Thumbnail image for What Does it Mean to Revolve a Card Balance?
    By March 1, 2013

    What does it meant to revolve your credit card balance? There is the definition, and then there are the consequences. Let’s explore both together. In order to understand the definition of revolving a card balance you first need to understand what a revolving credit account means: how the interest free ...

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    Thumbnail image for New Parent Credit Rating Survival Guide
    By February 6, 2013

    New parents face a three part financial challenge that threatens their credit rating and future ability to borrow money at affordable interest rates: increased borrowing, followed by unexpected medical expenses, followed by lost income. The affects to your credit rating and scores can be devastating and last for years. Follow ...

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    Thumbnail image for How Pre-Approved Credit Card Offers Work
    By January 18, 2013

    Many people wonder: how do pre-approved credit card offers work? The answers found by typing this question into a leading search engine are mostly ill-informed, misleading, and overtly biased against the banks sending the offers. During my decade as a credit bureau sale director, these offers were my primary focus. ...

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    Thumbnail image for How Many Credit Bureaus are There in the United States?
    By December 20, 2012

    If asked “how many credit bureaus are there in the United States”, most people would answer three: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. But the big three are just the tip of the iceberg. There may be hundreds of credit bureaus in the U.S. who may be collecting, storing, and disseminating personal ...

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    Thumbnail image for Revolve a Balance, Use Transfer Checks, or Dip Into an Emergency Fund?
    By December 11, 2012

    We encountered a variety of unexpected expenses this year and fell behind on our savings goals, leaving us with a temporary cash shortage. – before the Christmas shopping season even started. This left me in a quandary about how to retire the rather large balance that accumulated in our credit ...

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    Thumbnail image for Do Credit Reports Predict Hurricane Sandy Damage to Cars and Homes?
    By December 4, 2012

    Over the last decade, property and casualty insurers have come to rely more heavily on consumer credit reports and risk scores to price policy premiums. The risk scores are one component used by underwriters to determine how to price premiums. In general, insurers seek to charge higher premiums to those ...

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    Thumbnail image for Paying Card Balances – Emergency Funds
    By October 19, 2012

    Why bother leaving money in a savings account that earns almost nothing in interest, when you could use these funds to pay down credit card debt that is costing you far more? Name your price. Credit card interest charges run the gamut, and can go as high as 25%. Over ...

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    Thumbnail image for Paying Card Balances – Don’t Ignore a Friend
    By October 15, 2012

    There is a hidden danger associated with paying down credit card balances: the bank may decide to close your account or reduce your credit limit. That happened to me several years ago when the financial crisis hit, and banks needed to reduce their exposure. The experience taught me that my ...

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    Thumbnail image for Paying Card Balances – Slow Spending Too
    By October 11, 2012

    Paying off your credit card balance in full does nothing to help your score. It does nothing, absolutely nothing to improve your score unless you reduce, limit, or slow your spending on the card. Are you kidding me? You may be asking yourself this question as the web is full ...

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    Thumbnail image for Paying Card Balances – Don’t be Delinquent
    By October 10, 2012

    This is the second of a five part series on paying off credit card debt to improve credit scores. In this article we delve more deeply into determining what debts should be paid first when there may not be enough money to go around. What makes more sense and why: ...

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