Yes! Today is the big game on TV and you are just getting yourself ready to take up your favorite armchair quarterback position to watch the game. But during the pre game show, you realize you are out of munchies, so you hightail it to the nearby store. But then you stop and slowly walk back into the house. Why? Because you realize that you do not get paid until next week and your credit blows.
Scenes like this are not unusual these days. With the cost of living going up, and with the desire of people wanting to live a better lifestyle going up even faster, there is a good chance that you have piled on more debts that you can comfortably handle. So starting around the third week of every month, you are doing a very careful juggling act, robbing from Peter to pay Paul, and still trying to keep a few extra bucks in your pocket. At some point, this is all going to catch up with you, and you probably know it.
Part of the problem is that you never really understand how the credit system works. It is much more than applying for a credit card, being approved for it, and then charging it up to the hilt. Unfortunately, that is the typical sum total of credit knowledge of many people, and to be a smart consumer, you need to know more than that about how it works.
But consumers who will take the time to understand how the credit game is played are the ones who are going to save big money consistently. Put it in terms of your favorite football team – if they could not differentiate between an interception and a fumble, how successful would they be? By the same token, if you cannot differentiate between a fico score and your own credit history, you cannot be successful either.
Very simply, make a list of the debts you owe. That includes mortgages, gas credit cards, department store credit cards, Visas, Mastercards, Discovers, everything. For each one, note the date that the payment is due, then either visit the store or be sure to mail the payment in time for it to reach the lender and get posted to your account.
Why bother? Because if you create a consistent history of paying your debts on time every month, your credit score will go up because you will have a credit history that reflects on you favorably. The cascading effect is that with a better credit score, you will be approved for offers from other credit cards, probably offering a much better interest rate than you are paying right now, and you are in a position to negotiate with your current lenders to get a lower interest rate.
But that is not all there is to the game. You need to know that just based on the sheer volume of information that the credit bureaus need to maintain about you for years and years about your credit history and every loan you have ever had, it is very likely that your credit report contains errors. The thing that compounds this fact is that the errors do not get corrected automatically, but they stay on your credit report for years and years, with the detrimental effect of lowering your credit score.
Get a copy of your credit report multiple per year, and get a copy from each of the three major credit bureaus. Go over it with a fine tooth comb, and then follow the advice detailed at my web site about disputing the inaccurate and unfavorable information you see there. The credit bureau is legally on the hook to either verify the information, or if they cannot, to remove it, but you must follow the right procedure for this to work in your favor.
Take the time to understand how the credit game is played, because if you do not know the rules, any game becomes much more difficult to win.
By: Jon Arnold