Hampton Roads Club Mini

As an accountant I feel the need to spread education.  The following information is public, but many people do not understand how credit reporting works and fall victim to paying fees.

Did you know you are entitled to a FREE copy of your credit report every year?  Did you know there are three national agencies that keep your credit data?  Did you know there is only ONE SITE authrozed to provide those reports. 

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

Above is the federal government site informing you of these things.  There is only one site authorized by the government to get your reports.  ALL OTHERS ARE TAKING YOUR MONEY OR WORSE STEALING YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION. 

I encourage all our members to go to the one site.
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

and order your reports.  Most will be immediately available via the internet and you can print them off.  If this is the first time for you, they may have to mail it.  You will be asked for your current identifying information, plus each of the three credit bureaus will verifiy your identity by asking multiple choice questions.  All of this is perfectly save.  All be be at no charge.  The entire process takes about 20 minutes to get all three reports. 

Do you want your Credit Score?     Don't bother with this waste of money and time.  First of all, the score will vary by the agency second of all, your knowing yours has no weight on an individual lenders decision to give you credit.  There are a few things that affect your score.  Reviewing in your mind those items will tell you whether lending institutions will consider you a good credit risk.  Those items include your Debt to Income Ratio (or if you are over extended on your regular revolving and standard credit);  if you pay on time (late payments are reported to the credit bureau in 30 day increments, 30- 60 - 90 If you have paid some things late, but less than 30 days late, it is not reflected as a late payment for your credit score);  if you have established credit over your lifetime versus if you are 45 and have never had credit will be reflected on your score;  amount of potential debt is part of your score (you have 2 credit cards with 5,000 total limit and they are maxed out is one thing, having 10 credit cards with 5,000 limit each and zero balance is a potential risk for banks);  garnishments, judgements and bankrupcies are reported to credit agencies and these all count against you.

I thought I would pass this information on as a public service to my MINI friends.

I would go so far as to say hour by hour... depending on when payments are posted and reporting from the various agencies occur.  They might stay the same over the weekend since the agencies are probably closed.

Just pick a number you like in the upper 700s and tell your friends, that is yours when they start that conversation at a bar one nite.  The perfect score is 850.  If anyone says they are higher than that, you can safely just laugh at them. 

Am taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and during last weeks session he shared he has a Fico score of ZERO and he is a mulitmillionare!  He has no debt!

He LOST everything in the 80's and has rebuilt his wealth again but without debt this time.  His philsophy is "to live like no one else, so you can live like no one else".  If you don't have debt you don't need credit!