Review: `A good credit score saves you money.'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 11, 2014
`Just like your homework used to be graded from 0 to 100, your financial habits are graded on a scale of 300 to 850 known as your credit score.' Did you know that? `What is a credit score? Essentially, it's a three-digit number that is meant to indicate the likelihood of you paying back a loan. It's based on your past behavior using credit cards and loans, and is meant to show your trustworthiness to potential lenders.' Did you know that? `Behaviors such as defaulting on loans, missing credit card payments, and not paying your phone bill will all negatively impact your credit score.' Did you know that?This brief book explains so many facts that, embarrassingly, most of us haven't a clue. That is precisely what makes this book so valuable. Jack Abner puts all the information about credit - how to avoid abusing it, all about credit scores and how they affect our economic lives, AND how to clean up the mess we may have made and keep it in the score range that makes us viable as a purchasing power person. He explains how a credit score is generated: Derogatory marks, for example an account that went to collections, or a bankruptcy, Average age of open credit accounts, Percent of on-time Payments, Total Hard Credit Inquiries, Total Number of Accounts, Credit card utilization.His advice: Watch for mistakes, pay off your debt, understand your limits, reduce the amount of credits checks, negotiate with creditors (yes, even that!), get rid of late payments, avoid balance chasing (`to prevent your score form lowering, consider re-applying for a higher limit credit card'), and pay cards off strategically. He adds information on how to keep our credit high (`The most important thing to remember to keep your score high is to not only behave in a way that raises your score, but to avoid pitfalls that will reduce it.')The amount of information concentrated in this little book will astound you. Buy it and become financially intelligent. Grady Harp, May 14