Bad Credit Blog

I ran into an old friend the other day. We hadn’t seen each other for several years and honestly, I wouldn’t have recognized her. The years hadn’t been too kind. As we sat in a restaurant over coffee she told me of the problems she had. Her husband of 35 years had found himself another honey. She had lost her job and moved to a new city. Frankly any problems I had suddenly seemed small by comparison.

When she found out that my daughter and I had a website dedicated to helping folks with bad credit get auto loans she became animated and asked a thousand questions. It seems that her husband had taken their newest car and left her with an old clunker that quite frankly if it had been a horse the kindest thing you could do would be to shoot it.

She has a new job that actually pays her more money than her old one did but she had only worked there about three months, hardly a career job yet. She desperately needed a newer car but she knew her credit score wasn’t the highest, so she was looking for a bad credit car loan, which most dealerships don’t like. In fact, she had shopped two dealers already but couldn’t get conventional financing. Could I help was what she really wanted to know.

The first thing I asked her to do was go to our website and order her credit report and to also order the credit score. She needed to find out why the lenders were turning her down. If there were some issues from her husband and hers mixed credit she might be able to get them removed using a credit attorney like Lexington Law. This would increase her overall score and get her out of the “bad credit car loan” range.

Then I explained to her about getting a pre-approved car loan. The car loan folks we recommend specialize in helping people like my friend. And they don’t just offer auto loans to people with bad credit, they offer competitive car loans to anyone! So once her score had improved she could still contact one of them and get pre-approved for an even better interest rate!

The way it works, I explained, was with the pre-approved loan you know exactly how much car you can get BEFORE shopping - not the other way around. I recommended that she read the articles that we have on our site, since my daughter and I have both sold cars we know the tricks they will try to pull. This way she would be armed with the best information for car negotiating and be pre-approved!

My friend followed my advice. She pulled her credit. Found a couple errors on it from her “married days.” Had Lexington Law take care of them in less than a month and viola! A few weeks later my old friend pulled up in front of my house to show me what she had been able to buy! She was grinning so big that you know what - she looked 20 years younger!

Dateline June 9th, 2008 - FoxNews.com reports that over 11,000 University of Florida students had their Social Security numbers posted online. They had been posted on the Internet for over a year and it was only discovered “accidentally.” The University has notified everyone except 570 former students that they can’t find. Bummer - what if you were one of those?

Just a few months back it was widely reported that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg had his identity stolen. It was reported that two men stole money from the Mayor, the first for $10,000 and the second for over $400,000. I believe that if the second party had not been so greedy he would have gotten away with it. Due to the size of the stolen checks the bank put a hold on them till they could be verified. Both were caught but many times they are not.

Can something like this happen to you ? The answer is YES! Can you prevent it from happening? YES!! You must protect yourself. Don’t depend on the government to do it - it won’t happen!

Waiting until it happens could be a potential mess for you! With your social security number and birthday you can have all the money stolen from your bank account. Credit cards issued in your name (and on your credit report), and even PROPERTY purchased in your name! A customer of my daughter’s at the car dealership where she worked had her identity stolen and the person actually BOUGHT A HOUSE with it! Try cleaning that mess up!

Our site offers two Cadillac of companies so you won’t become the next victim. LifeLock is the originator of identity protection. And they back it up with a million dollar guarantee. You won’t do better than that! We were going to tell you about all the things LifeLock does for you, but it’s really so much that it’s easier just to send you to their site to read it for yourself. My daughter and I both use their service.

We also highly recommend ConsumerDirect. ConsumerDirect members can reduce the interest rate on credit cards they already have, declare and recover from Identity Theft, negotiate debt settlements, dispute billing errors, manage privacy options and much, much more. And all without writing any letters or making any phone calls. Their service also enables members to improve their credit score by fixing credit report errors online. Just click what needs to be fixed and ConsumerDirect does all the work! Additionally ConsumerDirect will put a credit lock on your file so no one can apply without your consent.

Having bad credit is problematic enough without it getting ruined further through identity theft! Don’t let it happen to you. For around $10 to $15 a month you can protect yourself. It’s worth the money. Don’t delay! I’m sure that right now there’s about 10,000 University of Florida alumni scrambling to see if they have become victims of identity theft and wishing they had signed up for services like LifeLock or ConsumerDirect BEFORE their identities were published on the internet.

Everyone knows it is very easy to get credit cards and into debt and why should you be any different than anyone else?

Everyone buys on credit! In fact if you survey most high school students you will find that they can hardly wait to turn 18 so they can get their first credit card. Then the real party begins!

So to help you along we’ve put together these handy steps so that you too can be broke by 25 - or before!

1. Before you can qualify for a credit card you will need a job. I know that’s a bummer but that’s the way it goes. Give a little get a lot (of credit) that is. So head out to your local fast food restaurant and get your application in!
2. Credit card applications arrive in the mail whether you solicit them or not. Pick one and fill it out and you are on your way! When they ask about income, fudge a little to make it easier. (Hey, everyone does, don’t they?)
3. Start buying all the toys and gadgets you have always wanted using your credit card (why pay cash when you can pay $20 a month for a new Wii?). But don’t max out your first credit card right away. If you do it will make it harder to get additional cards. Make extremely small payments on time so they don’t catch on that you want to apply for more and more and more credit.
4. Apply for additional credit cards (didn’t we just say that?) In fact get as many as you can! You can always transfer those balances to other cards while you learn to juggle.
5. In about six months you will have arrived! Make sure you have the yellow pages handy to look up a good bankruptcy lawyer. Hint: the bigger the ad, the better the lawyer (I think). Have fun!

Would you like to avoid bankruptcy?

If you’re tired to drowning in debt and need help NOW then read more on our site and find out how you can get out of debt, raise your credit score, and get the interest rates you DESERVE, instead of what you’re just darn lucky to get at all!

YOU DO! Here’s How!

We hear words like credit score , bad credit, and credit cards every day, but if you are over 50 you remember a world without those things and we got by – somehow.

They are much more convenient than carrying wads of cash (not that I ever did) and it’s hard to imagine life without them. The credit card industry has evolved over the last 30 years, part of a long-term plan. And with the ease of using them now (just swipe and go!) it’s hard NOT to use one when you’re out shopping.

Since this is the world we live in you need to know how to get the most out of it by getting the best interest rates.

Here How:

In the world of plastic you must have a good credit rating. Life is hard enough without adding unnecessary headaches. Pull your credit regularly and make sure that there’s nothing on your report that shouldn’t be.

Pay all your creditors bills on time and it’s best if you keep your credit debt at 20% to 30% of your limit.

Be careful not to acquire too many cards. You should have no more than two or three. This will keep your debt manageable. Most of the time when people get into financial trouble it’s because they have too many cards.

If you follow step #2 you will begin to establish yourself as someone who can be trusted, something we all would like to be. Which means when you apply for larger debts, like a home or car , the lenders will give you a better interest rate.

Using your cards wisely will boost your credit score and also enable you to qualify for low interest cards as well.

Protect Your Major Purchases

Under the Fair Credit Billing Act of 1999 if you buy something that is damaged or defective with your credit card, you have the right to stop payment until it is made right. You need to make a good-faith effort to work things out. If you can’t solve the problem you can ask the company to investigate and solve the problem.

Note – if you used a debit card this law does not address that.

Using A Credit Card For Online Shopping Is Safer

The Fair Credit Billing Act also covers online purchases. Many people are still wary about shopping online. You don’t need to be. The industry has made a great effort to make online shopping safer and the sites that take credit cards use an encrypted method to make certain your numbers are safe. Of course we all know in this life nothing is certain except death and taxes, so theoretically it is not safe, but it is 99.9% safe – and that’s pretty safe.

Check your receipts the moment you receive your statement (just in case) for any errors.

Identity Theft Loophole Exploits Postal Change-Of-Address Forms To Steal Mail, Credit Cards And Personal Documents!

The latest trick in identity theft: divert the mail by sending it elsewhere through a change-of-address form.

It’s possible for criminals to have the post office send the mail to their doorstep, even while the real addressee is sitting at home wondering where their mail is, a recent investigation by television station WCBS of New York shows. WCBS found that that it required no ID, no real hoops to jump through and not much gumption to file a fake change-of-address card.

Al Weissmann, an inspector with the Postal Inspection Service, told WCBS that U.S. Postal Service records indicate only 100 of the 45 million change-of-address forms filed were fraudulently filed. However, for the people affected, the impact is huge: it means bank statements, pre-approved credit card applications and all sorts of other personal information is being sent directly to an identity thief.

That’s what Steve Zuckerman, of Great Neck, N.Y., found the hard way: identity thieves racked up $90,000 worth of credit using nine credit card applications that were illegally directed to them, according to WCBS. Great Neck is in Long Island.

This time of year poses a larger threat of identity theft for Americans, as W-2 and other tax forms are currently being mailed out by the Internal Revenue Service. These forms include your full Social Security number, the name of your employer and, in some cases, the bank account that your paychecks go to.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, states that more than 100 million records with sensitive private information have been stolen from Americans since 2005. More than 670,000 identities were stolen last year alone, WCBS reported.

Some tips to avoid identity theft include: If you receive your mail at your residence, pay attention if you don’t receive any mail in your name for more than a couple days, even if other people at your house are receiving mail. A change-of-address form does not necessarily redirect mail for everyone in the household; it can just affect the person that thieves targeted with a forged form.

Consider mailing your letters and bills in a public mailbox instead of from your home mailbox.

Send bills and other important mail before the final collection time for the mailbox, because thieves are known to tamper and steal from public mailboxes at night.

Get your mail as soon as it arrives at your mailbox. Do not leave it sitting in the box overnight. Electronic sensors that alert you with a signal inside your home that the mailbox has been opened are available for purchase.

Consider getting a locking mailbox.

Sign up for LifeLock Identity Protection. LifeLock will guarantee that your identity CAN’T be stolen. They even back it up with a multi-million dollar guarantee!

One of the first things LifeLock does when you register for their services is put a stop to those junk mail offers of pre-approval for credit cards, warranties, mortgages, etc. The very thing thieves LOVE to steal. Then they instigate fraud alerts on all your credit reports and make sure that NOBODY can just randomly apply for credit using your identity. Consider signing up for LifeLock today.

Ref: truthpublishing.com

By Amber Stubbs, CardRatings.com Reporter

Lurking among many other credit related myths is the belief that paying off credit cards may cause your credit score to decline. I continue to hear this and other related credit scoring myths from consumers that I interact with on a daily basis. In reality, when you pay off credit cards you decrease your overall utilization - your total balances vs. your total available credit - which improves your score.

In fact, utilization accounts for approximately 30% of your credit score. It is best that you keep your overall utilization below 10%. For example, if your total available credit on all credit cards is $25,000, then you want to keep your collective balance at less than $2,500. And, the lower your utilization is the better your credit score. So, the idea that paying off balances will negatively affect your score is simply not true!

However, the above scenario should not be confused with closing credit card accounts, which could have an adverse affect on your score for two important reasons. First, as discussed above, you have to consider how it will affect your utilization. Typically, closing an account will cause your utilization to increase and, as a result, your credit score to decrease. So, it is important to do the math before making a final decision. (Keep in mind how it could affect your utilization in the future as well!)

Additionally, you have to consider the age of the account. If it is one of your older credit cards, then it could also adversely affect the length of your credit history which makes up 15% of your FICO Score . Most of the time it is better to just “sock drawer” the card if you do not plan to use it anymore. That way having an account in good standing and the available credit is continuing to help your credit score.

Just be sure to remember to use the card about once per year for a small purchase, then pay in full when you get your statement. Doing so will help the account stay active and reporting as such to the three major credit bureaus . Reporting your on-time payments (preferably to all three major credit bureaus) is an effective way to boost your credit score. On a related note, it’s also a good idea to check with your creditor to find out which bureaus they are reporting to.

REF: www.cardratings.com