How To Check Your Credit Score

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Debt Consolidation Service
Debt consolidation means many things to many people. For some a home equity loan is a form of debt consolidation. Many people obtain loans from banks, loan companies and credit unions to bring all their debt under one roof and make a single, convenient payment. That is another form of debt consolidation. A debt consolidation service is a way of dealing with debt by negotiating a complete overhaul ... Read debt consolidation article



Debt management fees and pricing - How to compare the debt management plans
Debt management fees can vary vastly from one company to another. Knowing what to look for and ask when seeking help through debt management will leave you better off by not making the mistake of working with an unscrupulous agency that charges excessive upfront fees or can't disclose or won't disclose why they have structured their fees as they have. Many debt reduction agencies operat... Read debt consolidation article



How To Check Your Credit Score
You may not know it, but every time you take out any kind of loan or credit or pay something back, it gets counted on your credit score. Who keeps a record on you will vary according to where you live, but the big three credit reference agencies are Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. They will provide your credit rating to any company that is thinking of lending you money.

All the debts you currently have are included in your credit score. There is a history of all the debts you've had in the past ten years or so, and special emphasis is put on anything that has gone wrong. Defaulting (never paying) on any debt will ruin your credit rating completely. Borrowing a lot before you start paying anything back will make you look like a very bad risk, and so will going all the way up to (or even over) your limit on a credit card.

It is also worth considering that the credit reports of anyone you live with may be linked to your report, and could reflect badly on you - your wife or husband's credit rating is tied to yours quite closely.

The most common method of coming up with your rating is called a FICO score, named after the Fair Isaac Corporation who invented it. Your current credit rating status is prioritized, in this order:

* Payment history, which comprises a whopping 35% of your FICO score. This includes everything, from the timeliness of your payments, to the number of bills you have failed to pay, to the bills that have been forwarded to collection companies.

* Outstanding debt, which comprises 30% of your FICO score. This would tell the lending company how much of your existing credit is being eaten up by existing loans.

* Length of credit history, which comprises 15% of your FICO score. If you have been paying a loan of significant amount over a long period of time, then this would fare well with the lending companies as it establishes a level of commitment they would want to see.

* Credit balance, which comprise 10% of your FICO score. Credit balance is the difference between the current amount of your existing loans and the original amount of the same. The bigger the balance, the lower your FICO score.

* Recent inquiries, which comprise 10% of your FICO score. An inquiry is equivalent to a loan application. The more inquiries you have, the lower your FICO score would be.

Why is your Credit Score is important? Because any time you get turned down for a credit card or any other loan, the chances are that it was because of your credit score. Companies giving out small loans are far more likely to rely completely on this rating than to bother checking your income, and a worse rating will mean that you are offered a higher interest rate.

Your credit score is important when you get car loans and mortgages too. You don't want to find a house you love only to get turned down for the mortgage thanks to your habit of paying your credit card bills late.

There will always be those times when we would find ourselves in a financial rut. These are the times when bills become due almost simultaneously, when satisfying them is rendered impossible by the other financial demands of our life.

Acquiring loans would help bail us out of these difficulties. In certain cases, loans are quite necessary for our survival. It would be to our best interests that securing a loan be easy and almost guaranteed. A good FICO score would help achieve this, and give us a better position to resort to loans whenever the needs arises.

So how do you to check your credit score? Credit reference agencies can't hold your information on file without telling you about the information they have on you. Write all three credit reporting agencies a letter and, if you have to, pay a very small fee to have them send you the full credit report they have on you. Actually, new laws allow you to get a free copy of your credit report once per year. Contact each credit reporting agency for details.

You can then check over your credit score, and send a letter back to the agency telling them about anything that you think isn't right. You might find that an error has made you look bad when it wasn't your fault. They will include anything you send in your file. If the error turns out to be resolvable since it was not your fault, your credit report will be corrected.

Greg Lietz is a freelance writer and internet businessman. He owns the website http://www.credit-card-debt-info.com where he provides free information about eliminating credit card debt, credit scoring, rebuilding your credit score and repairing your credit.

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Student Loan Consolidation - Making A Wise Decision

Debt consolidation feels like instant freedom.

When you can not easily manage your debt, bundling it all up seems like a good idea. The most common way to do this is a debt consolidation loan. This loan takes all of your debts and wraps them into one loan.

Don't confuse it with bankruptcy, though. You still have to pay this money back. You are simply refinancing the money that you have borrowed.

Before you do this, you should know both sides of the story.

On The Good Side

Manage your money much easier with just 1 bill to pay each month. Gone is the anxiety as each bill comes in, like a Chinese water torture. Instead of incomprensible statements from credit cards, gas cards, student loans, and car loans, it can seem a blessing to get them down into one payment.

You'll get lower monthly payments. Since everything is tied into one payment, the amount that you need to pay monthly can be quite a bit lower.

Your interest rate is often lowered too. This is especially true on high rate credit cards.

Probably the biggest benefit is that you will not have to deal with creditors anymore.

On The Bad Side

It is crucial to realize that your debt is still your debt. It hasn't lessened and it hasn't gone away. You still have to pay it off.

It may take longer to pay off the debt. Because you have a lower monthly payment, you are likely to pay longer to get the loan down.

You will pay more in the long run. Finance charges and interest rates add up and they stretch out the amount that you owe for a longer period of time.

You will often need to secure your loan through property.

It may let you believe that you are more secure than you actually are. You may think that your debt is under control. And, you may think that you can keep spending now. That is not a good idea at all.

The Balance

When it comes to deciding on debt consolidation, look at all of the pros and cons.

You should shop around to find the lender who will offer you the best consolidation loan. You should examine the interest rate, the amount loaned, and whether it is a fixed or an adjustable rate loan.

You should know the type of consolidation loan that you qualify for and what the underlying factors are. Make sure to include whether you have a good credit rating, if you own equity, and whether you have a good amount of income coming in.

There are other forms of debt consolidation as well. One good one is a credit counseling service. These organizations help by working between you and the creditor. They can help to negotiate a lower interest rate from some lenders, as well as teach you how to more effectively manage your money.

Whichever path you choose, do it before the choices are taken away from you.

Visit Student Loan Consolidation to learn more. Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer, visit his website at Articles for authors.

Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact and the links live.


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How To Check Your Credit Score
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