A shout out to Rachel Roberts who sent me this cool resource:

An “infographic” showing how to improve your credit score.

Let me know what you think.

Andrew

Cool resource is a post from: Divorce From Debt

It is surprising to many people when they find that their current debts affect their credit score almost as much as their previous history.

In fact almost a third of your credit score is determined by your current levels of debt and the types of debts that you have.

The reason why current debts are so important is because they can indicate to a potential lender that you might already be strapped for cash and have difficulty making repayments on your loans.

Even if you can show that you have been making your payments and you have a good record with no defaults they will take into account that any additional loans will make your repayments increase and that might be all that is needed to ‘break the camels back’ and that places all your loans into a higher risk situation.

Another factor that the credit bureaus will take into account apart from the level of current debt is when the debt money was initially borrowed.

If a lot of the debt has been borrowed recently this will alert them to the fact that there could be problems with finances that have necessitated additional borrowings.

The best way then to increase your credit score is to start paying down your current debts so your financial position and ultimately your ability to make your debt repayments will look more favorable and your level of risk will be lower.

If you can increase your income then this will also help, as it will make repayments easier thereby lowering your risk, however for most people an increase in income is not an option.

The number of loans that are current has an effect on your score also. Reducing the number of loans, even if the total debt remains the same can help in some circumstances.

Your Current Debts is a post from: Divorce From Debt

With the knowledge of how your credit score is calculated you can focus your attention on making the right moves to help boost your ratings no matter what your current financial position might be.

You need to understand first and foremost that your credit score is simply a reflection of how the lending institutions view the data that is presented to them by the credit bureaus and how they ‘expect’ you will be able to repay your bills based on historical recording of data from a vast number of other people.

You need to look at that same data and look at how you can improve your position in the eyes of the lending companies.

If you can make your position more favorable to the lenders by helping them see that you are the type of debtor who can pay your bills on time you will get funds more easily.
The information that the credit bureaus get comes from various different sources including the credit card companies and utility companies.

From the time that you open a bank account, start paying bills or borrow money from someone the credit bureaus will start a credit file on you.

This file will document any defaults of payment, late payments and anything else that will affect your credit score by providing potential lenders a snapshot of your financial performance.

If you pay your bills late the companies you owe the money to will inform the credit bureaus and then will note this on your profile.
The more of these bad transactions that are noted the lower your credit score can become.

There are other factors that will also affect your credit score and these are also noted on your profile including the types of debts that you have, how much debt you have, and how well you pay these debts back.

The credit bureaus won’t disclose how they calculate their formulas but recent financial history will generally have more affect on your credit score than older information.

Your Credit Score and the Bureaus is a post from: Divorce From Debt

While there is nothing you can do about your past history you need to understand that this is one of the most important factors that the credit bureaus will use to determine your credit score and whether you are a risk or not.

This is the best indicator that they can get on how you will be expected to perform in the future and even if you have changed your ways and are now more financially competent you will still have to deal with this on your records.

Approximately 30 percent weighting is placed on credit history when determining credit score so you will understand that apart from the fact that you can’t change what has passed you can start showing to the credit agencies that you are less risk now by paying all your current debts on time and in full.

This will give them some sign of what they might be able to expect in the future.

The bigger the problems you have had in the past the more work you will have to do to convince all involved that you deserve a second chance.

Bankruptcies and unpaid taxes are the ones that will count against your score the most along with loan defaults and late payments.

If you can clear any of these debts that will have a substantial affect on your rating but often this is not possible with bankruptcies so you will be better off focusing on showing the credit bureaus that all of your current debts are getting paid as they should.

This will begin to establish a new pattern and a new credit score will be the result of this action.

Even though this can take a while to reverse if your prior history has been relatively poor there is no time like the present to get started because that will allow you to start getting smaller amounts of credit which will in turn speed up the process of credit score recovery if you make the repayments on time.

Your Credit History is a post from: Divorce From Debt

The debts that need paying first are the ones that will cause you the most grief if left unpaid.

It goes without saying that taxes are at the top of the priority list as the IRS has more powers than anyone to recover the monies owed to them and failure to pay their account on time will not only result in interest but also penalties that can quickly mount up to more than the original debt.

Medical debt is also high on the list of priorities and it is essential that you look after your health and that of the members of your family. Without good health you will need more money to pay for your health care and if you can’t provide sufficient health care for yourself and those who are under your care then the long term problems that can come about from that are often much more costly than the original debt.

Student loans and child care support are both top priority as they are debts where government departments get involved and they have wide reaching powers to recover monies owed to them to such an extent that they can actually make your debt reduction program more difficult to achieve.

You should learn to prioritize all aspects of your life from the debts that you need to pay first to the tasks that you need to get done each day. Time management will help you through your daily tasks and financial management will ensure that you have the least problems possible with your creditors by paying those who must be paid first.

Just because a debt collector starts putting pressure on you to pay a minor debt doesn’t mean that other more important debts should wait for payment. Take control of the situation in all instances where possible and stay with the budget and the process that you have created for efficient debt control.

Which Debts Need Paying First is a post from: Divorce From Debt

Where there is a budget surplus you should apply those funds towards clearing the debt that you are paying the highest rates of interest on.

Where you have accounts that offer a discount for early payment you should also take advantage of those discounts by applying the budget surplus towards them.

Until you have cleared your debt you shouldn’t consider using the surplus for investing, as the money you will receive from the investment, less the tax that you will pay on that income, will be less than the amount you will save in interest payments for clearing debt.

Always look for the most benefits for each dollar spent and in almost all cases there is no better benefit than clearing debt.

Of course once you get to the stage where you have your finances in order and everything is under control budget surpluses can be better spent on investing in appreciating assets such as property, provided the property market is rising, and only where you will be able to make more money from borrowing to buy the property than you would using the money elsewhere.

That is something you can look forward to once you have managed your debt and with your ability to budget well you will be able to calculate the ratio of income to expenditure and determine whether it is a good investment that you will be able to handle comfortably before you spend your money.

You will be able to make all your decisions based on simple steps that will eliminate all the guesswork and ensure that you don’t get into financial difficulty again.

Sometimes you only need to change a few factors in your life to go from a budget deficit to a budget surplus and that is what you will be aiming to do as soon as possible. The more of the budget surplus you apply to debt the bigger the surplus will become and this affect begins to accelerate over time.

What to do with a Budget Surplus is a post from: Divorce From Debt

The various credit bureaus can use different methods at arriving at your score and this is why you can sometimes have more luck getting credit from one lending institution than another.

The industry standard is a system called FICO.
FICO stands for Fair Isaac Corporation Company.
FICO is software for calculating credit score and is regarded as the leader in the calculation of credit score within the finance industry.

The fact that it is commonly accepted as the most suitable way to rate a person’s credit score is why many people will talk of FICO scores or FICO ratings rather than calling them credit scores.
The software that is used to calculate credit score, whether it is FICO or other software uses research and mathematics to decide upon the rating.

This information is important to you as it will help you to have a better understanding of what you can do to give your credit score a boost in its rating.

The best way to explain how credit score is calculated is to compare it to insurance premiums where you will pay a higher premium based on various factors in your life.
With insurance those factors will be your age, your occupation, your health and even your choice of sport where dangerous activities will make you a higher risk for the insurance company.

The insurance company can then look at their research data and calculate your risk.
Obviously older people and those participating in dangerous activities will be a higher risk and those people will be expected to pay higher premiums.

Credit bureaus have similar research data that relates to peoples ability to repay debt in certain circumstances, and it is this data that they will use when they input your information to decide whether they will lend you money and if so at what interest rates.

What is FICO is a post from: Divorce From Debt

Most people are surprised to see how much money they waste and never knew about it until they start tracking their expenditure.

The majority of the population would have a far better credit score if they tracked their expenditure.

Often they have enough income to meet all their bills and debt repayments but get into situations where they can’t make the payments simply because of overspending and wasting money on items that they don’t need.

A lot of this expenditure is for small items and that is why it goes unnoticed. It can be as small as buying a coffee each and every day or buying takeaways on a regular basis.

Even the cost of driving down to the local fast food outlet uses additional petrol and that can add up to a sizeable sum over the course of a year.

It’s the little things that sometimes matter the most at the end of the day as they are the expenses that can be the difference between paying the bills and having to pay late fees.

Consider how much the total cost of smoking cigarettes will cost over the course of a year and you begin to see how much more difficult life can be when money is wasted on items that are adding no value to the quality of your life.

You might not smoke but most people can find things that they waste money on regularly and would be happy to do without if the alternative was a life free from the stress of financial burdens.

Impulse spending and spending of the small change can account for a relatively high percentage of most people’s income and if this money was applied to debt reduction, credit score would soon rise to more favorable levels.

A good budget will quickly show where these ‘money leaks’ are and allow you to plug them and channel the money into more constructive areas.

It might take a few weeks of diligently tracking all of your spending for these expenses to surface but once you do you will find you can break the bad habits.

It might be all you need to do, to start heading in the right direction.

Wasting Money Creating Debt is a post from: Divorce From Debt

Now this is the area that gets most people in financial difficulty in the first place.

There is a huge difference between wants and needs and if you honestly look at your financial position and consider how you have built up the debt that you are currently faced with you might just find that it is due to over expenditure on wants.

Needs are those factors that are required for you to lead a healthy happy life on a daily basis to maintain good health in mind and body for you and those whom you are responsible for.

Good food, shelter, health care – These come under the banner of needs because these are the simple things in life that you need to get by.

DVD players, alloy wheels on your car, the latest designer clothing, cigarettes etc – These are wants and there is certainly no need to have them in your life.

These are the things that get people into trouble. These are the things that cause your debt and stress and detract from your lifestyle.

These are the things that make people miserable at the end of the day because you still have to pay for them, you don’t need them and you certainly don’t need the debt that comes with them.

Take a look around your house and see how many items there are that fall under the category of wants, and then ask yourself how often do you use these items and what sort of pleasure have they given you compared to the distress that you are now feeling with the debt you have to pay back.

Sure there might be some items that you still get pleasure from such as playing on your Playstation but consider once again how the time that you waste on the Playstation could be better spent on something more productive or something that could improve your health and well-being such as a walk or a jog in the park.

Can you convert some of those items into cash? Of course you can and if you aren’t using them then wouldn’t it be better to sell them and put that money towards your debt.

Just understanding the difference between wants and needs might be all that you need to turn your life around and ensure that you never become overburdened with debt again.

Wants and Needs is a post from: Divorce From Debt

Late fees and additional charges of interest or penalties will make payments of outstanding debts harder to manage.

Most people accept these when they are applied to their accounts without ever questioning them but you should understand that contacting your creditors and asking for them to waive these fees will often be met with a positive reply.

Creditors want the repayment of the money owed to them and if they know that this will be hindered by adding their late fees and penalties they will be more receptive to waiving them if you explain that it is making it difficult for you to make your payments as required.

When people employ credit repair companies to work for them boosting their credit score one of the first things they will do is look through all the clients accounts and then contact those creditors who have been charging additional fees and see if they will waive them in order to get the account current and keep it so.

You can do this for yourself and save money and you should never feel embarrassed to ask for this as it is quite common for it to happen and you are only trying to get your account paid which should make the creditor happy.

You will probably need to offer them some sort of incentive for removing these fees and that will be in the form of prompt payment of their account.

You will need to understand though that whenever an arrangement like this is entered into the creditor will soon start applying penalty fees again if you don’t keep your end of the bargain and make the payments on time.

Fees are applied to accounts, as an incentive to pay on time so waiving them will only happen if they are sure that your account will be brought into line. If you are unable to maintain regular payments all the time then tell your creditor in advance and let them know that you are working towards getting in a better position and appreciate their help.

Good communication can do wonders for your finances.

Waiving Late Fees and Charges is a post from: Divorce From Debt