Improve your credit score, manage debt, and understand how credit works. From credit card usage to debt consolidation and credit repair tips, this section gives you tools to strengthen your financial foundation and regain control of your money.
Placing a security freeze on your credit report is one of the ways you can reduce credit card fraud and identity theft. With a security freeze in place, businesses can’t check your credit report to approve credit-based applications. So, if a business isn’t able to assess your creditworthiness, most fraudulent applications will be turned down. … Read more
Using a credit card isn’t hard. Swipe your credit card at the cash register, walk away with your merchandise, and wait for the credit card issuer to tell you how much you owe. Making credit card purchases can feel great because you don’t have to give up your hard-earned cash, but your spending can get … Read more
The South Carolina Department of Revenue suffered a massive data breach resulting in the theft of approximately 3.6 million social security numbers and 387,000 credit and debit card numbers. The majority of credit and debit card numbers were encrypted, but 16,000 of them were not. Even so, encryption isn’t foolproof. An intelligent hacker may be … Read more
Payday loan providers are known predators. The loans are generally easy to borrow, but difficult to repay. They’re attractive to many because no credit check is required. However, cash flow problems lead to some borrowers keeping the loans for several months and paying hundreds of dollars in interest. Despite warnings from government agencies and consumer … Read more
You can kill a good credit score in a matter of months. It’s easy. In fact, you don’t have to do anything because not doing something, specifically not paying your bills, is precisely what makes you lose a good credit rating. Once your good credit score is gone, getting back won’t be so easy or … Read more
Government agencies and consumer rights advocates have been speaking out against debt settlement for years and obviously with good reason. According to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA), only one in 10 consumers actually end up debt-free after paying for debt settlement services. Debt settlement is a process where your creditors agree to … Read more
Reading about credit scores often can make you paranoid. You probably already know that credit scores are important for many of your financial moves – even those that don’t involve borrowing. Because your score is changing all the time, you might feel the need to check it all the time. However, keeping up with your … Read more
In the world of finances, your credit report is one of the most important documents because it contains so much information about your financial habits. Your credit report is pulled from a database to which most, if not all, your creditors have reported data on your accounts. A business that pulls your credit report at … Read more
Numerous businesses use debt collection services to help recoup the cost of unpaid debts. For example, if you cancel your cable service and don’t pay the last month’s bill, your ex-service provider may send you a few bills then send the unpaid bill to a collection agency. Because of debt collector’s bad reputation or perhaps … Read more
Every debt instrument has an interest rate, typically expressed as an annual percentage rate, or APR. The interest rate the annual amount you pay for borrowing $100. For example, if your APR is 5%, you’d pay $5 in interest annually for every $100 you borrow. The interest rate isn’t an arbitrary number that banks set … Read more
