Are You Managing Credit And Debt Or Is It Managing You?

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:06:43 +0000

Credit is an established part of American life. It can be a valuable tool permitting you to purchase a home or a car, finance an education, or take advantage of special sales and offers. Unwise use of credit, however, will lead to financial problems. Knowing your legal rights and remedies is a first step to resolving those problems.

Your credit report

Your credit report is an essential element for a sound fiscal future. Employers, insurance agencies, and future creditors use the report to obtain information about you. Your credit report is such an important document that the law gives you certain protections against the reporting of incorrect information.

How to obtain a copy of your credit report:

If you were denied credit, you should obtain a copy of your report to verify that the information is correct. You have the right to know which credit reporting agency prepared the report that was used to deny you credit. Under state law, you have the right to a free copy of your credit report within sixty days of being denied credit. Laws change and there are different laws in different states, so do your homework.

You also are entitled to one free copy of your credit report per calendar year, even if you were not denied credit. Consider requesting a copy every year to ensure your report is without errors.

Correcting your credit report:

If there is incorrect information in your credit report, you may ask the credit reporting agency to investigate. The agency must investigate your claim within 30 business days by asking the creditor in question to review its records, unless the agency believes that the dispute is “frivolous or irrelevant.” The credit reporting agency must correct, complete, or delete any information that is erroneous, incomplete, or unverified.

Additionally, negative information that is more than seven years old cannot be included in your credit report. There are several exceptions to this rule; the main one is bankruptcy, which may be reported for up to ten years.

If you disagree with the results of the credit bureau’s investigation, you have the right to prepare a brief statement that explains your version of the dispute. The credit reporting agency will then include this statement with your credit report each time it sends out the report.

If you have credit problems:

If there is legitimate negative information in your credit report, there is nothing you can do to change it. Negative information includes late payments, bankruptcy, liens, and accounts given to a collection agency.

Negative information in your files does not necessarily mean that you will be denied additional credit. Different creditors review your credit history in different ways.

Credit repair clinics offer to “fix” your credit record for a certain fee. These clinics cannot remove or change correct information on your credit record. You can do at little or no cost anything that a credit repair clinic can do.

Getting off credit card mailing lists

Credit reporting agencies allow businesses to pre-screen your credit report to determine whether they want to send you a credit card offer. For example, offers from credit card companies that say, “You’ve been pre-approved,” use a pre-screening process. If you do not want to allow your credit report to be pre-screened, you can now “opt out” of the process by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT.

There is no way to stop all junk mail, but this step can eliminate offers from companies that use the credit reporting agencies.

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Applying For Credit Cards Online

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:45:04 +0000

did you Apply For Credit Cards Online?

More and more people are applying for credit cards online. With the plethora of different means for which you can apply for your desired card, companies really try to make it easy for you to apply for their credit card. Along with online auctions, and shopping, signing up for credit cards, loans and insurance has been one of the fastest growing commercial activities on the net. Part of the reason is the speed and convenience of doing so. Another part of the reason is that you can find out the offers of a huge number of providers all at one place and judge which is the best very easily.

Applying for credit cards online can be an extremely simple process. Most credit card providers have websites that give you all of the necessary information to make your decision. If you are looking for a credit card, all you need do is visit their site and judge for yourself if the terms are acceptable. You have access to a huge number of card providers online so if you want to shop around it couldn’t be easier. There are even websites that specialise in comparing different rates and different categories of card which make your selection process even easier. For example, if you want a credit card that provides a good balance transfer rate, then you can search these specific cards. Or if you want a card that has a good reward scheme, low interest rates on purchases, or any other speciality, then it will all be there at your finger tips.

Once you have decided on a card, click the link to the card providers website or application form and fill in your details.

You will be asked for all your personal details, and usually that is all. The rest of the information, the card providers can access themselves through your credit report. They will take your application and review it and do a credit check. If they are satisfied that you are a good risk, they will accept your application. While this is all done in the same way as any other form of credit application, because it is online it is secure, and also a lot faster. You do not have to wait for the application to get to them in the post and it is a lot more difficult for would be fraudsters to intercept the information.

Once the card provider has accepted your application, they will mail out the necessary documents which you should read, sign and return. Within a week, they can have sent you your card, and your pin in two separate letters and the process is complete; you have just been accepted for a new credit card.

There are some rules to credit card use that you should also be aware of, determined by the type of card that you have. Normally 0% balance transfer credit cards when you are transferring balances have the basic rule of not spending on the card – anything that you spend will accumulate interest, while you continue to pay the transferred balance. In effect, negating the point of the 0% transfer.

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