The term credit can mean many things. For most people, it is the ability to borrow today and pay later. The idea of “credit-worthiness” defines our personal finances, and reaches out to all parts of our financial lives. Credit can be an accounting term. You can talk about credit cards, your credit history, your credit score, or the three credits you got in college for taking Bowling. This page is the credit nerve center of ThinkGlink.com. From this page you can learn more about what credit means and how having good, bad, or mediocre credit affects your personal finances.
Avoid Student Loans At A Junior College
A parent asks about the cost of college tuition and about having a student start at a community college. Because the cost of college tuition is so high it's a good idea to start out at a less well known school and transfer. When a student goes to a big name school, she may be taking on $50,000 to $100,000 in debt for college (not including graduate school costs). She'll have a $700 to $1,000 per month headache to deal with after graduation. That's after taxes, and after she pays for her rent, utilities, cell phone, car, gas and food.
Home Loan With Bad Credit
A graduate student says he's got bad credit but wants to get a home loan upon graduation. If you get a home loan with bad credit it will cost you more. Before getting a home loan you should first fix bad credit.
Use Cash Strategically On Credit Card Debt
If your credit card debt is spread out over several credit cards, you should plan how to use your cash to get the most benefit for your credit score. Spreading the payments across all the cards will not eliminate the debt, but it will lower the balance-to-credit-limit ratio, improving your credit score. Or to pay off the cards the fastest, put all of the cash toward the highest interest rate. Then use the money you'll save to pay off the rest of the cards. Plan your strategy for what will give the most benefit to your personal finances.
The Bankruptcy Handbook
If you can't pay your bills you may want to get information on filing bankruptcy. Another source for bankruptcy information is John Ventura's book, "The Bankruptcy Handbook."
More Help To Pay Your Tax Debt
The new Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, signed into law at the tail end of last December, is supposed to provide some relief to those who sell their homes short -- that is, sell for less than the mortgage amount. Also, the law provides if the taxpayer is insolvent to the extent of the amount of debt, a short sale would not be taxable income. You may seek other help if you owe a tax debt. Although the IRS cannot touch your retirement savings they may suggest getting tax debt help by borrowing against them.
Mortgage Lender Doesn’t Report On-Time Payments
A couple's mortgage lender does not report their on-time payments to credit reporting bureaus. They wonder how the mortgage lender's behavior will impact their credit. The mortgage lender is anti-consumer.
Do It Yourself Credit Repair
The best person to repair your credit is you. Credit repair scam artists will charge you anywhere from $500 to $1,500 or more upfront, but these companies can't do anything for you that you can't do for yourself - for free - and they might ultimately do more harm than good. Ilyce shares 10 tips for you to repair your credit. Credit can be repaired when you don't co-sign for loans, make on-time payments and don't over-extend yourself.
Child Identity Theft
Has your child's identity been stolen? While identity theft is often committed by strangers, sometimes parents and other relatives steal the financial identities of children to get access to more credit.
Real Estate Fraud Can Result In Credit Report Problems
Real estate fraud often results in problems with credit reports - even if the person was a victim of fraud. In some cases, the home owner benefits from the mortgage lender's attempt at real estate fraud, so the fraud may ruin her credit and credit report. Ilyce describes the problems real estate fraud can cause to a person's credit report.