Credit Guidelines

Getting a credit report is a good idea if you are not sure about what your credit score may be.  If you are planning on applying for a loan, buying a car, putting a down payment on a house, or simply applying for a credit card, you are going to want to know what kind of credit you have beforehand, and a credit report is the only sure way of knowing.  If you’ve been rejected from a loan or credit card, a credit report will help you figure out why.

The good news is getting a credit report doesn’t have to be such a chore anymore.  You don’t need to make any appointments, fill out any paper work, or even leave your house so long as you have an internet connection.  There are a number of different sites today that offer you a credit report upon signing up.  Prior to applying for a new credit card several years ago, I tried one of these site out just for the heck of it.  Right off the bat I noticed a number of sites that claimed that they will give a credit report for free, so I tried one of these to start.

The first site I tried was indeed free, however I still have yet to receive a credit report from them.  They required a credit card number, which I gave them, and bunch of other personal information, and then said that I would receive my credit report in the mail.  Well, its several years later and I haven’t gotten one.  Fortunately, they did not charge my account for anything, but nevertheless I regret ever signing up with them.

Your best bet, I soon learned, in getting a credit report is to use one well known and respected credit services such as Experian, or Equifax.  There will charge you a small fee, usually around $30 USD, or more if you want a more detailed report.  Getting an accurate credit report is well worth this small fee, however.

Overall, my advice before getting a credit report is to spend a few minutes researching different credit report sites.  Don’t be fooled by offers of free credit reports, because there are likely strings attached.  Additionally, there is always the danger that the site you are signing up on is a complete fraud designed just for collecting peoples personal information for illegal use.  Looking into it a little before signing up for a credit report may save you a lot of headaches later on.

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Visa credit cards are arguably the most recognized and widely used form of credit around the world.  The Visa credit card symbol is immediately recognized by consumers and businesses around the globe, regardless of what kind of currency or language they use.  Rivaled perhaps only by Master Card, the Visa credit card company is a major credit industry all in itself.

Visa credit cards are a great first card to get.  Your choices really boil down to either Master cards or Visa.  While some people prefer American Express as an alternative, I don’t recommend it as a first card.  American Express is almost a sort of club card; you have to pay to be a member, and only select businesses use the credit service due to their fees.  If you already have a Visa credit card, or a Master Card, you might then consider an American Express if you find yourself needing another form of credit.

Having said that, my Visa credit card is the only one I have and really the only one I need.  I’ve never been to a store that has accepted credit cards, but not Visa credit cards.  While they may exist somewhere, I think stores like that would be few and far between.  Generally, any place that takes credit will take both Visa credit cards and Master cards.  Visa credit cards are also perhaps the most popularly used form of credit in online businesses as well.  Indeed, most every order form I’ve ever filled out online has Visa as the default credit company.

There are a wide variety of Visa credit cards to choose from, and most banks offer a wide selection of these.  With different APRs, fees, and limits, you can find one that is best suited to you.  Some Visa credit cards work in conjunction with rewards programs, such as airline miles programs, so that by simply using your card you work your way toward a free ticket or other bonuses.  The best deals are of course usually limited to people with good credit ratings, but there are Visa credit cards out there for people with horrible or no credit as well.  If you are looking to repair or establish credit you should look into a secured Visa credit card.

As one of the most widely used forms of credit around the world, both on the internet and live businesses, you can’t really go wrong by getting a Visa credit card.

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We all have them.  They’re called credit cards.  It often seems that we can’t live without these nifty, little cards.  They allow us to buy those things that we shouldn’t really be looking at since we can’t afford them, but for some reason we get them anyway.  It’s a classic human flaw.  In the world of charging, the Visa credit card is certainly the leader of the pack.  There is an obvious reason for this.  Every business accepts them.  How can you argue with that.

I applied for a Visa credit card right after high school.  I thought to myself, okay I have a job, therefore I can have a charge card.  Little did I know.  The Visa credit card, like any other can work like a catch 22.  You can use them to purchase things you need or don’t need, but then the interest rates are going to kill you.  It’s almost unavoidable.  Unless you’re one of those few who pay off their credit cards every month, you know the repercussions.  Although this is the case when he dive into the world of credit cards and charging it, we never seem to learn our lesson.

The allure of credit cards comes with the charge limit they offer.  Let’s say you get your first Visa credit card, and your limit is two grand.  Great, that’s two thousand dollars you have at your fingertips for purchases, right?  Well, not exactly.  Even though we can taste that new TV or CD player, we should refrain from jumping the gun, unless we have the funds rolling in next month.  As a former college student, I saw many delusional students out on their own for the first time with their Visa credit card.  They see something they want but can’t afford, it’s cool, throw it on the credit card.  Wow, will this add up.  You’d be amazed at how much you’ll have spent after four years.  Another common screw up is the happy hour scene that college folk love so dearly.  This can do horrible things to the credit card balance.  Unfortunately this will likely go unnoticed until graduation or the next billing statement.  Then the reality sets in.

Visa credit cards can work as a wonderful tool in our money stressed lives.  We need a little help sometimes, so we resort to the card.  This is why many of us get them.  While we all want the option of paying with a credit card, we must proceed with caution.  These helpful, little plastic wonders can get us in a bind if we’re not careful.

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We all await the day when debt will be magically erased from all our records. Some folks call it the coming of Christ, but I call it the coming of the debt-eraser. Okay, I’m clearly being absurd right now, but how awesome would this be? We’d all certainly call this individual a saint of some sort. I know I’d plaster his/her face across my living room wall in a 30/40 frame. At this point I’d even be satisfied if my credit card debt was banished. The relief would be immeasurable. Speaking of those little plastic devils, how much do you currently owe on yours? I swear these suckers should come with the numbers 666 written across the front. Just as a fair warning to all who wield them. Someone please bring on the interest free credit cards. The world would be a much happier place.

The other day I was Christmas shopping. After all, tis the season to be jolly, right? Well, how in the heck am I supposed to be jolly when I know that my credit card is going to charge me some ridiculous interest rate every month? Every time I whip the thing out, I cringe with a tentative twinkle in my eye. I hate to use the darn thing, but if you’re broke from paying bills, you hardly have 20 other options. It’s not like you can just dismiss the notion of buying presents for the loved ones. That wouldn’t go over so well. Of course if one had a few interest free credit cards, this wouldn’t be an issue at all. But, where in the world can you find these? Well, I’m glad you asked. You can indeed find interest free credit cards, but like always, there is commonly a catch. They’re generally interest free for balance transfers only, and this only lasts for a year from when you receive the card. So don’t plan on getting interest free credit cards that apply to purchases. Be sure to read the fine print on the back of each document/pitch you receive in the mail. The purchase interest rate is typically HIGH, and the cash-advance one is always worse.

I just remembered the only time I encountered true interest free credit cards. It was back toward the beginning of college. I was offered a couple interest free credit cards with 0 APRs on purchases. They only had 250 dollar limits and if you exceeded the limit, your interest rate was atrocious. Other than that, these desirable credit cards cease to exist.

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Have you ever thought about how technology and consumerism seem to go hand in hand? Many of the technological advancements are perfected for military or government use and then transferred to the public sector. One of the first things that happens is that companies vie for the rights to sell the technologies. Consumers then stand in line to be the first to purchase the items. Many times the technology is also used to help the consumers buy things that they cannot afford without making payments.

All of this has led us into a nation of deep credit card debt. Putting things on credit has become easier than any other time in history. A big part of this is that people do not mind being in debt and that there are so many ways of charging things. There are instant approval credit cards available in all major stores. Some people will use one or two major credit cards to make all of their purchases, but for those that do not qualify for a major credit card or have too large of a balance on a major card they may choose to go for the instant approval credit cards for the specific store that they are wanting to make a purchase at. Many of the incentive programs of buying something with no money down and no payments for several months involve applying for instant approval credit cards.

At the beginning of the lawn care season our lawn mower stopped working. It would have cost more money to repair it than the machine was worth. We had had it for six years and it was a cheaper model to begin with. We went looking for a new lawn mower. We decided to purchase one locally to help out our small town merchants and also for the convenience of having it repaired if it should need it. The lawn mower company that the dealer represented was offering a deal of nothing down and no payments for twelve months. We decided that we would do this since we had not budgeted for the new lawn mower. When we began looking at the machines we thought they seemed very high priced. The dealer assured us that they were excellent machines and we would not have to buy another one in our life time. It was almost closing time so we told him we would let him know the next day if we were going to purchase the machine. We did some price checking online and realized that the price he was asking was very competitive. We called the next day and told him we would take it and that we wanted the financing. He said that they used the instant approval credit cards. He took my husbands name and social security number and typed it into the computer as my husband gave it to him. In under a minute we were approved for a ten thousand dollar line of credit. We could not believe the speed in which the instant approval credit cards worked. We realized how easy it would be for someone to take out huge lines of credit in a hurry if you were a victim of identity theft.

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Buying a house can be a complicated affair, but it becomes a nightmare if you have bad credit. For a while, there were lending institutions that would lend to just about anyone, but since the housing market is on a down-swing due to a large number of foreclosures, this might be something of the past. Anyone who wants to buy a home should make sure they do everything they can towards improving credit rating so that they may have the best change of getting a great interest rate on their home loan.

There are many ways to go about improving credit rating, and the best way is to pay off old debts that are hanging over your head. You can start with the small ones, and then work out something with the larger debts. You might try to send payments each month. The company will be asking you for the whole amount, but you can tell them that a payment is the best you can do. They may not seem happy about it, but if that is all you can do, there is nothing they can do about it. This will help our rating move up, but won’t get you out of the woods.

While paying things off towards improving credit rating, remember that you have to keep an eye on your credit score to be sure these debts are being marked as paid. This might take a bit, so don’t get upset if they aren’t marked as such right away. If something is paid and a few months go by with no update, then you should take action to be sure the reports are updated and correct. Also remember that something marked as paid will look better than something that was settle for a lesser amount. Don’t settle unless you think you have to do so, or advised that this is the way to go for you.

As you try to go about improving credit rating, make sure you aren’t doing damage by using credit cards to pay off the debt. Things you have not paid for are not the only things that look bad on a credit rating. If you have good debt, but too much of it, that can go against you as well. Improving credit rating with good debt such as loans that are up to date, but they should not be so much that it looks like you are struggling to pay your bills each month. Strike a fair balance between paying off your old debts and making sure you aren’t getting any new ones.

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Okay, here it goes; before you tear open that Visa or MasterCard pitch you just pulled

from the mailbox, I want you to remember one important detail. The 0% APR on balance

transfers only lasts for a year and it never applies to purchases. Therefore if you don’t

have any balances to transfer, I would seriously consider ditching the card. Or better

yet, flip it over and take a gander at the APR for purchases and cash withdrawals. I’d be

willing to bet it’s sky-high. Hey, they always are. The credit card companies are trying

to hook you with the fat 0 on the front of the document. Rip up the pitch and toss it in

the trash can. It’s imperative to do a credit card comparison before accepting any offers.

The world of plastic is not like it was in the beginning. It no longer comes down to what

you receive in the mailbox. It’s a synch to surf the web and do a routine credit card

comparison. Pull up everything MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express have to

offer. See who currently has the lowest APR that applies to your needs. By this I mean if

you’re doing a balance transfer, you’ll want 0% on this; if you want a credit card for

purchasing, you’ll want the lowest APR possible on purchases and so on. 0 APR doesn’t

count for anything if you don’t reap the benefits from it. I had my eldest daughter do a

credit card comparison last week on her laptop. She had plenty of difficulty pinpointing

an interest rate that she actually wanted to pay each month. Ha, big surprise there. None

of us can find these.

It’s difficult to keep that APR down! Even after doing a prudent and thorough credit card

comparison on the web, and finding that card you need, you’ll still run into annoying

increases. Credit card companies are notorious for doing this. Just when you think all is

going well, they raise your APR. Now, there probably isn’t even a reason for it. They

raise it because they can. Does this really surprise anyone? I doubt it. Anyway, then

you’ll be on the phone trying to convince them to lower it back to the original decent

APR. Good times!

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I probably read more business articles than anyone I know. Although I am now on the board of a large company, I didn’t start out that way. As a matter of fact, when I started reading business news articles, I wasn’t even involved in business. I was in college at the time, and studying to be a literature major. To tell you the truth, the business articles I was reading had nothing to do with my studies. They were just because of a certain suspicion I had – the suspicion that business news was important to everyone. I couldn’t have been more right.

From business ethics articles to stock prices and analysis, business news affects everyone. For me, reading a business article is not just about staying at the top of my game as a businessman. It is about being an informed citizen. For example, when you go to a high tech expo, you get to preview the technologies of tomorrow. These technologies may be driven by business, but they also are going to affect society profoundly.

People who read a lot of business articles know every step the Internet is going to take weeks, months, or even years before it takes it. We know which way the housing market is going to go, how stock prices are going to go, and what new consumer goods are going to be popular. Why is this important? Because it drives policy! From stocks to housing markets, from oil to pork bellies, businesses concerns lie behind every decision that politicians make. As my brother is fond of saying, “It’s the economy, stupid”. That is what matters most to everyone, from business leaders to the unemployed. Everyone likes to make money.

Of course, there are more practical reasons to read business articles as well. To be honest, most of my business analysis does not come from the business articles I read. Rather, I use them to see what angle the press is taking. Articles are inevitably behind the times, but they do show how business is being represented in the world at large. Some of the more intelligent business magazines can also help you make good decisions from time to time, but ideally you want to try to stay ahead of them. This is not always easy to do, needless to say. Business articles help to ensure that, at the very least, you don’t fall behind.

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As a stock broker, I am asked about investing secrets on an almost daily basis. One of the most frequent questions that I hear is which stock is the best one to buy. Everyone has seen a movie, read a book, or heard a story where the hero made it big overnight because of a few shrewd investments. This does happen from time to time, but it is by no means a sure thing. Even the best stocks can fail, and you never know when your luck might turn against you. If you are trying to be an investor, don’t worry about finding the one best stock. Instead, build up a diverse portfolio.

When people ask about the best stock, they are usually looking for what is referred to as a high-risk stock. These stocks can go up or down with no warning. They are traded at high risk by day traders who know how to buy and sell stocks quickly and make a lot of money off of it. You buy low, sell, high, and then go onto something else. You never look back, keeping a constant rhythm of lucrative trades.

The problem with this approach is that it is as easy to lose money as it is to make it. Even the very best penny stocks can crash for no apparent reason when you least expect it. That is why the best stock portfolio does not rely exclusively on these risky trades. You want to mix things up whenever you get the chance. Buy a few risky stocks, but also spend some money on stable, long-term investments that stand a better chance of succeeding.  That way, even if your risky investments do not do all that well for you, you won’t be out a lot of money. You will have stable investments there to cover any losses.

The best stock investors do not rely totally on their gut instincts, but they do not go totally by the numbers either. It is really crucial that you take in as much info as possible before you get in to the market. Once you do that, you can consider yourself ready to play the stocks. Your instincts will be worth something, because you will know just what you are doing. You will not be ignorant of the rules of the market, so when you see the best stock, you will know it and grab it!

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Getting ourselves into vast amounts of debt is something we Americans excel at. In fact, we’re darn proud of our bad habits regarding debt and bad credit. Uhh, wait; that’s actually a bold-faced lie. We despise debt just like everyone on this planet. Unfortunately we have made it a bad habit to acquire oodles of it as we age. So where does this nasty chain reaction stop? I’ll tell you where! It all comes to an end with bad credit personal loans. I don’t care if your credit currently stinks! You can get a loan to squash that debt burden once and for all. All you have to do to begin is STOP spending.

Okay, so we’ve established our dilemma with debt. There’s no getting around that issue. However, there are plenty of bad credit personal loans out there as well. Maybe you need the assistance of a financial advisor. I can tell you a few things he/she is going to instruct you to do right off the bat. Number one; get rid of your irksome credit cards. These things are like the Devil himself. They offer you a little, and then want everything in return. Number two, you most likely need to consolidate. This is where bad credit personal loans come in handy. Even if your credit is tarnished, you can still get a loan and consolidate that debt. This is the best way to ditch those nasty credit card APRs. Let me be the first to tell you, those suckers will bleed you dry. If you’re wondering why your credit card balances always remain the same, it’s because of the horrific annual percentage rates. You pay every month, but get nowhere. It will be great to attain a bad credit personal loan and only deal with one APR. Most likely this APR will be dramatically reduced from what you were paying. Try to get it down to about 5 percent if possible. Chances are your credit card interest rates are over ten. You will now save oodles in interest every month. Finally, it may be necessary to acquire a second job. As much as that stinks, it’s often quite helpful.

Stop spending! That’s the key to future success. Although bad credit personal loans are wonderful when you need them, hopefully you won’t be applying for any more once your debt is cleared. Most of us make the mistake with debt once, but hopefully never again.

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