money you can, and pay the minimum to all the rest.  Then set your sight on the next card after that.

 Roll credit card debt into a personal loan. Consolidating your credit cards into one lower interest rate loan will reduce the interest rate and bring down your payment, which means you can pay MORE toward the balance and get out of debt sooner. Many people also find it easier to stay on top of a single monthly loan payment instead of several credit card payments. Bonus: if your credit cards remain open after transferring the balance to a personal loan, your credit utilization ratio goes down!  (Just don't start using them again--then you're in deep water.)

Request a higher credit limit from your credit card company.  In a recent survey, 89% of people who ask for a higher credit limit get one.  For example, let’s say you have a balance of $8,000 on a card with a $10,000 limit. Increasing the limit from $10,000 to $15,000 would reduce your credit utilization ratio from 80 percent to 53 percent.  The trap however that most people fall into is that they end up using the additional amount available.  Avoid this, and you'll instantly reduce your credit utilization (and raise your credit score).

 More cards means more limit.   You can increase your "total" limit across your cards by opening a new one. However, keep in mind some warnings... 1) Having too many cards can be a red flag which means your score might not benefit in the end, 2) it's more temptation to use that new card (don't!), 3) a new account may also reduce the avg age of your tradelines, which can ding your score. 

Leave cards open. After paying off a card, keeping that card open means you’re maintaining your total credit limit—thereby lowering your credit utilization percentage.

Note: Taking out a personal loan to consolidate credit card debt, or asking for a higher credit limit on your card, or applying for a new card may all result in a “hard inquiry” on your credit, which can hurt your credit score.  Even though hard inquiries have minor affects to your credit, they can add up.

Now that you know how to improve your credit utilization, it’s important to keep track of your progress. Check your credit card balances monthly and keep tabs on your utilization ratios. Many card issuers offer balance alerts via text or email, making it even easier to prevent your utilization ratio from creeping up. Monitoring your credit score can also provide motivation to keep your utilization in check.

Lenders want to see someone that can avoid temptation, and that proves they can be trusted with their money--period.  One of the best ways to do this is by having a low credit utilization ratio.  Hopefully these strategies will help you on your path to better credit. 

Ways to increase your credit score, and keep increasing it...if you stay consistent!

There's a few areas that really impact your credit score.  Things like any missed payments or negative stuff, positive payment history, and debt.  Let's start with debt, because this is usually the fastest way to get a boost in your score...

Let's start with the goal:  Look at the available limit on any of your credit cards, then look at your balance, your goal is 30%.  You want what you owe no more than 30% of the limit.  Great, now we know our goal.  If you're not there, here's some ways to get you there that we help our customers with when fixing their credit (and I'll breeze through these)...

Pay the minimum on everything and focus every penny you have on the highest interest card.  While you're doing that, contact your credit card companies and ask for an increase in your credit card limit.  If they give you an increase, do not use the new available limit.  The whole point of asking for an increase is to make your "limit" higher, so that your "debt" seems lower--closer to that 30% goal. 

Finally, while you're doing these things, see if you can get a personal loan in the amount of your credit card debt, or as much as you can, and pay down your credit cards with that.   Doing this will make your credit utilization look better instantly!  It works because your personal loan does not count toward your credit utilization.  Very important reminder: Do not use those credit cards ever again until after you have paid off that personal loan.  Otherwise you will now mess up your credit utilization once again, but you'll also have a personal loan to pay off on top of it!  

Do this right, and you'll get big points back on your credit!

Without going into too much detail, this simply gives you the positive credit history of that account moving forward...and positive accounts on your credit will boost your score quickly!

This is where we shine.  This is one of the biggest reasons why people hire us, because of our track-record of removing the credit issues on their credit that is killing their credit score.  You want to use an accelerated dispute process which includes: Digital dispute, Escalated bureau investigation, MOV investigation requests.

The goal here is to make sure your dispute is received, acted on, and you have they have the best chances of succeeding.  Your goal is to have any questionable negative issue on your credit removed based on your dispute.  

A digital dispute ensures speed, but an escalated dispute means that you are contacting the creditors and bureaus with something unique and specific.  You want to make sure a human being is reviewing your dispute whenever possible.  Finally, you want to follow up on your dispute to make sure it was acted on properly, and within your rights.  This is the purpose of opening a MOV investigation (Method of Verification).  

Having too many credit cards can negatively affect your score.  Think about it, this means that you have access to a lot of credit, which can be risky for creditors to keep giving you more access.  Just a few cards is usually the right amount. 

Credit that you don’t need can hurt your credit score in multiple ways, from putting too many hard inquiries on your credit report to tempting you to overspend and rack up debt.

Keep cards open you aren't using.  Keeping unused credit cards open (as long as they're not costing you money in annual fees) is a smart thing to do. Closing one of these accounts could increase your credit utilization percentage that we talked about earlier. If you owe the same amount yet have less open accounts it will lower your credit score. Also, by closing accounts, you can negatively impact your length of credit history by closing them (which is an entirely other key aspect of your credit score).

Applying for credit usually puts an 'inquiry' on your credit report.  While opening a new credit card can increase your overall credit limit, actually applying for credit will create a hard inquiry on your credit report. Too many hard inquiries at once can bring down your credit score, although the impact does go down over time. Hard inquiries only stay on your credit report for two years, and recent ones impact your score more than the old.

Hopefully these tips at least gave you an idea of what to focus on.  Start with your credit utilization when you typically want to impact your score the fastest!  If you need help, and you want experts that to help you, Learn more  Www.CreditPlayers.Pro - you won't regret it! 

Why use credit builder? Okay, maybe that’s not a question that stirs you awake in the middle of the night with a burning desire to resolve. But actually it’s a pretty important question to ask for many of us and our financial lives. There are literally dozens of reasons why to restore your credit. This article focuses on 6 of them that will likely have the biggest impact on your life.

One of the biggest problems with bad credit is the psychological effect it can have on us. Having credit issues can weigh on your mind, creating greater anxiety in your life. When you have good credit you have control over an important part of your life. You feel better about your situation, and your general sense of well-being improves. Knowing that the next phone call won’t be some debt collector calling to harass you can bring real piece of mind.

The fact is, when you have credit issues you will have to pay more for a lot things. Poor credit will mean you’ll have to pay higher interest on your credit cards, personal loans, and mortgage. This can add up to thousands of dollars a year in extra expense – all because of poor credit. Also, things like insurance premiums are based in part on credit as well – requiring people with poor credit to pay more in premiums than a customer with good credit.

There are many interesting credit cards available today that give away rewards, points that can be redeemed for gifts, or cash back programs as incentives for whenever the cards are used. But to qualify for cards that offer these benefits you have to have very good credit. On the other hand, with poor credit you’re often forced into a substandard cards that have extremely high interest rates and offer no benefits. Or worse, a secured card where you’re actually charging against your own money deposited with the credit card company.

Having good credit will allow you to buy a home and overall pay much less for it in the long run. To qualify for a mortgage to buy a home you need to have good credit. And to get a good mortgage, one with a lower interest rate, also requires good credit.

This can also apply for renting an apartment. These days most owners of rental space will run a background check that includes credit history before leasing. Lower credit may disqualify you for that apartment you had your eye on.

Like qualifying for a mortgage you’ll need good credit to get a loan for buying a new or used car. And the strength of your credit will also determine what the finance charges will be. Consumers with bad credit will have to pay much more in finance charges to buy a car.

Many employers when evaluating candidates for a new job will also pull their credit as a way of evaluating how responsible they are. And for some jobs that handle money or consumer financial information, credit is run to ensure there aren’t any concerns based on the candidates background. Bad credit can disqualify you for that job you would have otherwise gotten.

As you can see, having bad credit can have a huge impact on your life – especially a financial impact. If you have credit issues a great first step in turning it around is with Credit Restoration  A professional credit restoration  firm like CreditPlayer LLC can usually speed up the time it takes to work through the process and get you to a better credit position quicker. And as you can see for the article, the cost savings you’ll have with better credit should more than offset the cost for their help. But however you choose to handle it, through a professional firm or DIY, credit restoration  is one of the best things you can do to improve your personal finances.

When it comes to our personal finances it’s important to effectively manage our money and keep expenses down. That way, over time, we begin to build wealth – the ultimate goal of most personal finance plans. At the center of personal finance is our use of credit, and the credit cards we choose. In what’s become largely a moneyless society, most of us simply put all of our expenses on credit or debit cards rather than paying cash. And this change to a world where money has largely disappeared from daily use to one where we access a line of credit to may payment is a change that can either have a positive or negative impact on our personal finances.

In this article what we’d like to do is explore the best ways to use your credit cards to improve your individual personal finances.

Credit Card Use

It almost goes without saying that if you want to reduce your credit card expense, don’t carry a balance. A credit card should be treated like cash. With cash you’re limited to what you can spend based on how much you have. This is a good rule for credit cards too. Don’t spend beyond what you can pay back immediately. A credit card is best used to facilitate a purchasing transaction. Rather than having to carry around and fumble for the right amount of cash at the register, you can simply use your card and sign for it. And this convenience can be especially helpful at restaurants, and almost essential for online purchases. 

Pay Down Debt

If you have credit card debt you’ll want to work aggressively toward paying it down as quickly as possible. Having credit card debt while trying to improve you personal finances is a little like the man pushing the rock up the hill only to have it roll back down again. Similar to him, despite good practices like saving and reducing expenses, you’ll always limit the progress you make if you have credit card debt with interest payments. 

And you might be surprised at the current interest rates for some of your cards based on variable interest rates. That card you thought you signed up for with at 12% interest rate could now carry an interest rate over 25% due to changes in the variable interest rate the bank has imposed. Credit card debt with high interest rates is a real killer for personal finances.

The two best things you can do here is work out a plan to pay down your credit card debt and work with the credit card company to decrease the interest rate. Your plan should center around having a budget in place that targets a specific amount you’ll pay off each month, while also taking into account your other ongoing living expenses. 

Shifting Balances

Another way to help speed up paying down your credit card debt is shifting balances from higher interest cards to low or zero interest cards – or what is often referred to as credit card research If done effectively this can reduce the total amount of interest you have to pay when paying down your balances, which means more savings for you and getting to debt free quicker. But be sure to study the terms for the new card you’ll be shifting your balance to. They often have a one-time fee as a percentage of the balance being moved, and the lower interest rates will have a time limit to them.

Decrease Interest Charges

Asking for your interest rate to be decreased seems like a long-shot, a recent survey actually found that 56% of credit card companies were will to reduce the consumers interest rate (APR) when asked to do so.  Other areas to potentially explore with your credit card company is getting a late fee waved, which many are willing to do if it’s the first time, and asking that the annual fee be waived or lowered. These days all three of these options are quite doable, and at a minimum it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Points

Credit card companies are in competition with each other. In recent years to attract customers many have been adding incentives to get consumers to use their card for their next purchase. A primary way to achieve this is by giving redeemable points each time the card is used. The points can be used for other purchases or to help pay down a credit card balance. When making a purchasing decision your choice of credit card can be just as important. Choosing the card that will maximize your points can actually lead to a decrease in the cost of the item, when the points are applied against the credit card balance.

Personal Finances

As we’ve seen, credit and the tools we use to access credit, like our credit cards, are an important part of personal finance. Being more aware of our credit cards and their role in our lives as consumers is an essential part of the formula for maximizing our financial success. Exercising financial discipline with the use of our credit cards and choosing the right cards to use will, in the long run, have a significant impact on the financial wealth we’re able to build in our lifetimes.

Personal finance and Credit

Homeownership & The American Dream

"The American Dream” is a concept that has been around since the founding of our nation, and at the center of it has always been the idea of homeownership. Basically, The American Dream represents a set of ideals or aspirations for success and a prosperous life that is thought to be an ethos shared by all Americans.

Here in the United States homeownership has come to represent the achievement of a certain level of success or prosperity. Those who are homeowners are thought to be at least in the middle class. They’ve arrived!

But these days the ideas toward homeownership have started to shift a little bit. Where once it was a given that one would aspire to one day own a home, not everyone’s onboard with that part of the dream.

According to a Pew Research Center Study, more U.S. households “are headed by renters than at any point since at least 1965.” And that change is across all age groups under 65 years old; and not just Millennials, who are thought prefer to rent to avoid paying property tax, association fees, and being tied down.

Is The American Dream Gone?

So has the American Dream changed, or at least the homeownership part of it? Though the numbers have been shifting toward more home rental recently, another study from Pew indicates that’s not necessarily due to a declining interest in homeownership:

"In a 2016 Pew Research Center survey, 72% of renters said they would like to buy a house at some point. About two-thirds of renters in the same survey (65%) said they currently rent as a result of circumstances, compared with 32% who said they rent as a matter of choice. When asked about the specific reasons why they rent, a majority of renters…cited financial reasons."

So it looks like the idea of homeownership being the aspiration of Americans isn’t going away – and that’s a good thing. For more than just status reasons owning a home often makes good financial sense for people.

Homeownership Makes Good Sense

Whether to rent or own is an individual decision with many different factors that affect the financial impact either decision will have on you. A good first step in deciding may be to use a Rent vs Buy Calculator to understand how the financial impact of this choice will effect you.

Generally the results from the rent vs buy calculation will be favorable for buying unless you live in a prohibitively expensive area to own. So assuming that’s not the case, what are some other reasons to pursue the American Dream of homeownership?

Building Equity

Unlike the monthly payments you make as a renter that go to the landlord, as a homeowner your monthly mortgage payments go toward your eventual ownership of that home. And each month you get a larger share of the ownership, or equity. It is an asset that you are building that will over time become an important part of your personal financial portfolio.

Tax Deductions

This varies a little bit by individual and where they live, and can change over time, but generally there can be tax breaks for being a homeowner. Property tax and mortgage interest paid can be deductible, which would lower the overall tax paid. Of course it’s best to consult with a tax professional to see what deductions would apply for you, but as a general rule homeownership is beneficial when it comes to taxes.

Strengthen Credit History

Having a mortgage and effectively servicing that debt – making your payments on-time – is seen as a very positive factor when evaluating your credit history. And having a credit history that shows you own your own home and have a good payment record for its mortgage will help when you need to seek additional credit in the future.

Make Your Place Your Home

A problem with renting are the restrictions that come in living in a place someone else owns. You can almost never make real structural changes to a home you’re renting, and even relatively minor changes like adding wallpaper can be prohibited. And on top of that, do you really want to incur those kinds of costs for enhancements that go to someone else when you move?

But when it’s your place that’s all different. The only limit on changes you can make on your place are those the building inspector might have when issuing your building permit. And if you do eventually move from the home, those upgrades will come back to you with the resale of your home – you’ve increased the value of your asset!

But maybe more important than all of these financial considerations is that you’ll be able to create a place that truly feels like home.

Same Monthly Payment

When you rent the owner of that place has the right to increase the rent with each renewal of the lease. And you can pretty much count on that happening! On the other hand, when you have a mortgage the monthly amount is set for the term of the mortgage. This gives you an expense you can count on each month and over time, which really helps with personal budgeting.

Appreciation

Home appreciation is the increase in the value, or price, for your home over time. And in the United States average annual home appreciate has increase each year by 3% - 5%. Now the level of appreciate will vary by region and can change over time. Like with the recent financial crisis that centered on real estate actual home prices in most cases did not increase but depreciated.

But generally speaking home prices appreciate, or go up, over time. And as a homeowner that means your home would be worth more when you sold it years later than what you initially bought it for. This is not the case for a renter. The appreciation in the case of a renter goes to person who actually owns that property.

Your American Dream

So, even though home buying patterns have shifted a little over the years, owning a home is still a major aspiration for most Americans. And as we can see, it still makes good sense to have your own home.

Your Score

One way to encounter your credit score and its importance is to simply channel surf on TV– for the commercials! And for many of those that you’ll run across – furniture stores running a holiday sale, auto dealers running year-end deals to “clear room” for the new models – what’s driving their pitch is often the financing involved.

Those ads don’t explicitly state it, but getting that “0% Financing for 48 months” is all tied your credit score. And a credit score is simply a numeric value that represents your creditworthiness. The credit score gives lenders an idea of how likely you are to pay them back for the financing they’re potentially extending to you. Today your credit score is the single most important factor lenders look at when you apply for a home or auto loan, sign-up for a new phone plan, or apply for a new credit card.

Your credit score represents your financial history as a borrower. It’s a way of quantifying to lenders how likely you are to pay them back. FICO is the most commonly used credit score by lenders today. It’s a 3-digit numeric value that is based on information obtained from the three major credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. The higher your score is on that scale the better. Lenders use the score to determine whether or not to provide credit, the amount of credit to provide, and what the interest rates should be.

How is a credit score calculated?

The FICO methodology incorporates many different credit data elements that fall roughly into 5 general categories.

1. Your payment history

 This accounts for 35% of your FICO score and looks at whether you’ve paid your bills on time. It’s the most important factor used for determining your credit score. And it makes sense why it would be – every lender wants to know your history in paying back other creditors.

2. The amount you owe

The amount you owe on your credit accounts is 30% of your credit score. It’s not just a total dollar amount owed, but instead looks at something called your credit utilization ratio. That ratio looks at how much you owe vs how much available credit you have for each particular account. The ratio, or percentage, you want to have under 30% per credit account.

3. Length of credit history

Generally the longer your credit history the better it is for your FICO score, and it accounts for 15% of your total credit score. This looks at your oldest account, newest account, and the overall average age of your credit accounts.

4. Your current credit mix

This isn’t a big factor in determining your credit score, only about 10%. It shows how well you’ve used different types of credit – have you used revolving credit, or installment accounts equally well?

5. New credit accounts opened

Like your credit mix, the number of new accounts opened accounts for 10% of your score. A consumer who opens a few new accounts in a relatively short period of time is considered to be a greater risk by lenders. This is especially true for those without a long credit history.

Credit score range 

What is a good credit score, and where does your credit score stand now? FICO uses two different credit score scales. Their general scale, something called FICO Score 8, uses a range from 300-850. While their second score, which is specific to auto and credit cards, uses a range of 250-900. Below we’ll use the Score 8, but the other scale is roughly the same.

800 +

If you have a credit score of 800 or better, you have what is considered to be an Exceptional score. With this credit score you should have no trouble getting credit, and usually at the best rates available.

740 to 799

In this range your score is considered to be Very Good. People in this range are above the national average, and will generally receive better finance rates.

670 to 739

If you fall into this range your credit score is considered Good. It is the median range, and borrowers with a credit score here should generally expect to have a little higher interest rate than the two levels above.

580 to 669

In this range you have a Fair credit score. It’ll be tougher to get credit in this range, and if you do get it you’ll likely have a higher interest rate.

579 and lower

579 and below is considered a Poor credit score. Consumers with a credit score in this range may be rejected when applying for credit, or find to get credit they need to pay a deposit or fee.

How to improve your credit score

The first step is to obtain your credit score and find out where you’re at. You can go directly to FICO and order it. Unfortunately, they use a subscription-based approach to pricing that can add up over time. A less costly approach might be to use a service like Credit Karma. Though the cost is free, they do leverage your credit data to sell you things, which may not be what you’re looking for. Finally, and maybe the best option, is to use your current bank. Most national banks now provide your FICO score for free through their online sites.

Once you’ve obtained your credit score and it’s below the level you would like it to be at, you should pull your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Again, the credit reports are what feeds and determines your credit score. This can actually be done free of charge from the site Annual Credit Report.com. Through “The Fair Reporting Act” each of the three agencies have to make available your credit report for free once every 12-months.

Each of the reports is pretty straightforward in showing both positive and negative items that could affect your credit score. The negative items will generally fall into two categories: items that are accurate and will take some time to work them off your reports, and those items that are not accurate and should be removed.

Removing accurate negative items

These items are usually due to a history of poor credit usage and can take some time to come off of your reports. With good credit practices most of these items will be removed after 7 years, but you will likely see improvement in your credit score and the willingness of lenders to extend credit after 2 years. The following good practices will help improve these items over time:

• Be sure to pay all of your bills on time

• It may help to use automatic bill payment, when it’s an option, to avoid late payments

• Keep balances on your credit cards below 30%

• Pay down debt instead of moving it around

• Avoid applying for new forms of credit

Removing inaccurate negative items

These are errors on your credit report that shouldn’t be there, and which are negatively impacting your credit score. These can be removed and will have a more immediate positive impact on your credit score.

There are two main ways to handle these negative items on your credit reports: you can either do it yourself, or you can have professionals, like CreditPlayers LLC to do it for you.

The choice on whether to do it yourself or to use a professional to remove negative items from your credit report comes down to time and expertise. It will take some time and effort if you’re to attempt this on your own. You’ll have to do some research on what items can be removed, develop your rational for their removal, and then knowing how to effectively communicate your dispute to the three different bureaus. And often this is an iterative process, where you’ll have to know how to respond back to their initial denial. This approach can be effective if you have enough time and are willing to educate yourself on this process.

But often when you find out about errors on your credit report you don’t have the time – you’re applying for a mortgage or looking to buy a new car, or other demands in your life don’t allow you to go through the necessary learning curve to do this effectively. In that case it does help to use a professional

A professional credit restoration company like CreditPlayers LLC can expedite the process of credit restoration, and know how to effectively work with the bureaus to remove those items quickly. They also provide you with a personalized dashboard that allows you to track how things are progressing with your case. Which means you don’t have to keep files and paperwork for all the interaction necessary to work through restorating  your credit.

Your choice in performing credit restoration is like any other choice when deciding to do a project yourself. What are the tradeoffs for doing it myself or not? And what, if any, opportunity cost might there be. If you can do it yourself that’s great, and there are a number of good sources out there to get you started. But if that’s not the case, then using a professional credit restoration agency makes sense to help you work through things as quickly and effectively as possible.

Most people don’t think about their credit until they have to use it. Take the example of a newly-wed couple dreaming of owning their first home. Each of them has been working for 5 years now, one or both have recently been given a pay raise, and now they decide that it’s time to buy. They start looking, find the perfect home, and try to get a loan. This is when they learn that their credit score is too low to qualify.

Without a high-enough credit score it’s nearly impossible to qualify for a home loan, which means this couple’s dream – like many others -- is stopped in its tracks.

restore Your Credit, Fast.

If you too have trouble qualifying for a home loan, you must raise your credit score. There are two ways to restore your credit:

1. Do it yourself

OR

2. Hire a company to do it for you, and FAST.

CreditPlayers LLC has helped countless people – just like you -- qualify for a home loan or refinance their existing loan. Through our unique approach of score-driven results, we improve credit scores for your first home, second home, refinance, and any other home finance situation. By increasing your credit score, CreditPlayers LLC will not only improve your chances of actually getting a home loan, but will also save you money each month by not having to pay a higher interest rate.

How Much Could Your Bad Credit Cost You?

Your credit score alone can give a bank or mortgage agent all the information they need to not only tell you whether you qualify, but also at what rate, and what your monthly payment will be!

It is safe to say that your credit score is where the buck stops (or actually starts). A typical loan program offered by a bank looks something like this “620 credit score or higher, full documentation showing proof of income, with 20% down = 6% for 30yrs, fixed.” In this scenario, if you are at a 598 credit score, you are close to qualifying for that loan. Just 20+ points separates you from getting, or not getting that loan. (We have sometimes achieved increases like that within just 60 days.)

Preventing Identity Theft

Identity theft is very much in the news these days with the data breach at Equifax. And the fact is, if you have a credit report there’s a very good chance that you are one of the 143 million Americans affected. Unfortunately the data breach, which lasted from mid-May through July of 2017, was pretty bad. Equifax admitted the hackers were able to access consumer’s names, their Social Security numbers, date of birth, addresses, and in a number of cases – driver’s license and credit card numbers.

This article provides some details on the steps you should take to protect yourself and your credit. But to start, the FTC has put out short, fun video that effectively summarizes what to do.

The first step to take is find out if your information was exposed to the hackers. Equifax has set-up a separate site that will tell you if you’re one of the 143 million affected by the breach. The Equifax site is, www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. And please be sure to use that specific URL. There were a number of fraudulent URLs put out there that were similar and could potentially be dangerous.

Assuming you have been impacted, Equifax does provide free credit monitoring and other services that can help guard against your information being used. Taking advantage of this is a good initial step in protecting yourself. Equifax has also provided a helpful FAQ page that goes into additional depth about the security breach, Equifax FAQs.

The following steps are important to consider for this particular incident as well as any data breach that affects your personal data.

1. Pull you credit reports from the three major credit bureaus and evaluate them. Ensure there are no new accounts that have been set up without your knowledge, or that there isn’t any unanticipated activity on any of your current accounts. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are required to make available your credit report to you for free. Simply visit annualcreditreport.com. 

2. Consider freezing your credit reports. This will prevent a thief from opening new account or lines of credit. It’s very effective at preventing that type of fraud, but it does have some drawbacks. There is a small cost for applying the freeze, but it’s relatively small -- $5 - $10. The rules differ from state to state, so with some states the freeze isn’t indefinite – you need to renew it after a stated period of time. Also, if you do need to apply for new credit, you’ll have to have the freeze lifted. With there being both pros and cons to this option, it might be worth reading through the FTC’s information on this first, Credit Freeze FAQs.

3. Placing a fraud alert on your accounts. The fraud alert requires that creditors take steps to verify the person opening a new account is actually you. The fraud alter is free and doesn’t require that your reports are frozen. So creditors can still access them if needed.

4. Check your credit reports and credit score. One other thing to keep in mind with the credit freeze is that it only prevents new accounts from being opened, but it does not stop thieves from exploiting your current credit accounts. That’s why it’s important to monitor your credit reports and credit scores for any suspicious activity.

5. Keep an eye on your current credit accounts. In addition to keeping an eye on your credit reports and scores, it’s also important to monitor your credit cards and bank account activity. Some of the fraudulent activity that would be found through a change in your credit score is delayed based on the frequency the score is calculated. To effectively prevent this activity it’s important to also monitor your credit accounts for unfamiliar purchases or balance changes that are unanticipated.

6. File your taxes early. One of the ways identity thieves exploit your information is by filing your taxes ahead of you and taking your refund. When you know someone from the outside has accessed your data, it’s best to file as early as you can an cut off the possibility of them stealing your refund.

These steps should prevent your information from being used by others in a way that could potentially be damaging to you. The federal government provides a comprehensive site if you have additional questions, IdentityTheft.gov.

None of this is fun to go through, but if hackers have accessed your personal data it’s important that you take action. Avoiding a problem with your identity or credit is much better than having to deal with it after a problem has occurred. 

Why is your credit score important?

Your credit score is ultimately the main factor when you are being considered for credit or lending of any kind. In fact, lenders have become so dependent on credit scoring that they now make separate offers available to each credit score “bracket”. In other words, lenders will make unique terms and rates for consumers who fall into a credit score range. For example; if you have a 580-620 score, you qualify for “x” interest rate and “x” terms. If you have a 620-680 score, you qualify for “x” interest rate and “x” terms, and so on.

These terms and rates ultimately determine how much cash you have to pay every month for the item you want to finance. (e.g. car, house, credit card, boat, etc.) This means that two different people who purchase the same item for the same amount can still pay different payments every month.

This is why a good credit score is so important. Not only does it determine whether you can get the item at all (qualify), but it also determines whether you can afford the payments even if you do qualify!

When someone hires us to start working on their credit, one of the first things we share with them is their starting credit scores. And once they see their scores, the first question we’re usually asked is if it is a “good” score or not.

It’s not always a straight-forward answer. It’s subjective to their goals and the purpose the lenders are evaluating their credit for. In other words, if you’re trying to get approved for a book club card, a 610 credit score might be “good enough”. However, if you’re trying to get the best rate on a home loan, then 610 would not be a “good” score.

Many lenders use 720 as the minimum point for giving borrowers the best rates. Others consider 620 as a minimum. Any borrower with a lower score is considered “subprime” and a higher risk to the lender.

If your credit score is high enough, you'll qualify for a lender's best rates and terms. Your mailbox will be stuffed with low-rate offers from credit card issuers, and mortgage lenders will fight for your business. You'll get great deals on auto financing if you need a car, a home loan if you want to buy a house, or even small business loans if you decide to start your own business.

If your credit score is low, however, you'll constantly fight an uphill battle where mainstream credit is nearly impossible to come by. And if you do find someone to lend you money, you'll pay high rates and fat fees for it. A bad, or even mediocre credit score can easily cost you tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in your lifetime.

 You don't even have to have a ton of bad credit to pay the price. Sometimes all it takes is a single missed payment to knock more than 100 points off your credit score and put you in a lender's “high-risk” category. We have had customers of CreditPlayers LLC see a single removal during our service that gives them a 120 point increase in their score. I’m sure you can imagine, missing 120 points off your credit score would drastically change the terms of any loan.

If we were just talking about loans, that would be scary enough. But landlords and insurance companies also use credit scores to evaluate applicants. A good score can win you cheaper premiums and better apartments, while a bad score can make insurance more expensive and make it impossible to even find a place to live in.

Yet even with these vital stakes on the line, too many people know far too little about credit scores and how they work.

Use it or Lose it: If you haven’t had any credit activity or updates to your credit report within a six month period then there might be a challenge obtaining your credit scores. If you’re lacking credit, or don’t have at least one account that has been open for six months and another that has had some sort of activity within the past six months, then your credit file can be considered a “thin” file.

Credit scoring systems are not open knowledge: The way FICO and other credit scoring systems calculate your score is a closely guarded secret. This means that companies like ours, and consumers like you, have to try our best to learn as much as we can about what makes the credit scores “tick” in order to have the best chance at effectively improving it.

For major purchases, a credit score isn’t the only thing lenders consider:

Although we mentioned how your credit score is the main factor in determining whether you qualify or not, it’s not the only factor. If you are applying for a home loan, for instance, you’ll find (especially in today’s times) lenders weighing a lot of other information like; your income, your debt, employment, and the loan amount your asking for compared to what you’ve proved to handle in the past, among many other things.

When most of us think of scores, we think of the relatively straightforward systems used in grade school tests. You get points (and possibly red check marks) for certain actions, behaviors, or answers, and those are totaled to determine your end credit score.

Credit scoring isn't that simple. Credit scoring models use "multivariate" formulas. This basically means that the value of any given bit of information in your report might depend on other bits of information. It is very complicated.

We have customers of Ours ask all the time; “How many points do you think this is costing me?” or “How many points do you think you can raise my score?”, etc. I’m sure you can see now how difficult it is to answer these questions, and although we try to give an educated guess, in the end no one can truly predict the exact outcome.

There's one thing that's always true though: The FICO credit scoring model (the most common credit scoring model) is set up to place more value on current behavior than on past behavior. That means that the effects of your old credit troubles lessen over time if you start handling credit more responsibly. This is the first area of concern you should look for on your credit report; recent negative items.

Recent negatives affect you tremendously. The scores are also designed to react strongly to any signs that a once-good risk might be turning bad. That's why someone with a good score might suffer more heavily from a late payment. This is actually why we always begin a new customer’s service by acting on the most recent negative items first.

 It's generally a lot easier to lose points on your score than it is to gain them back, which is why it's so important to not only know how to improve your credit, but also to eventually learn how to protect your score as well.

Let’s move on to some specifics. The following are the five main factors that affect your credit score according to their relative level of importance, along with a percentage figure that shows how heavily that factor is weighed in calculating your final credit score. However, keep in mind that each factor might weigh more or less heavily in your individual score, depending on your credit situation.

This makes up about 35% of the overall score. It makes obvious sense: Your history of paying bills says a lot about how responsible you are with credit. Lenders want to know whether you pay on time and how long it's been since you've been late, if ever.

To give you some perspective: More than half of the country doesn’t have a single late payment on their credit reports (according to Fair Isaac Company) and only 3 in 10 have ever been 60 days or more overdue in the past 7 years.

When it comes to negative marks like late payments, the score focuses on three factors:

How recent: This is how recently the consumer got into trouble. The more time that's passed since the credit problem, the less it affects a score.

Frequency: As you might expect, someone who has had just one or two late payments typically looks better to lenders than someone who has had a dozen.

Severity: There's a definite "level of bad" when it comes to your credit score. A payment that's 30 days late isn't considered as serious as one that's 60 or 120 days late. Collections, tax liens, and bankruptcy are among the biggest black marks. Our client portal at Www.CreditPlayers.Pro  actually indicates which items are affecting your credit score the most. While we’re working on our client’s credit reports, they can see how impactful the improvement on their credit report really is by being able to see the severity of each item on their credit report.

If you've never been late, your clean history will help your score. But that doesn't mean you'll get a "perfect" score. A good credit history involves a lot more...

This equates to 30% of your score. The score looks at the total amount owed on all of your accounts, as well as how much you owe on different types of accounts (credit card, auto loan, mortgages, and so on) which is also referred to as your “credit mix”.

To give you some perspective: Most Americans use less than 30 percent of their available credit limits, according to Fair Isaac. Only 1 in 7 uses 80 percent or more of available limits.

As you might expect, using a much higher percentage of your limits will worry lenders and potentially hurt your score. People who max out their credit limits, or even come close, tend to have a much higher rate of default than people who keep their credit use under control.

When it comes to revolving debt (credit cards and lines of credit); the credit score formula looks at the difference between your credit limits on the accounts and your balance, against the amount of credit you're actually using. The bigger the gap between your balance and your limit, the better!

So you need to be careful with how much you charge, even if you don’t carry a balance from month to month. Your total balance during the month should never approach your credit limit if you want a good score.

The score also looks at how much you owe on installment loans (mortgages, auto loans) compared to what you originally borrowed. Paying down the balances over time tends to help your score.

 The reporting cycle: Creditors report your balances to the credit bureaus on a given day (usually each month, but sometimes only every other month or quarterly). It doesn't matter whether you pay the balance off in full the next day, the balance you owed on the reporting day is what shows up on your credit report. That's why people who pay off their credit cards in full every month still might have balances showing on their reports.

This is 15% of your total score. Because of this, it's generally much less important than the previous two factors, but it still matters. You can have a good score with a short history, but typically the longer you've had credit, the better.

Again, to give you perspective: The average American's oldest account has been established for about 14 years, according to Fair Isaac. One in four has an account that's been established for 20 years or more.

The score considers both of the following:

1. 1)  The age of your oldest account
2. 2)  The average age of all your accounts 

This is 10% of your overall score. Opening new accounts can ding your credit score, particularly if you apply for lots of credit in a short time and you don't have a long credit history.

More perspective: The average American has not opened an account in 20 months. The score factors in the following:

How many accounts you've applied for recently?

How many new accounts you've opened?

How much time has passed since you applied for credit? How much time has passed since you opened an account? 

Important Tip: You might have heard that "shopping around" for credit can hurt your score. But the formula takes into account that people tend to shop around for important loans such as mortgages and auto financing. As long as you do your shopping in a fairly concentrated period of time, it shouldn't affect the score used for your application.

Also, pulling your own credit report and score doesn't affect your score. So long as you do it yourself, ordering from a credit bureau or a reputable source, the inquiry won't count against you.

Do offers I receive in the mail affect my credit score?

There are basically two types of inquiries. When you apply for credit, you authorize the lender to view your credit history. This is known as a "hard inquiry" and can affect your credit score. You might also see inquiries that you didn't initiate such as offers you receive for new credit in the mail. These "soft inquiries" are typically made when a lender orders your credit report to make you a preapproved credit offer. Such marketing efforts don't affect your score.

This is 10% of your score. The scoring formula wants to see a "healthy mix" of credit, but Fair Isaac is vague about what that means.

The company does say that you don't need to have a loan of each possible type; credit card, mortgage, auto loan, and so on, to have a “good” score. Furthermore, you're cautioned against applying for credit you don't need in an effort to boost your score, because that can backfire.

To get the “highest” possible scores, however, you need to have both revolving debts (like credit cards) and installment debts like an auto loan, mortgage, or personal loan. These latter loans don't have to still be open to influence your score. But they do still need to show up on your credit report. We like to take a look at our customer’s credit reports and make some recommendations on improving their credit mix based on our experience. Here are some basics...

Major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover are typically better for your credit score than department store or other "finance company" cards. (Department stores' cards are typically issued by finance companies, which specialize in consumer lending and which, unlike banks, don't receive deposits.)

Installment loans can reflect well on your score, too. That's because lenders generally require more documentation and take a closer look at your credit before granting the loan. This gives it a stronger weight on your credit score.

To give you some perspective again: The average American has 13 overall credit accounts showing on their credit report(s), including 9 credit cards and 4 installment loans, according to Fair Isaac company.

Knowing your credit score is very important; this is exactly why we obtain our customer’s credit scores for them right away when they get started.

Now that you have a better understanding of how your credit score is calculated, and why it is so important, find out what yours is! You can obtain your credit scores online, and there are also countless resources, books, and of course Www.CreditPlayers.Pro website to help you along the way. 

Most experts will tell you to have three credit cards with a good available amount (and never above 30% of the available amount used).

If you have more than three credit cards that have a payment history, you will not want to close these cards however.  You can and should pay most of them off (carrying over a balance each month that you pay on time is good thing for your score in the long run), however you will not want to close those.  Keep them open to increase the length of time the account has been open on your credit!

The increasing rate of default occurring with home loans in America that was the spark of the financial crisis several years back. It was the delinquencies, although not enormous, that became impossible for some investment banks to bear due to their already existing debt. As it spread throughout the financial sector in 2008, nervous or cash-strapped banks and other creditors simply stopped lending out money, taking the rest of the economy with it. Deep recessions and big financial rescues then led to a surge in government debt. That, in turn, raised fears about the solvency of various countries in the euro area, culminating in Greece’s default in 2012. Debt was, then, both a cause and a consequence of the crisis, and remains our biggest obstacle to overcome.

Credit has the ability to swiftly grow a nation’s economy and scale on a level that would not otherwise be possible in a short period of time.  Lack of credit however has the ability to destroy empires that are dependent on it even more swiftly with absolution.  Once you stop the downward spiral you are now left with massive debt that reduces credit access and therefore prolongs recovery. Working out what went wrong, and when debt turns dangerous, has become a preoccupation for economists.  Will we learn from our mistakes, or are we doomed to repeat history?  Time will tell.