Does Using Credit Cards vs. Cash Help My Credit Score?
You’ve had some struggles in the past in regards to your credit. You’re trying to fix your credit score, but it seems like it’s taking so long! Building your credit score is a lot like building a good reputation. It takes years of hard work. If you have a “bad reputation” you have to work even harder to change people’s minds about you. Just the same, working your way out of bad credit into fair and even good credit is going to take patience and consistency. This can be disheartening news if you have a bad credit score and it’s negatively impacting your life. If your credit score is less than favorable, you’re probably looking for ways that you can improve it. You may hear conflicting information in regards to the use of cash or credit to help boost your credit score. Credit cards are what got you in trouble in the first place. Now that you’re finally getting out of debt, it seems like a bad idea to put more purchases on the cards. Safe Credit Solutions is here to set the record straight! What is credit? Your payment history, credit usage, the number of credit accounts, type of accounts, credit age, and credit inquiries all determine your credit score. A complex algorithm is then used to determine your unique credit score, giving you a number anywhere from 300 to 850. If you have a large amount of debt on credit cards, your number goes down. If you make payments on the number every month, it goes up. How much can I put on credit cards? Using credit cards isn’t bad for your credit score. In fact, the opposite is true. Being awarded credit, putting a purchase on a card, and then paying it off actually raises your score. This is only going to raise your score if the third thing is done, each and every month. Too much of a good thing, buying items with your credit card, becomes a bad thing. In general, your lenders and creditors like to see a credit usage less than 30% of your credit limit. This shows responsibility and self-control. Does cash help? Any cash purchases you make don’t affect your credit score. That doesn’t mean it should be avoided. Depending on your personal situation, it might be better to operate with cash. For example, if you have high balances on your cards or your interest rate is really high, it’s better to pay for new items in cash and make monthly credit card payments to get your balances down. This doesn’t directly affect your credit score, but limiting your credit usage and paying your balances down is the key to repairing your credit and raising your credit score. The best way to take control of your credit score is to start good habits today, and by making a commitment to those good habits for years to come. Safe Credit Solutions is here to...
read moreThe Difference Between a Legitimate Debt Collector and Scammers
How to Tell the Difference Between a Legitimate Debt Collector and Scammers The difference between a legitimate debt collector and scammers is getting more and more difficult to pick up on. You get a phone call from an unknown number, and there is a stranger on the other end telling you that you’re in big trouble for a past debt. While some people who have exceptional credit and financial history may be able to blow this off immediately, you’re not so sure. You do owe money. Perhaps this call is real? You don’t want to ignore a true issue, and you certainly wouldn’t want to not show up for a court date. Dealing with debt collection issues can be challenging—especially when you’re not sure if the person you’re being contacted by is legitimate or trying to scam you. How can you know which phone calls to trust and which are a scam? We’ll help you do just that! These are the warning signs that the person on the other end of the phone is attempting to scam you: #1 They withhold information from you. A real debt collector must tell you the name of the creditor, the amount owed, and that if you dispute the debt the debt collector will have to obtain verification of the debt. If the person on the phone does not provide this information during the initial contact with you, they must send you a written notice within five days of that initial contact. #2 They threaten you with jail time or claim to be a government official. Unlike centuries ago, you can’t be arrested and put in jail for a debt you owe. That is not to say you’re off the hook for legal ramifications. If a debt collector sues you over debt and you fail to show up in court, you will lose by default. If you then defy that court order and still do not pay, they may pursue an arrest warrant against you. #3 You don’t recognize the debt that the person claims you owe money for. When you answer, ask questions to make sure the debt is one that you actually owe. This person is required by law to tell you the name of the creditor and the amount owed. If you don’t think you owe the debt, tell the caller that you will send a written request to the debt collector to receive more information about the debt. You can also dispute the debt in writing.Take back control of your life! For further help with any financial and debt issue, contact the team at Safe Credit Solutions. If these phone calls are real and meet certain criteria, they may be harassing you. We can stop harassing debt phone calls! You don’t have to put up with harassing calls. Some of these calls are illegal. You could receive up to $1,000 and actually have your debt absolved and removed from reporting, in some...
read more5 Things Debt Collectors Can’t Do
What Debt Collectors Can’t Do You owe money. You know this and understand why companies want what is due to them. This is why you are working to pay it back as quickly and completely as you can. The debt collectors certainly are not helping, though! Debt collection harassment and constant reminders doesn’t allow you to earn more money and pay back what you owe any faster. It seems like all they are doing is making it worse. It may be a comfort to you to learn that debt collectors have restrictions on how they can pursue you for payment. If they break the rules, there are consequences. Be sure to keep an eye and ear out for debt collectors doing any of the following: #1 Come to your workplace in person. It’s illegal for a debt collector to come to your workplace in person in order to collect payment. This is because they are prohibited from publicizing your debts. Showing up at your job to collect your debt would certainly be doing that! #2 Call you at work after you’ve asked them to stop. While they can’t come into your workplace in person, they may, however, call you at work. In order to stop these calls, you must ask the debt collector not to contact you at work. They must stop, according to the law. If they don’t, they are breaking the rules. #3 Call you at inconvenient times. This is yet another rule they must follow in regards to how they contact you. Debt collectors can’t call you before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. You can also request that a debt collector stop calling you all together. Your obligation to pay the debt remains, however, even without the phone calls. #4 Harass you in any way. Harassment from a debt collector can come in many forms. This includes repeated calls, threats of violence, publishing information about you, and abusive or obscene language. All of these are illegal under the debt collection practices act. #5 Arrest you for debt. Unlike centuries ago, you can’t be arrested and put in jail for a debt you owe. That is not to say you’re off the hook for legal ramifications. For instance, if a debt collector sues you over debt and you fail to show up in court, you may lose by default and be ordered to pay. If you then defy that court order and still do not pay, they may pursue an arrest warrant against you. The simple way to avoid this is to go to any court hearings scheduled and comply with all rulings. We hope this list helps you find peace of mind. The debt collectors in your life have rules they must follow in order to stay within legal guidelines. If you find they are not, do not delay in reporting them and getting the help you...
read moreOrder Your Credit Reports
Why you should order a credit report? Your financial status is reflected on many assets and credit reports are one of them. Being able to improve your credit and restore your credit score depends on information that you can gather from those reports. Not only is this important in the repair of your credit score, but it can generally be helpful in the improvement of your financial status. This process is fairly simple too, and cost free if you choose the right way to do so. The only thing you need to do to get started is to access your credit reports. Assessing your credit status and trying to repair your credit score, will come after that. What is a credit report? Well first of all before going deep into the matter on why you should order your credit reports and how you would be able to benefit from them, we should first try to understand what credit reports are and how anyone and also you can make use of them. A credit report, basically is information about your credit history and your current credit status of the accounts you’ve borrowed money. This report contains information on how much credit you have left and how much you owe, publicly. Those reports can also contain information about your financial status and current financial duties. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to give you free report on your current credit status, once every year. The important thing here is, that this service is free. You should not be paying anyone for this report since this is a mandatory free service provided by those three nationwide credit companies. They have the obligation to provide you with this data for free. One thing to keep in mind that the Credit Report and your Credit Score are two different things. Order your credit reports , now! Don’t hesitate; there are several good reasons why you should be ordering your credit reports and why you should be reviewing them. Your credit reports contain very important information about your financial behaviors and it simply is very important how those reflect on the files. What is the benefit in ordering credit reports? Well, there are several benefits in ordering credit reports. One of the main reasons to order credit reports are to examine those reports and assess your current financial situation so it can be improved. One more reason is to check for credit fraud and mistakes that may cause your credit score to go low when there is no apparent reason. You would also want to order your credit report to be able to see what lenders will be looking at when they are going to go through your information. These all are reasons to check out your credit report and since this service will not cost you money or hurt your credit score; there is simply not a single reason not to do it. Go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com and go through this process without...
read moreExamine Your Reports Carefully and Dissolve Your Debt
How to examine your credit reports and dissolve your debt If you have ordered your credit reports, now it is time to evaluate them. This would be the first way to start repairing and improving your credit score. In a previous article we have explained what credit reports are and why they are important. This time we will examine how to inspect those reports and what can be learned from them. What is included in credit reports? Although you can get professional services for the evaluation of your credit reports, you still should have some information on how to assess your own credit score. So what is included and how can this information be used to repair or better your credit score. Credit reports may seem confusing at first, but basically they include personal information about you like your full name, addresses, date of birth and SSN (Social Sec. Number). But this is just the tip of the iceberg, furthermore those reports include credit information like the list of active and closed credit accounts and the identifying numbers linked to those accounts and your payment history for the past two years so basically your credit experience. One more important item that the reports contain is a list of individuals or companies who have obtained copies of your reports, again for in the past two years. How to dissolve your debt Now that you have evaluated your own financial situation, let’s see how to better the situation. We all know that getting out of debt is not easy but one of the key factors of getting out of debt is not to get into it in the first place. Overspending is a real problem and it often leads to debts not being paid in time which in turn has problematic effects on your credit reports and therefore on your credit score. Another great tip for dissolving debt is to prioritize it. You have to rank your debt and try to pay them in an order that would benefit you the most. Tracking your spending is also very, very important. It does not make much sense to create new debt while trying to clean the existing debt. Dissolving debt is more of an art and science, there are lots of tools out there available for your use and you should be easily able to calculate metrics like your net monthly income, average spending, mortgage payments and so forth but being able to bring those information together in a meaningful way may not be easy. If you are struggling with it, you should consider contacting professionals. Refinancing and consolidation for repairing credit Both refinancing and consolidation can be viable options to repair credit and improve it but should be approached with caution. Wrongful applications would only further hurt your credit. All in all, getting out of debt and repairing credit score may not be as hard as it seem, the important thing is to make the right assessments and take the right...
read moreAdd Stability to Your Credit File
How stabilization of your credit file will improve your credit Now that you have both ordered and reviewed your credit reports, it is time to stabilize your credit file. This is essential to get a better credit score and is something that paves a way to a better financial status for you and your family and improves your credit. Repairing your credit score and adding stability will further and improve the quality of your life. Steps to stabilize your credit First step is always assessment, compare interest rates and fees of all your credits and prioritize them in a way that it would benefit you the most. Building a good credit history is also of high importance and should be taken into account when attempting to repair credit also. Get a secured account as soon as you have the chance. This is important so you can lay some money on the side and put some money in the banking system so there can be built trust between you and your lenders. This is very essential to repair your credit and also improve your credit score. Always pay off your balance. Like, every month. This is very important also since you have bad credit; bureaus will want to see that you can pay debt off. Further precautions to improve credit Pay off your debts, buy only stuff you need with the money you have left at the end of the month, don’t spend more than you can afford. This will also cut down on your bad habits of spending unnecessarily. Having a budget for your expenses also helps immensely. Besides that you should also try to build a small savings account if possible. This savings account should automatically pay small amounts of money that will be required. One of the most important things to better your credit is to do all your financial stuff through one bank, which will make it much more manageable for you. Don’t apply to every possible credit and credit card because those will show up on your credit reports and will leave a bad impression on lenders, that means you should only apply on credit you might likely get. Restoring your credit and stabilizing your file is a long term process. Showing lenders that you are responsible with the money they give you is also very important, this means you should make a good impression on them and therefore you should use long term addresses, fixed landline phones and a good, long-term record with a bank. The better your credit history is the better your future credit file will be. This means also that you should take into consideration when making payments to dissolve debt, that those directly affect your credit file. To put it short, you should proceed carefully when your credit score is already bad and repairing credit will not be an easy task and neither a fast one. Still, there is hope if you change your...
read moreUp to 1 Million People Not Able to Pay Credit Card Debt
According to information from the Turkish Banks Association, 55 percent in 2013 year-over-year 1 million people were unable to pay their debt on credit cards only. In 2012, the number of unpaid debts increased by 228,000 and 155,000 were just credit card debts alone. Also in 2013, statistics from Turkey’s Interbank Card Center indicated that the amount of credit card purchases totaled up to 409 billion. However, credit cards are not the only debt people seem to be struggling with in fact, 15 percent of those spending where from food markets. While gas was 11 percent, clothing and electronics had a sum of 8 percent. What about the other critical debts? Yes like the mortgages, auto loans, and personal loans. From 2012 through the year of 2013, the number of people who were incapable of paying their vehicle, home, and personal loans raised from 308,000 to 464,000. Measurements will be taken soon this month to prevent and reduce credit card spending. Once this becomes effective it will include the government to limit and eliminate the installment option for some...
read moreTwins enter credit card swipe dispute after opting out of class-action dea
The battle of the merchants and the Minnesota Twins are now at the sixth to seventh inning in a battle against Visa and MasterCard over high transaction fees. The teams are now amongst the two latest and dominant businesses in the credit card networks. They are accusing them of breaking anti-trust laws by fixing bloated fees that retailers have to pay when accepting their customers’ credit cards. Each swipe fees amount to around 2 percent a purchase and were the focus of a running class action antitrust fight which was between the retailers, card networks, and card-issuing banks. In 2012, the lawsuit settled for a record of 7.25 billion. The federal judge ultimately approved 5.7 billion after thousands dissatisfied retailers opted out of the damages portion of the deal. On February 7th, a lawsuit was filed in U.S District Court in Brooklyn by the Twins including Granite City Food & Brewery and JB Hudson Jewelers part of a local group of opt-outs. The complaint however, doesn’t say how much the companies think they are owed. Kevin Smith, Twins spokesman,characterized the lawsuit as something of a technicality “To protect our interests.” He quoted “Once we opted out, the legal system pushed the burden on us to move forward with obtaining a fair result,” “We’ll see what happens,” Smith said. The Minneapolis antitrust lawyer representing the group, Vincent Esades, said that the companies are basically making the same case against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. as the original antitrust class lawsuit. The lawyer Esades estimated that “hundreds” of these cases have been filed in the wake of the settlement. However, he feels confident that the group will receive more in damages on their behalf than they would as part of the settlement. K. Craig Wildfang is the Minneapolis antitrust lawyer who quarterbacked the historic interchange settlement for retailers. He stated that the record on what opt-outs have been awarded in damages on their own, after opting out of class-action antitrust settlements were mixed. “They should plan on litigating their claims over the next several years,”Wildfang...
read moreWhat to Say Before Accepting an Increase on Your Credit Card Limit.
When receiving a call from your bank saying you are eligible for an increase on your credit card limit. Would your answer automatically be “yes”? Read further to find out why this wouldn’t be good idea: How does credit limit actually work? Let’s just say that you are a cardholder of a certain bank and you hold your salary or savings account with them, well most likely you will be sold a credit card from this bank. This is exactly how banks cross-sell credit cards to their existing customers. Most banks reach their decisions by reviewing details of your salary or savings account and based on themthey set up your credit limit. As soon as the bank tracks down your spending patterns and income flow they will consider an increase or reduceyour credit card limit. Paying only the minimal dues you will unlikely receive an offerfor a credit limit increase. Your credit limit may also go down caused by any existing or chances of defaulted payments. However, if you pay your bills regularly and have a steady income then your chances of be receiving a phone call for that credit limit increase will be high. Your income depends much on your credit card limit. No matter the earnings, you may earn less but have sufficient to pay your bills on time then your bank sees that they may increase your credit limit. What You Can Do? Generally the banks revise a person holding the card after 6-18 months of the offer with a minimum of 50% increase. Credit limit changes could impact, but if it will give you relief then decide onit. Be sure that you only use 30%-35% or less of your credit limit spending. You do not want to which in reverence it is called overutilization. If you are concern about overspending you can always request or opt for temporary enhancement by contacting your bank’s...
read moreTips on Finding a Good Credit Counseling Agency
Financial obligations may heap up due to neglect or emergencies. Soon, you may find yourself wiping out your savings and maxing out your credit cards. This hurts your finances and credit rating. Who are you going to call then? It may be late, but finding a good credit counselor or counseling agency is your best option under the circumstances. You want to pay off your debts and re-establish your credit score, not to mention get rid of the pesky telephone calls from your creditor. As you contemplate on your situation, what can guide you in choosing a good credit counseling agency? Here are some of the most widely recommended tips when looking for a credit counseling agency. Go for reputation – Ask around for a reputable credit-counseling firm. Chances are that your friends or relatives have used or know someone who has used the service of a proven, trustworthy company. It may be embarrassing to discuss your finances, but keep in mind that your most trusted friends and family will want you to succeed in your dilemma. Weigh your options – Your decisions will reflect on your credit score. In that case, bankruptcy should be far from your options as it will impact your credit rating. Look for an agency that will help you preserve your credit standing through a doable debt management plan and credit counseling. Check-out the agency’s list of services – The most experienced credit counselors will have helped managed several types of portfolios, from simple credit card debt eradication to complicated monthly budget and debt management plan. Many credit counseling agencies have websites that list down the services they offer. Look for variety in the services, such as bankruptcy filing (before and after), debt education, home buying and mortgage counseling, even student loan counseling. Choose an agency that offers financial literacy – Do not be rushed into signing up for a debt management program or various services. Seek an agency that is willing to take the time to educate you on your personal finances. Such a counselor will provide you with tools and resources that will prevent you from doing the same mistakes again. Check out the fees – Credit counseling is not cheap, but neither should it be exorbitant. After all, you want to get out of debt, not enter into more. Seek an agency that suits your budget. The charge should be reasonable. Avoid upfront fees and recurring monthly charges. Look for properly licensed agencies – Most states require credit counseling companies to register, and their agents to have a license to practice. Make sure the credit counseling firm abides by the law. Licensed credit counseling agencies such as Score Inc. vouch for their legitimacy by keeping their website visitors informed of their registration status. Let’s face it: some become complacent in guarding their finances until they finally realize they need help. Good thing that financial advisers and credit counselors are here to help. Follow the above tips, and you’ll never go wrong in finding a good credit counseling...
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