It’s important to maintain your credit in order to have a good financial livelihood. While most people know to keep track of their credit score, most do not pay much attention to their credit reports.
Your credit report can tell lenders and creditors a lot about you that a score can’t say on its own. Because of this, you need to routinely check your credit report at least once a year.
But sometimes an annual check isn’t enough to make sure your credit is in good standing. It would be a good idea to do additional checks on your credit report in the following situations:
When preparing to make a major purchase with credit
If you are planning to make a large purchase with a credit card, such as a home, automobile or boat, you should check your credit report beforehand. Sometimes unexpected events from your past, such as an unpaid utility bill can show up and reflect negatively upon your ability to repay loans.
Checking your score can give you the opportunity to clear up any loose ends before making a big purchase.
When you have been denied credit
If you are ever denied when attempting to open a new line of credit and your credit report was used in the decision, you are entitled by law to a free copy of your credit report.
You can then use your credit report to review anything that may have influenced their decision. Credit reports aren’t perfect, and mistakes to happen, so reviewing your report can make sure than you weren’t rejected for false or inaccurate information.
When your identity is stolen
Identity theft is becoming more and more common every day. Often times, identity theft can go undetected for years. If you think your identity may have been stolen, reviewing your credit report can show if there are unauthorized lines of credit or purchases made in your name.
When you’re trying to improve your credit
If you’re trying to rebuild your credit, there’s no better place to start than by looking at your credit report. Your credit report contains all of your account activity and can help you outline what you need to do to get your score back into top form.
You may be wondering what is a good credit score. If so, you could possibly benefit from credit repair.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Credit Report: What Is Not Included
The information included in your credit report can directly affect your financial future. A credit report is often one of the factors that decides whether you are approved for loans or new lines of credit. The information included in your credit report can be anything from the amount of credit you have, your credit limits and payment history.
But what information do creditors and lenders not get from your credit report?
Personal Information
While a credit report provides detailed information about your financial history, it does not provide creditors or lenders with any personal information. A credit report will never contain any of the following information:
? Your age
? Your race
? Your sex
? Your religion
? Your marital status
? The country where you were born
Employment Information
While Lenders and Creditors may get access to it from other sources, they will not find any of the following information about your employment on your credit report:
? Your employer
? Your job title
? Your annual salary
? The date you began work
? Past employment history
Credit Information
Many people assume that a credit report will contain everything there is to know about your credit history and activity. But the truth is that there is a lot of information about your credit history that is not found on a credit report.
This exempt information can include:
? Any interest rates currently being charged on open credit accounts
? Child and family support payments
? Rental agreements
? Credit inquiries made by pre-approved credit cards
? If you take part in credit counseling
But what information do creditors and lenders not get from your credit report?
Personal Information
While a credit report provides detailed information about your financial history, it does not provide creditors or lenders with any personal information. A credit report will never contain any of the following information:
? Your age
? Your race
? Your sex
? Your religion
? Your marital status
? The country where you were born
Employment Information
While Lenders and Creditors may get access to it from other sources, they will not find any of the following information about your employment on your credit report:
? Your employer
? Your job title
? Your annual salary
? The date you began work
? Past employment history
Credit Information
Many people assume that a credit report will contain everything there is to know about your credit history and activity. But the truth is that there is a lot of information about your credit history that is not found on a credit report.
This exempt information can include:
? Any interest rates currently being charged on open credit accounts
? Child and family support payments
? Rental agreements
? Credit inquiries made by pre-approved credit cards
? If you take part in credit counseling
Thursday, November 12, 2009
What Is The Average Credit Score?
Your credit score can say a lot about you. Creditors and lenders use that number to judge how likely you are to pay money that you owe. There are many different aspects that contribute to credit scores, but the exact method of calculating them is unknown to the public.
What we do know, however, is that a credit score can range anywhere from 300 to 850, with 850 being the best. A perfect 850 score is almost never seen, and the average score is much lower.
Once you check you score, compare your results to the rest of the country.
Average National Credit Score
The average credit score across the United States is 680.
The following are the average scores in each of the 50 states:
Alabama: 676
Alaska: 674
Arizona: 659
Arkansas: 668
California: 672
Colorado: 674
Connecticut: 694
Delaware: 684
Florida: 673
Georgia: 668
Hawaii: 688
Idaho: 688
Illinois: 684
Indiana: 676
Iowa: 700
Kansas: 682
Kentucky: 677
Louisiana: 663
Maine: 699
Maryland: 688
Massachusetts: 703
Michigan: 679
Minnesota: 707
Mississippi: 668
Missouri: 683
Montana: 701
Nebraska: 695
Nevada: 655
New Hampshire: 703
New Jersey: 693
New Mexico: 663
New York: 686
North Carolina: 667
North Dakota: 706
Ohio: 685
Oklahoma: 666
Oregon: 686
Pennsylvania: 696
Rhode Island: 692
South Carolina: 665
South Dakota: 710
Tennessee: 679
Texas: 651
Utah: 683
Vermont: 706
Washington: 691
Washington DC: 677
West Virginia: 679
Wisconsin: 699
Wyoming: 690
You may be wondering what is a good credit score. If so, you could benefit from credit repair. Because unfortunately, having a good credit score is key to living a better financial life, having more financial opportunities, and getting lower interest rates.
The powers that be make the rules. All we can do is try to make the most of the system in which we are a part of.
What we do know, however, is that a credit score can range anywhere from 300 to 850, with 850 being the best. A perfect 850 score is almost never seen, and the average score is much lower.
Once you check you score, compare your results to the rest of the country.
Average National Credit Score
The average credit score across the United States is 680.
The following are the average scores in each of the 50 states:
Alabama: 676
Alaska: 674
Arizona: 659
Arkansas: 668
California: 672
Colorado: 674
Connecticut: 694
Delaware: 684
Florida: 673
Georgia: 668
Hawaii: 688
Idaho: 688
Illinois: 684
Indiana: 676
Iowa: 700
Kansas: 682
Kentucky: 677
Louisiana: 663
Maine: 699
Maryland: 688
Massachusetts: 703
Michigan: 679
Minnesota: 707
Mississippi: 668
Missouri: 683
Montana: 701
Nebraska: 695
Nevada: 655
New Hampshire: 703
New Jersey: 693
New Mexico: 663
New York: 686
North Carolina: 667
North Dakota: 706
Ohio: 685
Oklahoma: 666
Oregon: 686
Pennsylvania: 696
Rhode Island: 692
South Carolina: 665
South Dakota: 710
Tennessee: 679
Texas: 651
Utah: 683
Vermont: 706
Washington: 691
Washington DC: 677
West Virginia: 679
Wisconsin: 699
Wyoming: 690
You may be wondering what is a good credit score. If so, you could benefit from credit repair. Because unfortunately, having a good credit score is key to living a better financial life, having more financial opportunities, and getting lower interest rates.
The powers that be make the rules. All we can do is try to make the most of the system in which we are a part of.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Financial Challenges Facing Franchise Businesses
The current financial conditions facing franchise owners can only be described as extremely difficult. Recent reports show that SBA loans for franchises are at a record default rates in 2008-2009. Compared to 2007 the default rates have gone up 43% and have cost the SBA over $93 million last year.
The above statistics indicates that franchise owners are having a difficult time getting their ventures to succeed in these difficult financial times. Everyone certainly understands the difficulty in getting a new small business to succeed and meet their financial obligations.
So, what can franchise business owners learn from the above statistics regarding recent SBA loan default rates? What are the factors that seemingly contribute toward the high default rates? Well, a review of the statistics seems to reveal several basic factors that affect this.
First, those franchises that focused on serving the affluent customers have a more difficult time during these tough financial conditions. As families face lower income levels, they begin to cut back on those good and services offered by franchise businesses that can be considered luxuries. Cleaning services, laundry services and lawn services may fall into those categories.
Secondly franchises that are in an already crowded market face the prospect of stiff competition and as number of customers for that good or service fall even slightly, marginal businesses suffer immediate consequences. As an example there are a lot of pizza restaurants both independent and franchise operators. As families conserve cash and start to cook at home more often, they cut back on ordering pizza. This affects all smaller and newer operators and those with lower financial capital.
Third factor that affect franchise businesses is the business model of the franchise business. It is crucial to have a solid business model that works even in a difficult financial environment. If the business model is marginal to begin with and depends a lot on the operator’s talent and experience, then this environment will put you to the test. As an example opening fruit juice and cold drink stores in colder climates in winter does not make sense.
So what should a franchisor do in this environment? It is crucial for franchisors to maintain their current base of operators and expand their base cautiously. Nothing is more valuable to a franchisor than a demonstrable track record of success as evidenced by their customer base. A large number of failures and defaults does not inspire confidence in a potential franchise opportunity seeker. There are several things the franchisor can and should do. Speak to your customer base regularly and poll them on their market situations. Provide advise and counseling where appropriate and direct them to financial resources when needed. When selecting new franchise owners, have a higher standard, for financial and capital requirements, so they can withstand the market forces longer. Make sure to provide adequate training in operations so they are more successful in operating their business.
BuyTradeBiz.Com is internets newest business for sale and franchises for sale listing website.
The above statistics indicates that franchise owners are having a difficult time getting their ventures to succeed in these difficult financial times. Everyone certainly understands the difficulty in getting a new small business to succeed and meet their financial obligations.
So, what can franchise business owners learn from the above statistics regarding recent SBA loan default rates? What are the factors that seemingly contribute toward the high default rates? Well, a review of the statistics seems to reveal several basic factors that affect this.
First, those franchises that focused on serving the affluent customers have a more difficult time during these tough financial conditions. As families face lower income levels, they begin to cut back on those good and services offered by franchise businesses that can be considered luxuries. Cleaning services, laundry services and lawn services may fall into those categories.
Secondly franchises that are in an already crowded market face the prospect of stiff competition and as number of customers for that good or service fall even slightly, marginal businesses suffer immediate consequences. As an example there are a lot of pizza restaurants both independent and franchise operators. As families conserve cash and start to cook at home more often, they cut back on ordering pizza. This affects all smaller and newer operators and those with lower financial capital.
Third factor that affect franchise businesses is the business model of the franchise business. It is crucial to have a solid business model that works even in a difficult financial environment. If the business model is marginal to begin with and depends a lot on the operator’s talent and experience, then this environment will put you to the test. As an example opening fruit juice and cold drink stores in colder climates in winter does not make sense.
So what should a franchisor do in this environment? It is crucial for franchisors to maintain their current base of operators and expand their base cautiously. Nothing is more valuable to a franchisor than a demonstrable track record of success as evidenced by their customer base. A large number of failures and defaults does not inspire confidence in a potential franchise opportunity seeker. There are several things the franchisor can and should do. Speak to your customer base regularly and poll them on their market situations. Provide advise and counseling where appropriate and direct them to financial resources when needed. When selecting new franchise owners, have a higher standard, for financial and capital requirements, so they can withstand the market forces longer. Make sure to provide adequate training in operations so they are more successful in operating their business.
BuyTradeBiz.Com is internets newest business for sale and franchises for sale listing website.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Bad Credit Increases Insurance Cost By Peter Kenny
Most people understand that their credit score can affect their future chances for credit, but many people do not know that their credit score and credit records are also used by auto insurance and home insurance companies as one way to determine rates.
Most states allow home and auto insurance companies to use credit information in their formulations for premium rates. Needless to say, if your credit history has some bad marks on it you may end up paying more for your coverage. To make matters worse, the Supreme Court of United States ruled this year that insurance companies do not even have to tell you that it was your credit history that caused them to charge you more.
In brief, the court ruled, unanimously, that insurance companies were not at fault in charging certain poor-credit customers more in premiums without notifying them that they were doing so.
What this means to consumers who have poor credit marks is that they will not know that their credit history is the reason they are paying more. This is why it is imperative that consumers watch their reports on a regular basis and make corrections when needed.
It would be nice if customers could simply ask their home or auto insurance company to explain how they determined rates but one should not expect to get an answer. The fact is most companies keep this a secret. What is not such a secret is that ninety percent of home and auto insurance carriers do use credit history as a part of their calculation on rates. Some companies put a lot of weight on past credit problems while others do not.
One way to try to circumvent this is to improve your credit score whenever you can. Here are some tips on how to do that.
Pay your bills on time. Late payments show up on your credit report and they stay there for seven years.
Try to get your revolving balances low. Home and auto insurance carriers examine at how much debt you have in relation to your available credit.
Always keep your oldest credit card open. All insurers prefer to work with people who have well-established and long standing lines of credit.
You may not know it, but sending in credit card applications can actually lower your score. With that in mind, avoid applying for several lines of credit at once.
Try to limit the number of credit cards that you have open. Keep your oldest one open, but close those that you do not use anymore. Having too many credit cards can lower your score.
If you know you have some bad marks on your credit report and your rates have gone up, you may have no other choice but to shop for a new policy. The reason you may wish to do this is because there is no hard and fast rule as to high much higher rates must be for those with poor credit histories. One company, as mentioned above, may not charge you nearly as much as another company will. The only way to know is to shop.
Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=206275&ca=Finances
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Take Advantage Of A Secured Loan Calculator By Louis Rix
Going online to find the cheapest rates of interest and best deal when it comes to taking out a loan is one of the quickest ways of getting the best deal and a specialist website will make some of the best tools available to make the job of securing the cheapest rates of interest easy. One of the best tools is the online secured loan calculator, by using this tool you are able to search with the whole of the marketplace to make sure that you have to best loan possible.
Interest rates for secured loans vary greatly so the more quotes you can get before you decide which to take out the better chance you will have of getting the best deal possible with the lowest rates. An online secured loan calculator makes this task easy and quick and along with this you are able to get a vast amount of information regarding secured loans so that you are able to make the right choice when comparing quotes.
A secured loan allows you to borrow a much greater amount of money over a longer period of time than an unsecured, personal loan would, but you have to remember that the longer the term of the loan then the more interest will be added onto the cost of the borrowing. You also have to take into account this is a secured loan which means that you are going to be putting up your home as security against the amount you are going to borrow, the amount you are actually able to borrow will depend on how much equity you have in your home along with other factors. As you are using your home as equity and security then while you are repaying the loan your home is at risk of being repossessed if you cannot manage to keep up the repayments.
A secured loan calculator will help you to not only find the cheapest rates of interest and best loan but will also be able to help when it comes to deciding how long to take the loan out over and how much the monthly loan repayments will be. You will have to compromise against monthly low repayments and the length of the loan bearing in mind it will accumulate more interest over time.
Once you have got quotes using a secured loan calculator then you have to also compare the small print and key facts of the loans. However a specialist website should include these in with the quotes for the loan, it is essential that you do read these as this is where you can find additional costs which could be added onto the loan, examples of such costs include early repayment fees and payment protection. Payment protection insurance should not automatically be included in the cost of the quote but it has been known to happen, so check to make it hasn’t. If you want peace of mind that payment protection can bring then you can buy it independently with a specialist provider much cheaper.
Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=205187&ca=Finances
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