Credit Card Report
Financial News Made Easy

Don’t let lack of cash - or bad credit - stop you from buying a house. Here’s how to go about it.

It’s definitely a home buyer’s market. Sellers want and need to sell their homes and they are ready to deal. But before you go out and strike that great deal on the house of your dreams, make certain you have your financing ready to go. Sellers will make better deals when they are certain you are pre-approved for financing.

Putting a little extra time into making a budget and a little extra effort in sticking to it will help your college expenses immensely and, if you play your cards correctly, keep you out of debt.

Credit scoring applies a mathematical formula to the information in a consumer’s credit-bureau file to predict how likely the consumer is to fall behind on debt payments. The higher the credit score, the lower the presumed likelihood of default. Find out how your credit score is calculated.

One thing that definitely befuddles many consumers is the credit-scoring system. And things got a little more confusing when the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian — recently said they had joined to create their own branded credit-scoring model, which they hope will replace FICO, the one now widely used by lenders.

It is true that when you agree to pay less than the full balance on an old debt, it can affect your credit score negatively.

A new report on credit card debt accuses card issuers of pushing consumers to borrow beyond their means and calls for new regulations. The report, released by the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, says the industry’s tactics are particularly devastating to older Americans who have fewer resources to dig themselves out of a hole.