Understanding what makes up your credit score is important to getting better credit scores.  The second largest part of your FICO score is Amounts Owed and it accounts for 30% of your score.  An important factor in this part is the balances carried on your credit card accounts.  Many people think you have to keep a [...]

We received a question from someone who asked:
Is it better to “pay down” a credit card debt to increase your credit score or to “pay off” a credit card debt?
The short answer is they are both good practices.   Not only for building credit scores but also for limiting the amount of interest you pay.
Credit card [...]

There are five parts to the FICO score.  The second largest part, accounting for 30% of it, is the Amounts Owed, also called the Utilization Ratio.  This is the difference between the loan amount or credit limit on an account compared to the balance that is currently owed on it.    An important part of growing better credit [...]

It’s here – the busiest shopping time of the year.  Even if you aren’t waiting in lines before daylight for special bargains, you may be doing some in store or online shopping, too.  The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse offers 10 Holiday Tips to protect your finances and identity.  We offer these additional credit building tips.
1) Always [...]

When you shop online, you usually have to give credit card information to complete the purchase.  Most companies do a great job with securing their websites and their check-out pages because they know if they don’t, people are less likely to come back and shop with them. 
TIP: Look at the URL, the address line, on [...]

We hear from a lot of people in January or February when they find out that they have a late payment on their credit report.  They often say that they were out of town and didn’t get the mail in time, or perhaps they just missed that bill among all the other mail they had to go through when [...]