Showing posts with label good credit. Show all posts

Monday, September 16, 2019

Good Credit-Getting it, Keeping it, Improving it

Poor Man Survival

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If you’ve got great credit — congratulations!

(If your credit score stinks, check out this article for how to get out of the doghouse. And if your credit is meh, this article will help you get it into the stratosphere.)

But with great credit comes great responsibility.

What I mean is you want to continue to do the things that built up your credit score in the first place. And in many cases, you’ll actually want to step up your efforts — because when you start wielding your great credit, you’ll take on responsibilities and debts that will drive it back down.

Once your credit score passes 780 or so (out of a possible 850), a whole world of possibilities opens up.

Great Credit Use #1: Big Purchases

Getting a good rate on large interest-based purchases is often the entire reason you want great credit in the first place.

With your powerful credit score, you can get the lowest rate on mortgages — and access to some mortgage options that aren’t available to those with bad credit.

Now’s the time to buy a house… or refinance one, if you bought it a while ago when your credit wasn’t as good.

Now’s the time to trade in your jalopy for a new car... or, even better, a lightly used one that already suffered the big drop in value when it was initially driven off the lot.

You only want to make these kinds of purchases — anything large that you’ll pay off over time — when your credit is north of 780.

Whether you’re getting a new work computer, a bedroom set or an investment property in Cabo... Great Credit Use #2: Get the Best Credit Cards it while your credit is high.

Great Credit Use #2: Get the Best Credit Cards

You don’t have to look very far to find great credit card deals touted across the internet.

The sorts of deals that come with a ton of perks, including (but not limited to) bonus points or travel miles and benefits like sponsored Global Entry fees, access to travel lounges or free upgrades at certain hotels.

Exactly which credit card perks appeal most is a personal choice — you’ll have to decide for yourself. But now’s the time to decide.

Because many of the best credit cards aren’t available to those with weak credit. When you have strong credit, though, you can get your pick of the litter.

It’s true — your credit score will take a minor dip when you apply for new credit cards. You’ll get a credit inquiry ping — which has a minor negative effect on your score — and the average age of your credit history will dip.

Offsetting that, you’ll be adding a new account and increasing your credit line — both of which have positive effects. And consequently, you’re likely decreasing your credit utilization — the percent of your overall credit that’s currently owed as debt.

Decreasing credit utilization has a large positive effect. So though you might see a small dip from getting new credit cards, that will be offset in time.

To help speed up that process — and give you room to take advantage of the next credit use — call up your current credit cards and ask for an increase in your credit line. (In many cases, you can do this online.)

With a strong credit score, most cards will be only too happy to increase your credit line. That will help you keep utilization down — an important thing with our next move.

Great Credit Use #3: Leverage Your Credit

I want to be very clear — this is a great strategy, but only if you handle it responsibly.

If you aren’t sure you can trust yourself to keep track of everything, it’s a great way to lose money. So know your own abilities before you try this.

Caveat aside, here’s one of the most powerful ways to use a great credit score...

Take on some debt.

But not just any debt.

What you want to do is use a credit card that has a great balance transfer or cash advance offer.

With a great credit score, you’ll probably be able to find one that charges 0% interest for 12 or 18 months and a flat 3% transfer fee when you first take on the debt.

Then take that money and put it into a financial instrument you know will make more than 3%.

Here’s an example... Say you loan yourself $10,000 using a credit card advance offer with a 3% transfer fee. That $10,000 will cost you $300.

But if you take that $10,000 and invest it in tax liens paying 18%, you’ll earn $1,800 in a year.

Take away the $300 transfer fee and you’re still up $1,500. That’s money you’ve made — free and clear — for doing nothing more than wisely investing a personal loan.

Again, you have to be careful with this sort of move. Your credit card utilization will go up, which will immediately hurt your credit score (though it will return to normal once you’ve paid off the balance). So you don’t want to overuse this strategy.

Likewise, even though you won’t have any interest on your balance for 12 or 18 months, most credit cards will still require minimum payments on your debt. If you miss one, the penalties can quickly erase your earnings.

Not to mention — your credit score will plummet.

But if you pay the minimum each month… keep track of the loan you gave yourself... and make sure you pay it off before interest kicks in (and it usually retroactively applies interest for the interest-free months if you haven’t paid off your debt in full)… and wisely invest the money in something that more than covers your transfer fee…

Well, this is a completely free way to make money.

Once you’ve got that money, you can turn around and invest it in things that pay off even more, but over a longer period of time — like stamps, coins or other rare tangible assets.

It’s a no-lose situation. But only if you can be responsible. Miss your payoff date or get stuck with full interest and you’ll start losing money, not making it.

But having great credit suggests you can be responsible. So take advantage of your maturity and grab some free cash for yourself.

It will be well worth the temporary dip in your credit (as long as you don’t have any major purchases on the horizon). And once you’ve completed the cycle, you can do it again.

It’s a nice way to add a few thousand dollars to your pocket every year for nothing more than responsible calendar keeping.

And that’s a bargain if I’ve ever seen one.

Unconventionally yours,

Ryan Cole
Editor-in-chief, Unconventional Wealth

P.S. Not sure where to find the best credit cards for perks or balance transfers? Bearing in mind the advice I’ve given today is from me — and not from the banks that offer these credit cards — you can find a great list of the best offers today right here.

This Is The Credit Score You Should Actually Be Striving For

Mortgage lenders can use scoring models as old as FICO 2, while FICO 8 and 9 are the most commonly used FICO models, Rod Griffin, Director of Education at Experian, said. He considers the key score benchmark to be 750. “It depends on the type of score and the lender’s threshold,” Griffin said.

And just to add one more wrinkle to this whole situation, some scoring models have a top score that’s well into the 900s.

Extra Step Needed for Claimants in Equifax Settlement

Families Go Deep in Debt to Stay in the Middle Class

Cars, college, houses and medical care have become steadily more costly, but incomes have been largely stagnant for two decades, despite a recent uptick. Filling the gap between earning and spending is an explosion of finance into nearly every corner of the consumer economy.

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The European Central Bank announced a bonanza stimulus package: interest rate cuts, money printing, quantitative easing, the whole nine yards.

Europe’s economic growth has ground to a halt. The German economy actually shrank last quarter, according to official statistics.

So the European Central Bank is throwing everything including the kitchen sink at this problem. Their stimulus package is like a monetary defibrillator trying to shock Europe’s economies back to growth.

It’s pretty amazing when you think about it: interest rates in Europe are already NEGATIVE. They’ve been cutting rates for years, and it hasn’t worked.

Back in July 2008, the European Central Bank’s main interest rate was 3.25%.

By the end of 2008, it was clear the global economy was slowing down, and the central bank had slashed interest rates to just 1%.

But they kept going.

By 2013, the ECB had reduced its primary interest rate all the way to zero.

And in 2014, they took the unprecedented step of cutting rates even further-- to NEGATIVE 0.10%.

European rates have been negative now for FIVE YEARS. Yet Europe’s economies are still in the dog house.

These results completely defy prevailing economic wisdom.

According to the ridiculous playbook that nearly all central bankers use, cutting interest rates is supposed to stimulate economic growth.

If interest rates are lower, it makes it easier and cheaper for people to borrow money. If it’s cheaper to borrow money, people buy more stuff… which creates more economic growth.

They’ve been cutting rates, even below zero, to the point that you can actually get PAID to BORROW money in Europe. Yet those economies are still stagnating.

So the central bank’s solution? If what you’re doing isn’t working, do more of the same!

It’s astonishing how these economists cling their ridiculous theories...

Unsurprisingly, the European prices of both gold and silver shot up this morning.

Gold is now selling in Europe for nearly 1,400 euros as I write this letter--- an ALL-TIME high.

That’s because precious metals are a refuge from keeping your savings held hostage by unelected central bankers who can slash interest rates to negative levels and conjure unlimited quantities of paper currency out of thin air.

It’s not just Europe either.

Across the water in the United States, the central bank has already indicated that they’re going to start cutting rates as well… plus they’re facing pressure from the Tweeter-in-Chief to make interest rates negative, just like in Europe.

That’s a big reason why precious metals prices have been climbing so rapidly; in the past two months alone, the silver price is up 22%.

I’ve been talking about this for months, encouraging you to buy gold and silver. But this isn’t over. There’s a lot more monetary insanity to come from the United States and Europe… so gold and silver prices likely still have a lot of room to rise.

(Silver could actually triple in price, and it still wouldn’t beat its previous record high.)

One big driver of gold demand is actually coming from foreign central banks and governments. They can see what’s happening to the US dollar and euro, and they’re keen to diversify their reserve assets away from negative interest rates.

Russia has been on a gold-buying spree lately, gobbling up more than 18 metric tons of gold in the month of June alone, and nearly 100 metric tons since the beginning of 2019.

China has also added 100 metric tons of gold to its foreign reserves since the beginning of 2019.

Even the central bank of Poland has acquired 100 metric tons of gold this year, nearly doubling its gold holdings from last year.

This is a powerful trend that could continue sending prices higher. So it’s still a reasonable time to buy physical gold and silver.

A Final Note…

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Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Getting Your Credit Score From OK to Great

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

www.poormansurvivor.net

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

Stuck in the Middle: Getting Your Credit Score From OK to Great

The middle class may be shrinking in most parts of American life, but it’s thriving in the credit score space…

Over 60% of Americans have a credit score between 550 and 800 — which roughly corresponds to an average-to-excellent rating.

In truth, you really need a credit score above 580 to start getting any benefits. And most loans and credit cards reserve their best rates and deals for those with a 780 and up.

But that’s just minutiae. My point is — if you’re like most Americans — you’ve got a credit score that’s somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. And you want to get it up into the top tier.

(If you have a score lower than 550, go here to find out the best way to escape the lowest class of credit.)

No problem — we’re here to help. Since you’ve already got an acceptable score, you’re probably doing most things right. And if you are willing to wait a few years (and be responsible that whole time), you’ll eventually and naturally break through to a score in the 800s.

But we want to hurry that along. After all, the sooner you bump up your credit score, the sooner you can turn your credit into cash.

So let’s take a look at four things you can do to move your credit score from the middle class to the upper crust.

Credit Builder #1: Pay Down Your Credit Cards First

You might have lots of types of debt. The general rule is you should pay off the debt with the highest interest rate attached.

That certainly makes sense. However, if you’re more concerned with goosing your credit score — as opposed to worrying about the size of your monthly payments — you should attack any credit card debt first.

Luckily, credit card debt also usually carries high interest rates. Even if it doesn’t, you need to get rid of your credit card debt if you want to supercharge your credit scores.

You see, credit card utilization — the percent of your potential credit limit you are actually using — makes up 30% of your credit score. If you’re using 10% of your credit availability — for example $1,000 owed out of $10,000 in total credit limits — that’s better than using 15%. But much worse than using 5% or less.

Every single point makes a difference. If you’re above 30% credit card utilization, that’s a flashing red danger sign. Get that credit card debt down immediately!

Obviously, the best possible option is to pay off all your credit cards every month. But if you can’t quite swing that, pay as much as you can afford.

The less of this interest-heavy debt you carry, the better — in every possible way.

Credit Builder #2: Pay Early

Take a look at your credit cards and note when every billing cycle ends — probably on the same day every month, like the 20th.

Most people wait until that date comes, see how much they owe and then pay it off at the eleventh hour, just before the cycle ends again.

That’s a fine way to do it. In fact, it makes fiscal sense — if you buy something at the very start of a cycle and pay it off at the very end of the next cycle, that’s like getting an interest-free two-month loan.

However, if you want to improve your credit score, you ought to pay off your credit cards before the cycle even ends.

The reason is simple: Credit card debt counts against your credit card utilization, regardless of whether it’s a long-term balance or something you’ll pay off immediately.

But the credit card companies only report what you owe once a month — when the billing cycle ends.

If you pay off your credit card bill just before the cycle ends, your credit card will report that you don’t owe any money (or owe a minimal amount if purchases processed between your payoff and the end of the billing cycle).

This is an incredibly effective way to crush it with your credit card utilization, driving it down to 1–3% without changing your spending habits in any way. In fact, it might be the most effective method for zooming your credit score up in the shortest amount of time possible.

Just don’t forget to check back in after the cycle ends and pay off any remainder as well. If you have a $10 charge that came out of “pending” and you let it sit there past the due date — there goes your on-time record.

And since on-time payments make up 35% of your credit score, letting a small credit charge trigger a late payment alert is shooting yourself in the foot.

Credit Builder #3: You’re Never Late

Obviously, you never want to make any late payments.

But if you do — fight it.

It used to be that most credit cards had something of a gentleman’s agreement with clients — if you were only late on one payment and you called up to ask that to be expunged from the record, they’d happily comply.

Almost like accident forgiveness, but for your credit score.

But those days are gone. There’s no guarantee that credit cards will excuse a late payment just for asking.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to try.

Sometimes, you can just say something like, “I don’t think that’s fair,” and they’ll get rid of it for you.

If you can provide an explanation — a computer that crashed and had to go into the shop for two weeks, for instance — your odds are improved.

If you legitimately were late, there’s only so much you can do. Especially if it’s not your first time.

But if there’s a reason behind it — or if the credit card company got it wrong — never stop fighting. A single late payment can knock your credit score down 100 points.

And getting one expunged can jump you up that same 100.

Credit Builder #4: Credit Builder Loans

Credit builder loans are accounts designed entirely to get your credit score up.

Here’s how they work:

A bank — usually a smaller local union — will offer you a loan, anywhere from $300–5,000.
They put that money into a savings account, which is frozen.
You pay the loan off in monthly installments.
When you’ve completely paid off the loan, you get access to cash.

In many cases, when you successfully pay off the loan, you get a refund or rebate for some portion of the interest you paid. One Texas credit union charges a 12% interest on credit builder loans — but returns half of it when the term is up.

Lots of people recommend credit builder loans for folks with poor credit, as you usually don’t need a good credit score.

That’s fine — except many people with poor credit have poor credit for a reason. They can’t pay back their loans on time, for whatever reason. And if you take one of these loans and start making late payments, you’ll be worse off than where you started.

That’s why I prefer to use credit builder loans once you’re in good enough shape you don’t have to worry much about missing payments.

Another benefit of this type of account is the diversity it provides. You see, a small but significant part of your credit score is showing you can successfully pay off all kinds of loans.

Having eight credit cards will only get you so far… It would be better to have two credit cards, one auto loan and one mortgage.

Credit builder loans give you exposure to a rather rare type of bank loan. And that diversity can really pay off. Not to mention, in this case, most of your monthly payment is coming back to you.

Of course, it’s better to keep all the money and not have to pay any interest… But that interest payment can be worth it if you use it to jump up your credit score — and force yourself to save up cash you wouldn’t normally have.

Again, this strategy isn’t for everyone. But if you can afford the monthly payment — and don’t trust yourself to put that amount into a savings account without the threat of default — then a credit builder loan could be perfect.

A few months of using these tricks and you’ll have a credit score you can brag about. And that’s when the fun really begins — when you can start turning your credit score into investible cash.

Unconventionally yours,

Ryan Cole

P.S. It goes without saying, if you don’t have enough credit cards, it’s incredibly tough to build up your credit score. Here are some of our favorite credit cards — which come with a plethora of perks beyond the immediate credit help

These 5 People Added up to 284 Points to Their Credit Scores by Making the Same Move

https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/debt/284-points/?aff_id=118&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=native&utm_campaign=284pointstwitter&aff_sub3=284_points_paid_twitter_broad

‘Owe Nothing to Anyone Except to Love One Another’

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I Carry This Every Single Day To Easily Protect Myself From Hackers

Fake Phones. There has been a rise in sales of low-cost fake smartphones from China.

These phones typically cost about $50 and come preloaded with malware and other viruses for no extra charge.

The fake iPhone is incredibly well made for a phony and it runs a modified version of Android that is very hard to differentiate from the real iOS.

It even has a carefully made fake compass app along with other standard iPhone apps.

In other words, next time you are in the market for a new phone I would recommend buying a phone from a major cell phone service provider and never purchase one from websites such as Amazon or eBay.

Stop relying on GPS. GPS is convenient and it gets you where you need to go without you having to keep a map in your car at all times.

The problem is, these days, GPS are easily spoofed and that’s dangerous if you rely on GPS every time you get in your car.

During Black Hat, hackers were able to alter navigation signals by hacking into the computers inside cars.

These types of hacks could potentially lead to your GPS leading you down a very hazardous path.

For this reason, I would always keep a paper map in your vehicle and just don’t blindly follow your GPS.

Russia is using the internet as a weapon. It’s no secret that Russia is using the internet in their attempts to interfere with politics.

Russia is also highly focused on weaponizing the internet and the nation has a plethora of intelligence agencies that are jostling for position to be the best hackers in the world.

At Black Hat, researchers examined how new Russian laws are making it harder to police internet activity within the country.

Whether you’re a prepper or not, learn these urban survival skills now and increase your odds of survival, today or in the future!

Read more >

Here are my ideas for new bill [s] to improve government…

>Since term limits never seems to gain any traction perhaps we should entertain the idea of zero pay for elected officials after their third term in office…give them their office, expenses, health insurance while in office and a living allowance only=much like our Founding Fathers and see how many decide to remain in office.

>Perhaps we need to resurrect a new version of ‘war’ bonds, perhaps calling them “government bailout bonds” to help pay off our national debt and/or to help pay for our massive deficits and proposed new spending projects since fewer foreign nations are buying our debt!

>An idea I've suggested before: Eliminate ALL city/state & Federal taxes on the 1st $25K of income for all people. 41% of citizens pay no Federal tax, many city/state taxes are killers for many. Tax laws that encourage more US manufacturing/jobs & elimination of red tape would help too.

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You know that home-grown vegetables taste great. You also like the fact that with a home garden, you can save money and avoid harmful pesticides. Perhaps you’ve even experienced the satisfaction that comes with growing your own food.

But what if you’ve never had much of a green thumb? If you lack gardening experience, starting your own vegetable garden can seem pretty overwhelming. Here’s the good news – many vegetables are surprisingly easy to grow.

Before you begin your garden plan, be sure to check this USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map to find out when it is best to plant vegetables in your area. The map divides North America into 11 growing zones that are based on climate. Then check the hardiness zone on your plant container or seed packet to make the best purchasing and planting decisions...

10 Vegetables That Even New Gardeners Can't Mess Up

When you read about what to stockpile for an emergency, you tend to see the same recommendations. Water tops every list, and rightly so since water is essential for survival.

In terms of food, however, rice, beans, pasta, and canned vegetables show up frequently as staples to have on hand. Then, you usually see powdered milk, granola bars, and other long-lasting foods. These are good options, but many other choices are often overlooked as survival foods.

Here is a list of energy-rich foods that offer a long shelf life as well as nutrition that you will need in an emergency scenario...

17 Most Overlooked Survival Foods You Should Be Stockpiling

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