Tag Archives: credit

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Improve Your Credit by Learning to Cook

If there’s one way most people can improve their finances and their health, it’s by learning to cook for themselves.

As food prices have gone down since the Industrial Revolution, people have been able to afford more meals in restaurants. And while the experience may be convenient and enjoyable, it’s also expensive and unhealthy.

Learning to cook (and by that, I mean learning to cook well) will improve your diet and allow you to enjoy restaurant-quality meals at home for a fraction of the price. It’s such a win-win that I’m truly amazed at how few people actually cook any more.

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Gas Prices Continue to Tumble

You’ve probably noticed lower gas prices the last few times you’ve filled up at the pump. As crude oil prices continue to fall due to supply glut and weak demand, consumers are paying less to fuel their cars.

Here’s a chart of recent prices from GasBuddy.com:

Source: gasbuddy.com

Take this opportunity to put some of the money you’re not spending on gas, into savings.

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Can a Charged-Off Credit Card Help Your Credit Score?

A not-too-unusual scenario for those trying to repair their credit

This happened to me, and I know it has happened to several clients of mine as well. Here’s the scenario:

You have a credit card account that was charged off a couple of years ago. You assume (correctly) that it is hurting your credit scores. After sending a few rounds of dispute letters to the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion–the “big 3”), you are unable to get it removed. During those months that you are working through the dispute letter process however, your credit scores see a big jump. What happened?

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Lessons from 5 Years of Credit Repair

One of my companies is getting ready to make a big push at expanding nationwide. In order to finance this, I will once again be applying for a business loan. Because of my efforts at credit repair over the past few years, I am now in the top tier of credit scores, and I expect to be approved easily at a low interest rate.

I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on the past 5 years of credit repair for myself, my friends, and my clients. And really, when I say “credit repair,” I mean the entire process of climbing up the credit ladder from the worst possible situation (my scores were 500 at Experian, 463 at Equifax, and 466 at TransUnion), getting negative entries removed from my credit report, getting a credit card again, getting an installment loan, being diligent and disciplined about those loans, building positive credit, and eventually arriving at the top tier (760-850 range; any score in this range will get you the lowest interest rates).

I have succeeded at repairing my credit and climbing to the highest rung of the credit ladder, where I have the possibility of using my excellent credit to build my businesses and buy real estate, thereby growing lasting wealth for my family for years–even generations–to come.

I’ve also helped other people do the same. I’ve met with a lot of people at a financial low point in their lives. And while I’d like to say that every single one of them has followed my example and made a complete turnaround, that’s not the case. Some have listened to me and read about my system, but after experiencing an initial surge of inspiration and enthusiasm, fallen back into their old habits of missing payments, and soon it’s as if they had never even attempted credit repair. It’s like ballooning back up to your old weight after losing a few pounds on a crash diet.

So I’ve been reflecting back on the past 5 years with the goal of committing to paper exactly what separates the winners from the losers. Above all else, I’m convinced that it is a few character traits, and not any specific nitty-gritty tactic like how you word your dispute letters to the credit bureaus.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

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Reflections on the IRS and Ashley Madison Data Breaches

We covered the IRS data breach earlier this week, but I haven’t mentioned the hacking incident of Ashley Madison, a website that facilitates adultery. Last month, hackers managed to steal the user names, passwords, and even credit card info for 32 million users of the site. Here’s an article from Wired.com.

Given that the “social network” is a hub for cheating spouses, this will have ramifications far beyond the usual identity theft.

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IRS Hacked: 400,000 Compromised

This will lead to many, many instances of identity theft.

In case you haven’t heard, the IRS was hacked. The number of taxpayers affected keeps changing, but right now it’s at about 400,000. It may go up further as more information comes out.

Here’s a decent write-up of what happened.

And here’s what you can take away:

  1. As I’ve written before, identity theft is going to be a fact of life for most people. Looking back at the data breaches that have happened over the past year (Target, Anthem, and the IRS off the top of my head), no one can seriously believe that his personal information is safe.
  2. While you can’t keep your info out of identity thieves’ hands, you can and should prepare by monitoring your credit regularly and having an action plan for if and when your identity is stolen.
  3. Since this latest hack may have exposed tax returns, expect identity thieves to choose juicier targets, i. e. wealthier people. But no one is exempt from worry.
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Incorrect Address Lowers Woman’s Experian Score 80 Points

Of all the things that go into a credit score, a discrepancy in mailing address often gets overlooked. It’s important that your address be correct, current, and consistent among all 3 of the major credit bureaus. The Guardian features one woman’s story of what happened due to a lag in public records:

I have no skeletons in my financial cupboard so was surprised to see that in April my Experian rating had dropped from “excellent” to “good” – a massive fall of 80 points. It appeared that Experian had never received details of my address at the time. It explained this was down to the way the local authority updated its electoral roll.

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Facebook Developing Own Credit Scoring Model

Score based on credit scores of your friends

There’s a bit of conventional wisdom floating around that each of us is the average of his five closest friends. The point, I suppose, is that we are influenced by those we spend time with. Either that, or we choose to associate with those most like us. Either way, we are judged by the company we keep, and that is not an altogether unfair way of judging.

Taking this to the extreme, Facebook has announced it has created a new credit scoring model based on friends.