5 Simple Facts about Credit Card Debt

by: Janna Weiss

Wherever there are credit cards, it seems that tales of unmanaged debt are always lurking nearby. But it’s entirely possible to have a credit card – or several – without carrying an unhealthy load of debt. Plenty of people do just that. Here are five facts about credit card debt that can help you use your own credit cards to your advantage – not to your detriment.

Debt Isn’t Necessary

When you open a credit card account, don’t assume that debt is just a part of the package. Debt is sometimes the result of unfortunate accidents or emergencies, but most of the time it can be controlled. To keep yourself out of debt, use your credit card the same way you would use cash. Set a spending limit, and don’t spend more than you can pay back at the end of each month. Cardholders who pay off their balances each month keep a good credit history with little or no debt. Problems arise when you start carrying a balance from one month to the next.

Debt Will Sink Your Credit Score

If you owe too much, creditors will notice, and they’ll be reluctant to lend you more money. To them, a high debt-to-credit ratio is the sign of undisciplined spending. Make sure not to utilize more than 25% of the available credit on any one card.

Debt Has Other Consequences, Too

Besides driving down your credit score, debt can result in litigation and the garnishing of wages. The laws vary by state, but it is possible to be taken to court over unsecured debt such as credit card balances. Having a judgment against you will look bad on your credit report, and may result in creditors garnishing your wages or seizing your property. You Can Settle for Less

There are plenty of stories of people who settled their outstanding credit card debt for a percentage of what they actually owed. This is possible, but it’s not something that should be taken lightly. First, most creditors will require you to be months behind on your payments before they will negotiate a deal. Be prepared to offer them a lump sum, and don’t expect this strategy to work more than once with the same creditor. Finally, be aware that all of your forgiven debt can be reported and taxed as extra income.

Credit Card Purchases Can Be a Good Thing

It’s important to know when a credit card purchase will be beneficial. For example, you can use credit cards as a short-term loan to help cover the costs of moving, or to buy items that you truly need, but don’t have the cash to cover. Set up your own repayment plan, and stick to it. Repaying the balance over three months won’t cost you too much in interest, but drawing out the repayment over three years would be very costly!

The Better Qualified Renters Certificate

Renting an apartment is never easy for either landlord or tenant. And the hardest part, especially in this economy, is convincing a landlord to rent to a tenant who has had credit problems. With that in mind we have created The Better Qualified Renters Certificate, a program designed to assist people with low credit scores who are looking to rent. It provides their prospective landlord with a certificate showing they are in our program and authorizing the landlord to check on their status as they are being worked on to make sure they do not drop out of the program. We believe that our Renters Certificate can help bridge the gap between tenant and landlord and smooth out what is normally a very large hurdle.

Will Paying Off Old Debt Boost Your Credit Score?

Angie Mohr, provided by

Investopedia June 1, 2011

If you have a low credit score and are working towards raising it, it seems to make sense to pay off all of your old delinquent debts. However, this strategy can sometimes backfire and drop your score further. Any credit score repair strategy should involve analyzing each debt and predicting how changes to it will affect your overall score.

Although the exact formula used by FICO is proprietary and not publicly-disclosed, it is estimated that approximately 35% of the score relates to your payment history and 30% to the amount you currently owe. Paying off old debt will not erase the impact that previous delinquent payments have already had on your credit score. Depending on the status of the debt, making payments on or paying off a charged-off debt can hurt in the currently-owed category.

Paying off a Delinquent Account
If a credit account is simply overdue and shows as outstanding debt, paying it off will improve your credit score, as will making any payments against it. You will not be able to eradicate the late payments that are showing, but returning the debt to current status and reducing the overall amount owed will both boost up the number.

Paying off a Charge-off
This is where payments can actually reduce your credit score rather than improve it. If you have an old debt on your credit report that has been charged off by the lender – meaning that they do not expect further payments – setting up a new payment plan can re-activate the debt and make it appear to be more current than it actually is. This is often the case with debt that has been turned over to a collection agency. The agency may register the debt with credit bureaus as new rather than reporting it against the written-off debt. As newer debt weighs more heavily on your credit report than older debt, your score can drop when you make an effort to pay this type of debt. This can also occur with paying out the debt entirely. While the payment will make the debt show as settled in full, it may show on your report as new debt. Regardless of how it shows on your report, ensure that the lender removes the charge-off status on your old debt and shows it as paid in full.

Settlements
If you choose to settle with a lender for less than the total owed, the arrangement will show on your credit report and may drop your score depending on how it is reported. Some lenders will simply mark it as paid, which has a positive affect on your score; however, if they show it as settled, your score may suffer. Although you can ask a lender how they will report the settlement while you are in negotiations with them, you ultimately have no control over how they will report it.

Payment Strategies
If you must juggle repayments of old debt, start with those debts that are still showing as delinquent. That will give you the biggest boost in the short-term. Carefully review older debt that shows as charged off. Before contacting the creditor or collection agency, check your state laws to see if the debt is statute-barred, meaning that it is too old for creditors to attempt further collection. If it is not statute-barred, even contacting the creditor can re-instate the debt as currently collectible, which can drop your score.

If the debt is due to drop off of your report in the next several months because it is almost seven years old, consider waiting until then to pay it, as it will have no affect on your score once it drops off. If the debt shows as written off but will still show on your credit report for longer than a few months, collect all of the funds together to completely pay it off before making contact with the lender. That way, you will potentially re-activate the debt but will also show payment in full which will minimize the damage to your score.

The Bottom Line
The best strategy in managing your credit score is to pay your obligations on time, every time. If you do get behind, though, how you manage your old outstanding debt can have a significant impact, either negatively or positively, on your score.

The Cost Of Bad Credit

Identity Theft Just Keeps Getting Worse

Approximately 15 million United States residents have their identities used fraudulently each year with financial losses totalling upwards of $50 billion.

That means approximately 7% of all adults have their identities misused with each instance resulting in approximately $3,500 in losses.

Close to 100 million additional Americans have their personal identifying information placed at risk of identity theft each year when records maintained in government and corporate databases are lost or stolen. These alarming statistics demonstrate identity theft may be the most frequent, costly and pervasive crime in the United States.

The sophistication level of professional identity thieves continues to grow along with the methods they develop. From individually tailored phishing and vishing scams, to increasingly successful hacks of corporate and government databases, to elaborate networks of botnets designed to hijack millions of computers without any trace, there is an ever-increasing threat to all Americans.

At the same time, basic methods of identity theft continue unabated. From stealing wallets and purses, to dumpster diving and stealing mail, to the use of pretext and social engineering to deceive customer call centers into releasing personal account information, the original methods of identity theft still work.

One of the new methods of identity theft is coming from an everyday item that sits in your pocket. The new wireless technology that is built into credit cards and so- called speedpassses can be scanned while it is in your pocket or even your handbag. While you are walking down the street or getting out of your car, thieves just have to pass by you with a receiver and steal your information. Watch the video at the top of the page

As the methods used to perform identity theft expand, so do the types of accounts and services being stolen by identity thieves. Credit, debit, checking and saving accounts are no longer the only targets. Identity fraud has grown to include theft of cell and landline phone service; cable and satellite television service; power, water, gas and electric service; Internet payment service; medical insurance; home mortgages and rental housing; automobile, boat and other forms of financing and loans; and, government benefits. Identity thieves will also use stolen identities to obtain employment and to deceive police when arrested.

Quite simply, every individual or business is vulnerable to attack when it comes to personal or corporate information, products and services.

FICO Score vs VANTAGE Score

There is some confusion going on lately about the credit score range and about the credit scoring in general. We believe this is caused by the recent introduction of the VantageScore in addition to the FICO score that we are all used to as a ‘classic’ or common credit score. Let us outline the main differences between the two to clear up this confusion.

VantageScore range vs. FICO – score range

VantageScore range: 501-990
FICO range: 300-850

As you can see the two scores overlap but the range is quite different. This is where, we believe, the rumors about the existence of FICO scores over 900 are coming from. When presented with their credit scores by the lender, most people don’t pay attention on which brand that score is as most are not even aware that there is more than one.

VantageScore vs. FICO – letter grading

VantageScore: A to F
FICO: none

VantageScore number is associated with a letter grade. FICO doesn’t use letter grading.

VantageScore vs. FICO – score usage

Based on what we’re seeing when working with major lenders, only FICO score is used when obtaining Mortgage Loans. On some occasions, we’ve seen VantageScore being used to qualify consumers for Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) and Car Loans. So as of now, in order to get better interest rate when getting a new mortgage, concentrate on repairing your FICO score only.

VantageScore vs. FICO – consumer advantages

From what we understand by studying the White Papers, the VantageScore is more ‘relaxed’ than FICO in general. In our opinion, it is designed to better accommodate certain groups of consumers that FICO algorithm most likely will score very low. Indeed, the VantageScore should provide higher credit ratings to these consumers with thin credit history file:

- young adults just starting their careers
- recently divorced or widowed individuals with little or no credit in their own name
- newly arrived immigrants
- previous bankrupts
- people who shun the traditional banking system by choice

Using FICO, these would have made to be sub-prime mortgage candidates! In any case, simply based on the range comparison, your VantageScore will always be higher than your FICO score.

VantageScore vs. FICO – credit scoring model

With FICO, the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, each uses its own Scoring Model when calculating the score, and applies it to its own data.
With VantageScore, the three credit bureaus use a collectively developed Scoring Model … but still apply it to each own data. “While there will still be some score variation with VantageScore due to differences in the data provided to the individual CRCs (credit reporting companies) for each consumer file, the gaps among the results generated via VantageScore are diminished because the credit scoring model itself and the underlying credit characteristics in the algorithm are the same at all three CRCs.”, as company explains.

VantageScore Score Consistency

Will there now be just one consistent score per consumer across the three Credit Agencies?
“No. While the three credit agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, can now generate scores using the same underlying credit scoring model, differences in the actual scores are to be expected because each agency maintains its own consumer credit files, which may vary. Consumers’ files at each credit agency can vary because credit grantors can choose which agency they provide consumer payment data.”, as according to company.

How Credit Is Calculated

· 35% Payment history
· 35% Amounts owed
· 15% Length of credit history
· 10% New credit
· 10% Type of credit

- Stay away from small department store cards; they have a low limit and tend to bring down your overall score.
- You must use credit in order for it to report to the bureaus.
- If you do not use a card it may be cancelled by the bank – this WILL hurt your score.
- Never use more than ½ of your available credit line.
- Ask for line increases.

How Do They Calculate a Credit Score?
Different credit bureaus calculate your Fico or Beacon Score slightly different. Each credit bureau makes the score their own and gives it a different name. Equifax calls the score a Beacon Score, Experian calls it a Fair Isaac Score and Transunion calls it an Empirica Score. Every time something changes on your bureau, your score will change. A lot of information is used to calculate your score; however, there is no formula that has ever been given to the public. Lenders will look at your score along with your income and the kind of loan you are applying for to determine interest rates.

Improving Your Credit Score
Here are some suggestions on how you can begin making some changes.
· Pay your bills on time. This sounds simple, but this is the biggest thing you can do to keep your score high. Delinquent payments and collections have a major negative impact on your score.
· Keep your balances low on unsecured revolving debt like credit cards. High balances still owed can affect a score.
· The amount of unused credit is an important factor in calculating your score. You should only apply for credit you need.
· Make sure the information on your credit report is correct. If it is not, dispute it with the Bureau Company or lender directly.
· Removing negative accounts on your credit report has the biggest impact on your score.

Credit Repair – Some Common Questions And A Few Myths

How long does information remain on my report?
Generally negative things can stay on your credit for 7 to 10 years. But you can hire a professional credit repair service to do it for you.

Credit bureaus report credit information for a period of seven (7) years. Some states have special provisions for collections and paid liens. Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 Bankruptcies are each reported for 10 years and the date is measured from the date of the filing.

Does paying off my bills repair my credit?
The credit reporting system doesn’t work that way. When you pay an old debt, the negative credit listing doesn’t disappear. In fact, it re-ages and the seven year clock begins again with that negative listing. The most ironic thing is that a paid, current negative listing is not any better than an unpaid negative listing.

How does a Credit Bureau make money?
A credit bureau is a commercial business. It makes money by selling your credit report to others. A person with bad credit means more business for them as such a person applies for credit about ten (10) times more than a person with good credit.

Why do Credit Bureaus not want me to use a Credit Repair Company?
The credit bureaus will tell you that it is easier and less expensive to do it yourself. While it may be true that you have the right to repair your credit yourself, many individuals do not have the time, experience and organizational savvy necessary to deal with bureaucracies. You must also spend hours of study to gain a working knowledge of the consumer laws available to you. Many who start repairing their credit turn to a credit repair company after months of work.

What can you take off of my credit bureau report? Aren’t these items impossible to remove?
We can take off unpaid collections, charge-offs, repossessions, bankruptcies, medical bills, foreclosures, tax liens, civil liens, judgments, student loans, credit card debt, inquiries, slow pays, old addresses and all incorrect names.

How does TRW Credit Group do this legally?
Disputing your credit report is your right. Credit restoration is as legal as pleading “not guilty” in a court of law. The Federal Trade Commission and The Consumer Credit Protection Act have enacted 100′s of regulations that the reporting and collection agencies have to adhere to in order for an item to remain on credit reports. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the legal right to dispute items on your credit reports that may be inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or unverifiable.

We challenge the credit agencies how they posted the information. Are they in compliance with all of these laws? And more often than not, they are not in compliance and we have them remove the negative information.

How much does a low score cost you?
Having a low score can cost you thousands of dollars. The higher score you have, the lower interest rate you will have. The lower interest rate that you have… the less money you will pay!
$100,000 mortgage over 30 years

Home Loans
••       Category                       Interest Rate       Payment      Total Cost After 30 Yrs
••       Prime                               6.50%               $632            $228,625
••       Alternative A                    7.50%               $699            $251,715
••       Subprime                         10%                  $877            $315,925

Ten Facts About the History of FICO

A three digit number that tells the story of your past and holds the potential of your future? Nope, it’s not your weight or your cholesterol. And hopefully it’s not the score of your latest golf round, yikes! Of course, it’s a credit score—one of the very first things you want to know about a potential borrower. So you always know your customers’ credit scores, but do you know anything about where they came from?

While the exact method behind calculating these revealing little numbers remains a mystery, here are a few fun facts you may not have known about the history of one of the most powerful numbers in our lives.

Ten Facts You Didn’t Know About FICO:

1. FICO actually stands for the Fair Isaac Corporation, a company started in 1956 by an engineer and a mathematician.
2. It wasn’t until 1958 that FICO created its first credit scoring system for American Investments.
3. Later that year, FICO sent out 50 letters to America’s biggest lenders asking to explain their credit scoring system. They got one response.
4. One of the best investments founders Bill Fair and Earl Isaac ever made? The $400 each of them contributed to start the Fair Isaac Corporation.
5. Remember Montgomery Wards? In the early 1960’s FICO built their first credit scoring system.
6. In 1995, nearly 40 years after FICO began; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recommended the use of FICO scores to evaluate mortgage loans.
7. In 2010 FICO introduced their national FICO certification for mortgage lenders with AllRegs.
8. FICO also boasts that it has more than half of the world’s top 100 banks as their clients.
9. Even more impressive, nine of the top ten Fortune 500 companies are FICO clients.

And finally…

10. Just how prevalent are FICO scores in the mortgage industry? Today, FICO scores are used in 3 out of 4 US mortgage originations.

Missed Mortgage Payments Hurt Credit Scores

Missed mortgage payments, short sales, and foreclosures can all drastically bring down a credit score.

Lenders use credit scores to measure how well a person handles debt. Credit scores range from 300 to 850, with 650 and below considered poor credit. A mortgage makes up a big part of a person’s credit score and often is the most important part of a person’s credit profile.

And just missing a single mortgage payment by 30 days can ruin a credit score, say FICO and VantageScore, which have studied the impact mortgages can have on credit scores. For borrowers, that can be nearly as destructive as a foreclosure to a credit score, according to the companies.

On the other hand, loan modifications, which is when lenders approve new loan terms, have a “very, very minimal” impact to credit scores, possibly dropping the borrower’s score by 10 or 15 points, Sarah Davies, the senior vice president for analytics at VantageScore, told The New York Times.

A good credit score is important not just for financing home purchases, but employers increasingly check credit as well as landlords when seeking rentals. Also, poor credit scores can also mean higher costs on car loans and credit cards.

How a Credit Score Is Affected

FICO evaluated three various scenarios of mortgage holders — a borrower with a great credit score (780), a borrower with good credit (720), and a poor credit borrower (680) — in a study it conducted last month. Here’s the impact FICO found:

▪ 30 days late on a mortgage payment: The 780 credit score borrower has her credit score fall to 670-690. The 720 credit score borrower has his fall to 630-650. The 680 credit score borrower falls to 600-620.
▪ Short sale, deed in lieu of foreclosure, or settlement, assuming the balance has been wiped out: The 780 credit score borrower falls to 655-675; the 720 credit score falls to 605-625; and the 680 credit score drops to 610-630.
▪ Foreclosure, or short sale with a deficiency balance owed: The 780 credit score drops to 620-640; the 720 credit score falls to 570-590; and the 680 credit score decreases to 575-595.

Source: “Fallout From a Poor Credit Score,” The New York Times (April 24, 2011)

Credit Restoration 101

1. Make A Plan And Stick To It.

You must be serious and committed to making changes in your lifestyle – changes that will bring financial peace of mind. Above all, restrict yourself to absolutely necessary purchases. Borrow wisely. The two most important questions to ask yourself: “can I afford it?” and “do I really need it?” As tempting as it is to cut up all of your plastic, you must maintain responsible credit card use – your new payment history will gradually rebuild a better credit rating for you.

2. Prompt Payment Of Bills.

Especially of credit cards, is the surest way to repair your credit rating. As you have discovered, we leave “financial footprints” for all to see. Payment of our bills, both amount and timeliness, are tracked by credit rating agencies such as Equifax Canada and TransUnion of Canada.

3. Say No To Grace Periods When Offered By Credit Card Companies.

It’s hard to resist such offers, and because your budget is light, you naturally want to “legally” skip payments — but don’t do it. It’s a bad credit habit; only a financially strapped customer would fall for this, and you no longer want to send out that kind of message. Pay at least the minimum balance if you are really tight, but ideally you want to pay above that.

4. Always Try To Pay More Than The Minimum Balance Due.

Not only does it polish your credit rating, but it also saves you a lot of money in interest, and makes a huge difference in your eventual goal of debt retirement. A key credit skill.

5. Keep Your Balances Low.

This is an important strategy, and one that will reflect well on your use of credit. You want to keep your balance way below the credit available to you.

6. Don’t send out financial distress signals.

Avoid excessive inquiries for credit. Do not use credit from one company to pay off credit to another. The creation of multiple new accounts is another red flag that works against you.

7. Maintain and use between two to four cards.

Less that two and it takes longer to create a new payment history. More than four, and you look like you cannot manage your debt. Remember – responsible, steady, and reliable use of your cards is your first and best defense against a poor rating.

8. Try To Keep Your Oldest Most Established Credit Card Active.

The longer your history is with a certain company, the better it is for your credit rating. This is your most important account. If the interest rate is excessive, contact the company and explain your situation to them. Let them know that you are serious, and eager to maintain them as a creditor. Their goal is to keep a reliable customer, so make that work for you.

9. Slow and steady wins the race.

You’ll be rewarded for responsible longtime credit handling. Be patient — the passage of time will earn back your good credit profile.

Then, when you do need credit for a major purchase — such as a car or a house — it will be there for you. Once recovered, maintaining a good credit rating takes vigilance, but it’s worth the effort. You’ll be able to live and enjoy a financially stable life.