SDB Finance Information

Finance information for you

Posts Tagged credit report

Car Loans after Bankruptcy – How to Negotiate the Best Deal

Nov 3

Posted by admin in Bankruptcy, Loans

A car loan after a bankruptcy is one of the easiest types of secure loans to get. Negotiate the best deal by taking control of your financial situation. With so many lending options available, you can choose your lender. Start by tidying up your credit report. Then, look for car financing before you start shopping. Not only will you get a good rate, but you can negotiate an even better price for your new car.

Be Proactive In Securing Financing

Don’t fall for dealership financing targeted for those with poor credit. Often times you will get stuck with a high rate loan and a high costing car. Instead, be proactive about securing your financing before you shop for a car.

This way, you have the most options on where you want to purchase a car. And you can get a better price because you have ?cash.? They will never know you have a bankruptcy in your past.

Straighten Up Your Credit Report

Make sure your bankruptcy has been completely settled before getting a car loan. You can get a free copy of your report online to check that all qualifying accounts have been closed. Also verify that your payment history is correct.

While you are looking at your credit report, you may also want to look at your FICO score. With a recent bankruptcy, you can expect your score to be in the low 500′s. After two years though, you can have a score over 650, qualifying for market rates.

Increase Qualification Factors

Even with a bankruptcy, you can lower rates with several factors. A down payment of 20% or more is a good start, so is having little debt and cash reserves in the bank.

You can further reduce your rates by being selective with your terms. Adjustable rates are usually lower than fixed rates loan. A three year loan will also have lower rates than a five year loan.

Search For The Right Lender

Searching for the right lender will also help you save on loan costs. Compare rates and fees based on loan quotes. Car loan broker sites can help you analyze multiple offers side by side.

Tags: , , , , , ,

No Comments

How To Repair Bad Credit

Aug 19

Posted by admin in Credit, Loans

Each aspect of your life can go adversely involved by a poor credit report. Receiving a reduced credit grade implies you will not qualify for a car and mortgage loans. Nonetheless, getting out of debt and repairing your battered credit report is not as tough as you might believe. You may be able to do so without the aid of credit counselors or money managing directors who will try to take more and more money from you with their debtintegration programs.

The temptation to seek the services of credit repair companies is very powerful to those with poor credit. The way they advertize can appear very assuring for those who are determined enough to require their servicing. Nonetheless, everything they can do for you to fix your credit you can do yourself for small or no price. You do not require to pay their fees to fix your credit report.

Depending on the precision of the terrible info on your credit report, there are easy steps you can pursue to repair it. If the negative information is dead-on, the only matter you can make is to wait. Only time will take that data from your credit report. In the mean time, you need to pay off all your accounts on time for reason that last-minute payments will impact your credit score even more. You will also need to prove dependable spending habits to prevent any going into further debt.

If the terrible information in your credit report is inaccurate, you’ll need to mail a scripted request to the consumer reporting company to inquire the items in enquiry. By law, they must look into your demand inside 30 days, unless they think that the demand is trivial.

There are numerous ads demanding to lawfully wipe out your poor credit report. They can do this for you for a considerable fee. Again, anything they can do lawfully you can do as well. Preserve your money, and do the work yourself.

Tags: , , , , , ,

No Comments

What’s My Credit Score Free? Is A Question With An Easy Answer

Jun 16

Posted by admin in Credit

With so much talk about the financial state of the country and the ever present recession, you may be wondering about your own standing – particularly your credit standing. If you’re asking “What’s my credit score free?” there are a number of free websites that will allow you to access your score, which is the most important number that defines you.

Your credit score can change dramatically over the course of your life, but regardless it follows you and influences the outcome of any important financial decisions like a home purchase.

Find your score is not enough; it is best to procure your credit report. Access to your credit report is free and you should never have to pay for the privilege of that information so be warned of companies that require you to enroll in some sort of reporting service. It is after all your report and you have a right to the information.

Credit reports amass information from all of your credit cards that include any outstanding balances, payment histories including times of delinquency, as well as any third party inquiries or instances of filing for bankruptcy. Taken together and put through a mathematical formula your credit information is turned into a three digit score, called a FICO score.

Your FICO score can range anywhere from 350 to 800 points. Up to ninety percent of banks use your FICO score as a determining factor in bestowing a loan. The number assigned to you is basically a measure of your financial responsibility and whether the risk of granting you more responsibility in the form of payments is sound.

In today’s world of identity theft it would be criminal to not get look at your credit report for an accurate measure of where you stand financially. The responsibilities of being an adult extend to taking an active role in your financial life.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Chexsystems: Get Help And Open A Checking Account

Apr 13

Posted by admin in Credit, Finance

Millions of people have been financially ruined by a company called Chexsystems. Chexsystems is a group of financial institutions who have united together to prevent individuals who have had troubles with financial accounts before from opening new accounts at any member companies. Sadly, with the current increase in identity theft across the nation, so many innocent folks have been further damaged by this reporting system.

Once reported to this organization, you can be “blacklisted” for up to 5 years, resulting in the inability to open a checking account at almost any bank in America, as well as negative marks on your credit report. Both can clearly have a huge impact on your financial situation, causing embarrassment and emotional stress as well.

There is one answer – the company “Chexsystems Relief” is a consumer advocate group that helps people get out altogether. And best of all their service is unique to all others, and is totally free.

Most companies only provide a list of banks that supposedly do not belong to the conglomeration. These lists are often riddled with inaccuracies and the banks that are of assistance are usually small banks that can be up to hundreds of miles away from the consumer’s home. Other sites that promise removal from the database don’t actually get the job done. The help, which we’re discussing here does not just offer a list of banks. Instead, they offer removal with a guarantee that the process will begin within 24 hours.

Actual removal is the top option for folks who are having troubles with removal from this list allows people to open a checking account at any bank, regardless of whether or not the financial institution belongs to the group. With the use of our help, people can fix their credit history, write checks for their bills and not have to drive halfway across the country.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Is It Hard to Remove a Judgment?

Mar 1

Posted by admin in Credit

You fell behind on your payments and your creditor decided to pursue a judgment against you. Even though you appeared at the hearing, your creditor was granted the judgment. Now, you don’t know what to do or where to turn to delete the judgment entry from your credit report.

The judgment has caused your credit score to free-fall. In point of fact, a judgment can stay on your credit report for 10-12 years. At the end of this period, if the judgment remains unpaid, it can often be renewed. Your credit history can even report a paid judgment for seven years!

Now, you would like to remove the judgment from your credit report. You need to be aware that it is illegal for credit reporting agencies to remove accurate entries. There are only two ways an entry can be legally removed from a credit report. The first way is to prove that an item is inaccurate. The second way is to dispute the item and, if the creditor cannot verify the item within a legally specified time frame, the credit reporting agency is legally required to remove the item. Items which consumers believe are false can be disputed pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Included in the FCRA, are judgment and public record items.

To dispute a judgment on your credit report, you should send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus which are reporting the judgment. There are three major credit reporting agencies – TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. With other types of negative entries such as credit card debt and car loans, the credit reporting agency would be forwarding the dispute to creditors such as credit card companies, banks, car dealerships, loan companies, etc.

Unlike car loans and credit cards, judgment and public record information is located in governmental buildings and maintained by county personnel. In light of this, a judgment dispute will be forwarded in most cases to the county courthouse in your county. As humans verify this type of information, as opposed to fancy software programs, it normally takes longer to verify this type of dispute and, in many cases, the verification is not able to be completed within the specified time frame of 30 days. When this happens, the credit reporting agency, by law, must remove the judgment entry from your credit report.

You can attempt this process yourself. However, if you would prefer, you can employ a knowledgeable and experienced consumer rights attorney to address this for you. The upside to going this route is that an attorney who practices consumer rights law has typically handled hundreds, and possibly even thousands, of cases of this type.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Credit Card Judgment – What Does It Mean?

Feb 12

Posted by admin in Credit, Debt Consolidation

A court order which acknowledges that a credit card cardholder owes a debt and explains the way the debt may be recovered is called a credit card judgment. Typically a credit card judgment is issued when a credit card cardholder fails to make required minimum monthly payments and has not attempted to work with the credit card provider to come to an agreement for bringing the account current.

Idealistically speaking, before getting to this point, it would be best to contact the card provider so things do not get out of hand. Credit card providers are often willing to work with a cardholder to either arrange a payment plan or to arrange for a pay off in full for a reduced debt amount.

If you do not make arrangements with the credit card provider, your debt may wind up with a collection agency. At this point, you are no longer able to negotiate with the credit card provider. Collection agencies, as a rule, don’t like to go to court to collect a debt because it costs them time and money for what to them normally amounts to a very small amount. Collection agencies normally purchase debt for cents on the dollar. Therefore, they will normally be willing to make arrangements with you for a lump sum payment or monthly payments.

If your debt does come before a judge for a credit card judgment, you have the right to appear before the judge and plead your case. If the debt is not yours or if the seizing of the assets would mean serious difficulties for you, the judge may take this into consideration. However, this is viewed on a case-by-case basis.

Additionally, not all assets may be seized and a judge may determine exactly which assets may be taken. A judge may also order that money be taken from your bank account to pay the debt , may set a ruling to garnish your wages (depending upon state law), or may even order the filing of a lien upon your real property, if you own any.

Your credit score will be severely damaged if you obtain a credit card judgment. Also, it will be extremely hard to be approved for any credit products. Your credit history can carry this albatross for up to seven years.

Your ability to obtain reasonable rates related to car and home insurance will be affected. Also, a credit card judgment can affect your opportunities for future employment or advancement in your present position.

Once the credit card judgment has been issued, do your best to pay the credit card debt off as quicikly as you can. Keep in mind that you can contact the credit reporting agencies after the debt has been paid in full to request that the debt be removed altogether or, at the very least, be revised to a “paid” status.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Would An Elected Official’s Credit Score Affect Your Vote?

Jan 11

Posted by admin in Credit, Personal Finance

Bad credit can happen to good people. Often all it takes is a financial misstep here or medical emergency there and the average American could easily make a late payment, miss a payment, or fall behind all together on their bills. While there is usually a unique personal story, and often a very good reason, rarely are individual circumstances a factor when your credit score is calculated.

Now more than ever it’s important for individuals to know their credit scores; but apparently private citizens aren’t the only ones who need to know the three digit score that’s become the “grade” you’re given based on your on-going financial behavior.

Recently a very gutsy newspaper in Toledo, Ohio challenged both Republican and Democrat City Counsel candidates to “show their cards,” by giving access to their credit reports and credit scores for the voting public to see.

This raises a very interesting question; would an elected official’s credit score affect your vote?

I began to think about the potential precedent that this challenge would set if all political candidates were asked to “come clean” with this information. Sure we?re used to seeing their tax returns and knowing how much they make, but somehow this seems different, bigger, and more profound.

Credit scores are used by several groups to determine financial patterns, habits and in some cases even your character. They?re also used to predict the likelihood of your repeating these patterns in the future.

In general credit scores range from 300 (low) to 850 (very high) and everywhere in between. There is still some mystery around how a score is calculated and what factors are involved. One thing is for sure, this is a number you need to know and watch. Everyone from your current creditors to your car insurance company are checking it periodically to see where you “rank,” a low score could result in rate increases.

It’s obvious that as individuals we’re “deemed worthy” (creditworthy that is) by our credit score on a regular bases. Should the same standards be applied to those we choose to run our cities, states and even this country?

To get a broader perspective on this Pandora’s boxlike question I did a bit of research on the overall impact of credit reports and credit scores on an individuals life and came to learn that, according to a Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alert, “Employers often use a credit report when they hire and evaluate employees for promotion, reassignment or retention.”

While to some it might seem unfair or like “big brother” is watching just a little to close, often this practice is widely justified, especially in the wake of Enron, corporate scandals and 9-11. Employers are learning that they can tell a lot about a job candidate and their probability to be a quality employee by their credit report and credit score.

Credit scores have the power to be the Varsity letter you wear proudly on your jacket or the Scarlet Letter you wear shamefully on your chest. Given the weight it has on so many aspects of an individuals life, is it fair or even necessary to require political candidates to disclose theirs?

The question will no doubt be debated at water coolers, and in bars, dining rooms, even campaign war rooms all throughout the city of Toledo. I’m in New Jersey (where several candidates are running in heated battles as I write this) and I?ll be just as intrigued to learn if this fizzles out, or catches fire as a new trend.

It appears to me that the real question voters in Toledo (and soon maybe everywhere) have to ask themselves will be, “Is a credit score (determined by a complex formula that no one seems to quite understand and that doesn’t take individual circumstances into consideration) really a good barometer for a political candidates ability to lead or do the job?”

Maybe. Maybe not. But before you form your opinion, I invite you to ask yourself a question. Given your personal financial situation, past or present, how many votes would be cast in your favor if your credit report was used to judge your character or ability to do the job?

Sanyika Calloway Boyce has made her share of money mistakes. She now teaches
financial literacy programs for teens, college student and adults.

Tags: , , , , ,

No Comments