Young people need to know about credit reports and scores.  Why?  As a credit consultant, I review so many credit reports where people say, “I never knew that”, “I wish someone would have told me”, and “Why didn’t they tell me that before I went to college and got all those credit cards??”    Additionally, many [...]

Studies show that 79% of all credit reports contain errors.  Additionally, 25% of credit reports contain errors serious enough to result in a denial of credit.  So how do errors get on the reports?   Before we talk about how mistakes happen, we should to review how the credit report itself is developed.
Lenders who have extended credit [...]

We hear this all the time: “I paid that collection.  Why is it still on my credit report?”
A paid collection is a negative item.  Just because it has a zero balance does not mean it goes away or changes to a positive item.
WHAT TO DO
If you receive a collection call, tell them to put it [...]

There is a free app for the iPhone, iPad or iPod through iTunes.  It’s a credit score simulator from MyFICO, the company that developed the FICO scoring formula.  
NOTE: FICO scores are the scores used by the majority of lenders and financial institutions.
You can estimate your own FICO score and find out what happens if  you [...]

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 [...]

We’ve all seen the ads: “Qualify today and get 12 months with no payments and no interest!” or  “Your purchase free for one year!”  Some people have benefited from this type of financing and saved money be paying the account off before the interest charges kicked in.
However, there are some things that consumers should be aware of, [...]