Nowadays more than any other times in history people are using credit cards to fuel their lifestyles. Some or most don’t have a choice. I read an interesting article from NerdWallet which said the days of cash are king is over and most people can’t go a single day without using their credit cards. I’m not sure if I agree about the days of cash is king are over, I’m not convinced of that. The reason why? If you’re protecting your great credit and understanding the principles in spending and maintaining then you understand that having cash IS still king. However, having been in this situation before I do understand that most people have to use their available credit cards to pay the bills.
I want to share with you how that can affect your score and I’ve talked about this before. Using over 30% of your available credit will bring your credit score down. Now if there is choice for you in the matter then what do you? If you try to think to yourself, I’ll just get some more credit cards to help out, well that will lower your credit score by getting inquiries. Inquiries will stay on your credit report in most cases for 2 years. If you apply for credit and get denied then now you put a mark on your credit report kind of like a stain on a nice white shirt, except you can’t get the stain out for 2 years. Now, would you wear that shirt? So much like the analogy of the stained white shirt you’re showing lenders you’re not quite credit worthy anymore at this point. This could be extremely damaging.
It’s important to know what a lender looks at when you apply for credit. They going to look at payment history, available credit utilization, is your name correct, address match up and many other things. The lenders need and want to minimize their risk of loss. The bureaus aren’t interested in knowing if you’re a good person or not they just report information given to them. Part of taking care of your credit is checking your credit a couple times a year or have a monitoring system that allows real-time updates on your profile. Not doing this can cost you dearly. If you don’t know what’s reporting on you then how do you know your credit worthy? Let me share an example many years ago I decided to get a grasp on my credit situation, as I’ve mentioned before doing nothing gets nothing right? I saw several accounts on my report from somewhere that weren’t even mine! Some of these accounts were reporting on my credit report with dates the accounts were opened and I wasn’t even born yet. Isn’t that interesting? What can you do? I fought back and fought back and you know after several months and months of back and forth the credit bureaus did nothing because I didn’t know what laws to use or challenge them with. Tell you what when I found out the laws and how to fight back let’s just say things changed, and changed quickly.
Don’t get caught in the credit the credit trap this year take a stand. There are so many reports on the news about how this year consumers will have more access to their credit reports. If you get access then take control and do something. If you have been on been on top before and are down in the pit now DON’T worry, you can recover. It will depend on which road you want to take to get there. We all know in life there are easy ways and hard ways and no matter what anyone tells you, the choice is yours. Let us help you and show you. See you at the TOP.
All The Best –