Help A Reader: Bad Credit
Hello everyone!!!
I recently got the following comment from a reader and wanted to include you all in the assistance process.
“How would I start to fix just horrible credit? I doubt I will ever be able to come out of it, but I now know the horrible truth that I wasnt taught at a younger age. I have defaulted on every card I have ever had. I am only 22, so I hope I still have time to dig myself out. I need to change my life, with money, but I just need help in the right direction. I am looking at about 17k in debt.”
Chase (ing) MyPoints
I have used MyPoints for years now because I love the rewards that I get from them. MyPoints is a program that basically pays you to read their advertising emails from partners. You get points for every email that you click through and then you can redeem these points for gift cards to certain retailers.
If you would like to try MyPoints let me know and I can send you a referral and we BOTH win!!!!
I used MyPoints to get gift cards to restaurants like Red Lobster (my favorite!!!) and also recently to stores like CVS where I can get stuff for free!
What Your Credit Score Means and Why It’s Important (Guest Post)
In today’s struggling economy, a good credit score is more important than ever. A credit score that was good enough to get a loan in the past may not cut it as easily today. Creditors are tightening the reins on lending, while credit scores are increasingly touching on more and more aspects of a consumers financial life. Insurance companies use them as a component of their pricing engines, employers use them to screen employees and landlords demand a peak at your credit file before renting an apartment to you. Good credit health is essential. Yet many people have no clue what their credit score is or what it means.
Credit Card Craziness!
Credit card companies sometimes do some really strange things that just confuse me. I have a card that I do not use currently because I am getting better offers from some other cards.
I received a new card in the mail from the company and this immediately spurred me to check my credit report because I had not ordered a new card. The expiration date on the current card was far away and since I was not using the card I knew exactly where it was and that the balance was zero.
0% Balance Transfer Offer That I CAN Refuse
Normally I encourage people to take up 0% balance transfer offers and I wish I would get more offers myself. However, I must warn you that just because it says 0% that does not mean it is always the best deal for you.
I just got an offer for a 0% balance transfers from one of my better cards….but after reading it carefully I decided to refuse the offer. Here are the terms:
* 0% until 04/09
* 4% balance transfer fee
Update on Credit Scores
As of April 29th my credit scores were as follows:
- Experian 739
- Equifax 729
- Transunion 748
How I Save Money Gives Credit Report Advice
I was speaking about ways to save money with a coworker who mentioned that she wanted to buy a house soon. She was worried about the rate she would get because she knew her credit score was bad .
This person, I’ll call her S, said she had a lot of unpaid medical bills and phone bills from her past. There were also a few bills that had been late in the past but then she had settled with the company so she hoped that had already dropped off her credit report.
S told me she was thinking of hiring a credit repair company to clean up her credit report because she had heard they could take items off. This is the point where I had to stop her and put on my Personal Finance hat. In the short time that I have been blogging about my personal finances I think I have learned a few things that I could share with someone.
Crazy Things that Kill Your Credit Score…Part 2 of 2
This is a follow up to Crazy Things that Kill Your Credit Score…Part 1 of 2 where I spoke about the first two items on the list.
Here are the two other strange items that can really ding your credit score in a bad way.
Using Limitless Cards
Library fines and other fees
Let us take a deeper look at these two items and how they can end up having a negative effect on your credit score.
Using Limitless Cards
Limitless cards are basically those cards that do not report what the actual credit limit is. 
These cards report what your highest balance is and the credit bureaus use this as their guide.
