Carreon and Associates…Credit Repair Saviors

This is the first endorsement of a company on my blog. Carreon and Associates deserves credit for being instrumental in helping me to attack the credit bureaus, creditors and debt collectors from a novice point of view.

Their site is just what beginners need to gain the confidence to fight back! As you know, no one is going to have better intentions than you in repairing your credit and boosting that credit score. With the knowledge I attained from their site and other sources, I was able to educate myself to the point where I started a credit repair business to help others.

Carreon and Associates provides their website as a strategic educational website that shows users how they can repair their own credit. A one-time access fee gives you lifetime access to all the materials on their site, which is an EXCELLENT resource for UPDATED credit repair templates for any situation you could possibly find yourself in.

Price: A small one-time fee gives you lifetime access to all of the educational materials on their site.

Their system is intended as a complete do-it-yourself package aimed at helping you deal with the credit bureaus, collections agencies and creditors. There are numerous articles on how to repair your credit legally by yourself and save lots of money. You’ll also learn how to settle your debts while still protecting your credit. Additionally, upon joining you’ll have access to various credit repair forums where you can learn and share information with other users.

In addition to access to the entire website, you’ll also receive over 40 bonus sample letters to help guide your credit repair efforts. The company is NOT a credit repair service and exists only to educate consumers on how they can repair their own credit.

Bottom line….Their easy step by step methods get results! You should check them out.

A Very POWERFUL Credit Repair Tool…Opt–Out Provisions

All Consumers and customers have the right to opt out of – or say no to – having their information shared with certain third parties. The “privacy notice” must explain how – and offer a reasonable way – that you can do that. For example, providing a toll-free telephone number or a detachable form with a pre-printed address is a reasonable way for consumers or customers to opt out; Requiring someone to write a letter as the only way to opt out is not.

The “privacy notice” also must explain that consumers have a right to say no to the sharing of certain information – credit report or application information – with the financial institution’s affiliates. An affiliate is an entity that controls another company, is controlled by the company, or is under common control with the company. Consumers have this right under a different law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

An individual cannot opt out if:

* a financial institution shares information with outside companies that provide essential services like data processing or servicing accounts;
* the disclosure is legally required;
* a financial institution shares customer data with outside service providers that market the financial company’s products or services.

Personally, I would always opt-out of any company sharing my personal information. That way those pesky debt collectors & debt attorneys wouldn’t be allowed to legally report negative activity on me if I was to ever default on credit obligations with the original creditor!

Use this consumer right to your advantage.

The Good and Bad Of Employing A Credit Repair Service

Whether people that are mired deep in debt really do need credit repair services is something that is sure to stir up and give rise to many debatable topics and there is also much to worry about given the fact that today there are many scams doing the rounds, which should make you want to walk a country mile in the other direction if you want to stay free of such scamsters.

Under normal circumstances credit repair services is something that you can easily do yourself. In fact, do it yourself credit repair is as much a recommended course of action as employing others to do it for you. Nevertheless, it is worth considering whether choosing credit repair services is really a good thing or not, as there are some advantages and also a few disadvantages to choosing this course of action.

With Luck, You Can Even Get The Job Done Well On Your Own Behalf

If you are lucky and can employ the proper credit repair services, you may find that they will do your job well and this is especially more suitable for those people who do not have the time available to do their own credit repair.

Such credit repair services will do it all including asking for your credit report and sending credit repair letters as well as monitoring all aspects of your credit repair, and they may also offer to give you much valuable consultation without charging anything for it – if you choose to hire them.

On the other hand, there are also some credit repair services that will take their own sweet time in performing the job on your behalf and things may drag on longer than you would like them to.

You will need to pay for such services, so you need to be sure in your mind that the services you are going to get are really in fact worth the money you will have to pay – often on a monthly basis.

Of course, as mentioned, when a person does not have time to spare and does not even want to be bothered with the process of credit repair, then choosing credit repair services seems to be the best option, and even finding credit counseling/consulting services would be a good course of action for them to take.

So, even though the work involved is not much, if you don’t have the time or wants to be bothered with credit repair, hiring credit repair services is going to be the only option open to you to repair your credit.

And, even though there are many credit repair services’ scams, there are still many legitimate services also available, but remember that you can do the job on your own just as well.

It seems there are still many that prefer using credit repair services,  because millions of dollars are being spent in such pursuits of good credit.

Bad Credit Credit Card

“Bad credit credit card” is used to refer to credit cards that can be obtained even with a bad credit rating. The bad credit card cards provide opportunity to people (with bad credit rating) to improve their credit rating. In that sense, bad credit credit cards act as rescuer for such people. So, bad credit credit cards also act as necessary a training ground for people who have not been able to control their spending urge in the past.

Bad credit card cards are commonly known as secured credit cards. The bad credit card card (or secured credit cards) requires the individual to open up an account with the credit card supplier and maintain some cash balance in the account. Why is that required? Well, credit cards are a business for the credit card suppliers; so how can they trust someone who has defaulted on his/her payments in the past? After all, a business is about profits and such risks are a threat to profits.

The bank or the credit card supplier will generally pay interest on the balance in your account. However, it’s best to check this with the bad credit card card supplier/bank. The credit limit on the bad credit card card is determined by the cash balance in the account and is generally between 50-100% of the cash balance. These bad credit card cards are also referred to as debit cards, owing to the fact that they work less in a credit-giving manner and more in a debit-giving manner.

There are plenty of bad credit card cards available in the market. When searching for the bad credit card card that is best suited to you, you should consider 4 things in particular:

• the minimum balance that you are required to maintain in the bank account
• the credit limit that you will receive (i.e. the percentage of your bank account balance that you are allowed to spend on your bad credit card card)
• the fees/other-charges applicable to the procurement of bad credit card card
• the rate of interest that you will receive on the balance in your bank account.

An ideal bad credit card card would have no fee/other-charges associated with it and would require zero or a very small amount as minimum bank balance. It would also have something like 90-100% of bank balance as its credit limit. Moreover, an ideal bad credit card card would also offer a good interest rate on the bank balance.

Bad credit card cards are really a good concept that provides respite to people with bad credit rating by letting them enjoy the benefits of credit cards while they mend their credit rating.

Credit Score: Ways on How You Can Boost It

Having a good credit score is very important in today’s society. It is something that many people should have and it is also something that people today would consider to be worthy to be doing just about anything to have a good credit score. By having a good credit score, applying for loans and unsecured credit cards is much easier.

If you already have a good credit score, you will want to boost it in order to obtain the best loan and credit card deals possible. For example, if you have a credit score of 688 and the loan company will reduce interest rate if you get a credit score of 690. The two points can mean thousands of dollars in savings from paying interest.

This is why it is very important for you to improve your credit score even if you already have a good credit score. It will mean lower interest rates and also more chances of getting the loans you need.

There are several ways on how you can significantly improve your credit score. Some ways takes time to achieve and some takes only a few weeks or even a few days to do. However, if you start working on it as soon as possible, you will see that it will be worth all the effort.

So, here are some of the ways you can boost your credit score.

The first method for boosting your credit score is to check credit reports for errors. Even minor errors can significantly hurt your credit rating. So, if you ever suspect that your low credit score is caused by an error, you should contact the credit reporting agencies and challenge them about the report. It is part of the law that the reporting agency should investigate and correct the errors within thirty days if there is any.

The next step on how you can boost your credit score is to pay off your balances every month. This can keep you out of debt and save a lot of money on interest rate. Also, this will demonstrate that you can manage your debt effectively and therefore, increase your credit score.

By having only a few credit cards, two at most, will boost your credit score. Having five or more credit cards will in fact, lower your credit score. This is why it is important for you to have only two credit cards.

If you borrowed money before, it is important for you to pay it on time. This will have a positive impact on your credit score because it will show credit reporting agencies and also creditors that you can manage your debt effectively. However, if you have borrowed money before and is long overdue, you should pay it immediately. In time, these old late payments will be deemed unimportant and it will expire.

Another way to boost your credit score is by managing your credit cards effectively. Don’t use your entire credit limit on each of the credit card you own. For example, if you have credit cards with a credit limit of 2000, 2500 and 3000 dollars, it is better to use 600 dollars on each card rather than 1800 dollars in one card. Always keep one thing in mind; it is best for your credit score if you only use less than 50% of your credit card limit.

These are some of the methods you can use to boost your credit card score. Following all these will ensure you that your credit score will increase and will result in better opportunities in the future.

A Problem Called ‘Credit Card Debt’

Credit cards are no more a luxury, they are almost a necessity. So, you would imagine a lot of people going for credit cards. In fact, a lot of people posses more than one credit cards. So, the credit card industry is growing by leaps and bounds. However, the credit card industry and credit card holders are posed with a big problem called ‘Credit Card Debt’. In order to understand what ‘credit card debt’ actually means, we need to understand the workflow associated with the use of credit cards as such.

Credit cards, as the name suggests, are cards on which you can get credit i.e. make borrowings (your credit card debt). Your credit card is a representative of the credit account that you hold with the credit card supplier. Whatever payments you make using your credit card are actually your borrowings that contribute towards your credit card debt. Your total credit card debt is the total amount you owe credit card supplier. You must settle your credit card debt on a monthly basis.

You receive a monthly statement or your credit card bill which shows your total credit card debt. You must pay off your credit card debt by the payment due date failing which you will incur late fee and interest charges. However, you have the option of making a partial (minimum) payment too, in which case you don’t incur late fee but just the interest charges on your credit card debt. If you don’t pay off your credit card debt in full, the interest charges too get added to it.

Your credit card debt keeps on increasing, more so because the interest rates on credit card debt are generally higher than the interest rates on other kind of loans/borrowings. Further, the interest charges add on to your credit card debt each month to form the new balance or the new credit card debt amount. If you continue making partial payments (or no payments) the interest charges are calculated afresh on the new credit card debt.

You end up paying interest on the last month’s interest too. Thus your credit card debt accumulates rapidly and soon you find that what was once a relatively small credit card debt has ballooned into a big amount which you find almost impossible to pay. Moreover, if you don’t still control your spending habits, your credit card debt rises even faster. This is how the vicious circle of credit card debt works.