I'm thinking of starting a personal blog at the request of my friend Shawn. Pretty much the only things I really know about that most other people may be interested has to do with financial stuff. So I'm going to start that very soon...maybe right now.
First off I'd like to give a little advice about credit scores:
1. If you have credit cards from when you were in diapers, but you never use them any more...that is great KEEP THEM! Do not cancel the card b/c you think that you never use it nor will ever use it. One of the ways you increase your credit score is by having a long history in the credit bureau on the same accounts.
2. Don't let your credit be pulled unless you absolutely have to do it. Every time you have your credit pulled it pulls your credit score down for a period of time (3-6 months at least). The way to know whether your credit is going to be pulled is linked to when you have to give up your social security number. If someone says that they have to have it...then they are going to pull your credit. Just ask them if they are going to pull credit and ask if they must have it. If they are asking for it, but you still don't want to give it up...feel free to comment & ask me a particular situation and I can probably tell you whether they really need to pull the credit or not.
3. Having more of a credit limit than you need is really important! This is hard to describe so let me use an example. Person A has a $5,000 credit limit, and they have a $4,000 balance which means their available credit limit is $1,000/$5,000 or 20%. Person B has a credit limit of $500 and they have a balance of $475 which means their available credit limit is $25/$500 or 5%. Person C has a $50,000 credit limit, and they have a balance of $30,000 which means they have an available credit limit of $20,000/$50,000 or 40%.
Person A has 20% available and $4,000 of unsecured debt
Person B has 5% available and only $475 of unsecured debt
Person C has 40% available, but $30,000 of debt
In relation to their credit score...which person do you think is going to be helped by their unsecured debt portfolio and which one is going to be helped?
There will be some impact from other issues like income and other debt levels, but let us keep all other things equal (ceteris paribis).
That is all I have for now. Tell me what you think about the blog & which person is going to have better credit.
About the available credit thing. Also be aware that some agencies will not just look at your available credit but will compare your highest balance with your current debt and use that instead.
What does this mean? It means that if you want to pump up your credit score for a future mortgage, then use your credit card one month for all your bills and then pay it off.
So far the "Mint" thing hasn't gone anywhere...oh well.
I do have an offer out there for anyone interested. I have just earned two "one way" tickets on Southwest Airlines. They can be used for any flight combination to get from one place to another. The flight must be used sometime between today & $364 days from now.
They normally sale on ebay are from $320 to $400 and most of those are "buy it now". There are some that sell for $275 and some that sell for $450. I just thought I would put it out here for anyone that is interested prior to listing it on ebay. I'll probably post it for $350 on ebay, but would be happy to sell it to a friend for less.
hey.. what's up my friend... jay ..how are things going on to you recently ? long time no see ... you should put some of your pictures on the pleonast.. ok? say hi to chirlety.. ( spelled wrong )
