This article offers six warning signs your spending is becoming a problem. If these signs apply to you, this article may help you spot financial spending danger zones and improve your spending habits. One of the most difficult obstacles our financial education counselors face when dealing with our clients is that they aren’t always honest with…
Posts Categorized: Credit and Debt
There is rare agreement among financial experts that consumers facing multiple credit card balances should focus their extra effort—and funds—on one debt at a time, and after that debt is paid off, put any extra funds toward the next debt on the list, and so on. While we all think this is the wisest plan…
Credit scores are a huge part of every consumer’s financial life. Whether you can get a place to live, a job, a loan, insurance, or utility services can be affected by your credit report. Your score can affect how much you’ll pay for those products and services as well. With credit and credit scoring being…
Credit card interest is costing you more than you think. There are two factors that impact how much you are really paying, and both of them add up quickly. Interest Rates The first factor is the most obvious: the interest rate. Naturally, a low rate will cost you less—our numbers indicate a $10,000 balance with…
At first, the idea of not paying off your credit card debt can seem strange. Isn’t paying them off a good thing? There’s never a good reason to leave them unpaid, right? However, this line of thinking may only be a good idea for current or very recent debts. In fact, there are several reasons…
Credit scores change over time; this is usually a very gradual process. Sometimes, a credit score will drop quickly, or even jump up by an unexpected amount. It’s easy to figure out what might drop one’s credit score quickly—bankruptcy, foreclosure, a charged-off account, etc. But sometimes one’s credit score will jump up without any obvious…
For 40 years, we’ve been presenting financial literacy education to our clients and to the community free of charge. Our budgeting classes and other personal finance education offerings are available everywhere via the internet. We regularly add new courses and revise old ones on our online FIT Academy (Financial Instructional Training). These courses are available…
It’s difficult to get exact answers to this important question. Every expert, credit bureau, and loan officer has a different opinion as to where the threshold between good and poor credit lies.
In addition, “good” can be a relative term. Do we mean “good” as in excellent, or “good” as in “good enough”?
It’s important to know what various consumer credit act provisions and laws exist to protect consumers. Too many people who don’t know their rights don’t take advantage of the laws that protect them. We routinely talk to consumers about how to ensure that they aren’t being victimized by debt collectors and other financial predators. There…
We’re often told a lot of statistics about debt in our economy. For example, it’s said the average consumer owes $9,000 in debt to credit card companies. Unfortunately, these statistics often lack context and end up misleading us about the true impact of consumer credit card debt on our economy. While the average credit card…
One tactic that many consumers use to ensure that their credit reports are accurate and up-to-date is to add a 100-word statement to the report. We routinely recommend this action as part of our debt counseling advice. Some critics warn against the 100-word statement. They think consumers who write a statement are handing collectors the…
Our credit coaching and debt management plan services aren’t intended to improve one’s credit score, but the free financial literacy education we offer can teach you to the right ways to improve your own credit score. The Federal Reserve offers 5 Tips: Improving your credit score, which include: Requesting your credit report and ensuring its…
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