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Poor credit is something that can happen to just about anyone, and it’s not always due to circumstances we could have controlled. Sometimes life events just go beyond what even the most budget conscious could have paid for.

Once you have things back under control, it’s time to start rebuilding your credit. Even if you hope to never have debt in your life again, building a good credit history can help you.

Your credit history can impact your ability to get a job, a car, a home. It can even impact the rates you pay on insurance. Places you wouldn’t necessarily think of may run a credit check on you.

This makes selecting a credit card to help you build up that score very important. You want it to be something that will help you rather than make things worse.

Many credit cards for poor credit have annual fees. These may not sound too bad, and in many cases really aren’t that bad, until you add them on top of all the other fees that may be charged. Some companies have a fee to join and a monthly fee on top of that, to where the fees are costing you more than you may have planned on spending on the card. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you read the contracts that come with your credit cards? You should. Not only do they explain about what day and by what time are payments due (often by 1 p.m. on the due date, not by the end of the day) and what penalties a late payment may impose, but they also cover your rights as a consumer should you want to sue.

Take this case into consideration. Courts are currently considering whether or not credit card companies can limit cardholders’ rights to file a class action lawsuit or if they can be limited to arbitration only. This means that if you feel a credit card company is guilty of unfair business practices, you may only be able to arbitrate with them as an individual. No class action lawsuit to try and force them to change the practice, just small, individual decisions. Is this fair? Depends on your point of view.

In any case, no matter your beliefs, you need to read your credit card agreements carefully before applying for a credit card. It can save you a lot of money if you understand your rights and obligations.

Technorati Tags: credit card contract, customer rights, arbitration

One of the great things about owning a home is the equity you build into over time. It’s money you can’t easily touch, but when you really need it, it’s there.

Many homeowners will at one time or another consider getting a home equity loan. These are most commonly used for home improvements, as homeowners reach a point where they want to improve the place they live. But you have to be careful when you do so.

The two possible types you have to consider are the standard home equity loan and the home equity line of credit. You have to choose between them depending on your needs.

A home equity loan gives you all the money at once. This can be nice if you want to pay for your remodel job all at once, but it doesn’t leave you quite so much flexibility, and you start paying interest right away.

Choosing a home equity loan means you will want to know how much money you will need. The interest rates will be lower than you would pay if you put the same on most credit cards, of course, but if you aren’t paying for the entire job up front you’ll be paying interest on money you aren’t really taking advantage of yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Is that an unfamiliar term? If you carry a balance, it’s one you need to be aware of, even though you won’t notice it until you finally pay off your credit card.

A residual finance charge is how interest is charged on your credit card by many companies. Even before you get your statement, you are getting charged on your balance if you did not pay it off the previous month. This means that if you pay off your credit card this month, you will still see a finance charge on your next statement. This charge is the interest that accrued from the end of your previous billing cycle until your payment was received.

You don’t want to miss this one - if you think you just finished paying off your credit cards, double check just to be sure.

Technorati Tags: paying off credit card, residual finance charge

It always pays to check your credit card statement. It may be easy to just write the check or send that online payment, but that is far from the wisest course.

Consider this scam. A company called Pluto Data is appearing on people’s credit card statements. No one has heard of them, yet they have managed to add charges to a large number of credit cards. If you don’t check your statement, you’d never know they had charged you, as so far they don’t add enough to the bill for most to notice an unusually high balance.

Another common problem is identity theft. It’s all to easy for thieves to break into mailboxes and steal preapproved credit card offers, new credit cards or information about you that they could use to apply for credit cards in your name.

How do you fight back? One simple way is to tell the credit bureaus that you don’t want your name being given out for preapproved credit card offers. Read my article on opting out for more information. You’ll be amazed at how much less junk mail you will receive.

Also make sure that you get your free credit reports regularly from http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. You have the right to this information, so take advantage of it.

Protecting your identity is extremely important. You cannot afford to have a poor credit score because of things other people have done with your name. Keeping up with the charges on your bills and your credit report can save you a lot of trouble later on.

Technorati Tags: free credit report, credit card scams, preapproved credit card offers, credit bureaus

It happens to many of us. You apply for a credit card, only to be told that you can’t have one. Your credit score just isn’t good enough.

Now what?

If your credit is good enough that it shouldn’t have been rejected, you may want to consider the possibility of human error. Did you fill the form out correctly and completely? Legibly? Could you have miswritten any of the information required to make a good decision about offering you credit?

What about your credit report? How long has it been since you checked that? Since you can get one free annually, there’s no good excuse to not be checking on that regularly. You won’t always be aware right away when your identity has been stolen, and the inability to get credit you should have qualified for might just be your first indication.

On the other hand, maybe you just don’t have the credit score for the card. That doesn’t mean you’re doomed to spend life without one; it just means that the particular card wasn’t the one for you. You may have to reassess the kind of credit card you want to try for. Read the rest of this entry »

When credit card bills get out of hand, it can be very tempting to declare bankruptcy and just start fresh. It sounds so much better to be free of debt. However, bankruptcy is generally not that good an option. Paying off your debts in many cases will be a better choice.

That’s not to say bankruptcy is never the right choice. Some life events do leave you in a position where paying it all off is quite simply impossible. But that shouldn’t happen if the debts are due to what more or less amounts to deliberate overspending. Bankruptcy is more reasonable in cases involving high medical bills and other crises where there was no way to avoid high debt.

When the time comes to fight your way out of debt, you must be determined. You have to tell yourself that you will get your finances under control. You will pay those debts down. You will learn to control your spending.

And that’s the key. If you don’t change your spending habits, getting out of debt can be next to impossible. Even bankruptcy won’t be a permanent solution if you don’t learn good spending habits. Read the rest of this entry »