vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
"Don't use a ""credit repair"" agency. They are scams. One of the myriad of ways in which they work is by setting you up with a bogus loan, which they will dutifully report you as paying on time. They'll pretend to be a used car dealer or some other credit-based merchant. For a time, this will actually work. This is called ""false reporting."" The problem is, the data clearinghouses are not stupid and eventually realize some hole-in-the-wall ""car dealer"" with no cars on the lot (yes, they do physical inspections as part of the credentialing process, just sometimes they're a little slow about it) is reporting trade lines worth millions of dollars per year. It's a major problem in the industry. But eventually that business loses its fraudulent reporting ability, those trade lines get revoked, and your account gets flagged for a fraud investigation. The repair agency has your money, and you still don't have good credit. Bad news if this all goes down while you're trying to close on a house. You're better off trying to settle your debts (usually for 50%) or declaring bankruptcy altogether. The latter isn't so bad if you're in a stable home, because you won't be able to get an apartment for a while, credit cards or a good deal on auto financing.  ED: I just saw what one agency was charging, and can tell you declaring bankruptcy costs only a few hundred dollars more than the repair agency and is 100% guaranteed to get you predictable results as long as you name all your debts up front and aren't getting reamed by student loans. And considering you can't stomach creditors-- well guess what, now you'll have a lawyer to deal with them for you. Anything you accomplish through an agency will eventually be reversed because it's fraudulent. But through bankruptcy, your credit will start improving within two years, the tradeoff being that you won't be able to get a mortgage (at all) or apartment (easily) during that time-- so find a place to hunker down for a few years before you declare."
"How would having a 20% down payment change the conversation for you?  And who are you looking to get a mortgage from?  If you go to a local community bank or credit union, you might have a better chance explaining your situation and having them take that into account rather than going to one of the mega-banks (Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc) who may only look at your FICO score when making a lending decision. The thing to keep in mind is ""how much of a risk are you to the lending institution?""  If you have a strong down payment 15% to 20%, you will be a much better candidate.  Bear in mind, anything less than 20% down will require PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance, which I think runs a certain dollar amount per $1k you have borrowed).  If you have a strong downpayment, and the only debts you have are your student loans (which will be paid off in five years anyway), then you are far less risky than someone in a similar situation with more debt."
First of all a big thumbs up for Ben's answer.   A few small things you can do to help you on your way.  Hopefully you are not more in debt that 6 months of salary in debt because that is a really tough road. first thing you need to do is get some professional help. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) offers free or low-cost debt counseling to help you through the process. Visit them at NFCC.org or call 1-800-388-2227 to find a local affiliate office near you. You might want to only use cash for a while. If not and you have a credit card with no balance always use that card because it will be interest free.  Remember if you use credit cards as a payment system and not credit, you actually get free interest.  If you roll even a penny over into the next statement you are paying interest day one of each purchase. Pay credit cards with highest interest rate first an pay minimums to others This one I like the best.  As you get money pay your credit card.  You interest is being compounded daily.  Pay your cards when you have money, not when they are due.   Have a mindset that reminds how much something is really going to cost you If you plan on taking 3 years to get out of debt and you buy something for $100 that is really costs you $156.08 Three years of compound 16% interest.   5b. Conversely if you sell something for $100 on eBay that is like selling something for $156.08.
A bank or credit card agency can deny your application for pretty much any reason. That said, it's extremely unlikely they'd do so for a secured credit card. This is because the credit is secured. If your sister is to get a card with, say, a $1000 limit, she will have to provide $1000 in security. This means the banks risk practically nothing. That said, I have found one reference that claims you need a score of above 600 to qualify for a secured credit card, though this is hard to believe. Secured credit cards are a reasonable way of building your credit back up. Just about the only other way for her credit rating to improve is for her history of bad debt to fall off the credit report, but that's going to take quite some time. She should be working hard to provide positive credit history to replace the old negative history, assuming her credit rating is important to her. It may not be; it's only important if she plans on taking on debt in the future. Honestly, a credit rating of around 500 is so bad that I wouldn't even worry much about lowering it. It's already low enough as to make it all but impossible to qualify for (unsecured) credit or loans. A single denial is unlikely to significantly affect the score, except in the very short term. With two bankruptcies, I encourage credit counselling for your sister. There are a number of good books available, too. Credit counselling should go into detail on credit scores, unsecured credit, proper budgeting, and all that sort of useful information.
Since your credit score is much better than hers, you should apply for the credit card yourself alone to get the best chance of approval for your card of choice. Once you have the card, you can add her as an authorized user, which will get her a card of her own, tied to your account.  Most banks will begin reporting to both of your credit reports, which should help her credit score over time. Keep in mind that you are solely legally responsible for the debt; your girlfriend will be able to make charges and will have no legal responsibility for the debt.  Make sure you are comfortable with that. For what it is worth, in general, I recommend against combining your finances with someone who you are not married to, but it seems that you have already done that, so adding a shared credit card to your finances shouldn't be any worse than what you are already doing.
No credit bureau wants incorrect data, for obvious reasons, but it happens. That's one reason why they let you get access to your credit score, to check it the data is correct and make the 'product' (data about you) better.   Nope, that's not why you can get free access to your credit report.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is why.  FCRA requires any credit reporting agency to provide you a free report upon request every 12 months.  Prior to this law, credit agencies made you pay to see your report including if you wanted it to dispute errors.  They only care about the dollars they get from having this data. FCRA removed one of their revenue streams.  If free locking moves forward, that will remove another. So expect them to fight it.
"The best thing to do is to completely pay off one credit card, then apply the left over to the highest interest card. After that, ALL of your expenses that can be put on a credit card, should be put on the one that you just paid off. At the end of the month, pay off a different credit card and the highest interest, and move all your purchasing to that card. Keep going around the circle until you are able to pay them all off. Doing this will be good for your credit score as the debt on the cards will now be ""new"".  If you're really desperate to increase your credit score (e.g. refinancing a house) you can use balance transfers to temporarily make it appear that you have zero debt but it will cost you some money, typically balance transfers cost something like $35 + 2%."
If you use the account on a regular basis follow MrChrister's advice.   If you don't use the account very often the fastest method is to just transfer the money out and then call to close the account.  In the US there is no tax or credit score implications from closing an account.
I notice that a lot happened four months ago. You were denied credit twice. Your income went up from $20k to $60k. I'm wondering if you were denied credit based on your $20k income. Since you couldn't provide proof of your income I wonder if they used $0 for your income.  Debt to income ratio is one significant factor included in the credit score calculation. You may not have a lot of debt, but if you don't have any income even a few hundred dollars on a credit card would throw your debt to income ratio into a panic. I'm assuming that your change from $20k to $60k income involved a change of jobs. Perhaps now you can provide proof of income. You would certainly need to do that before being approved for a mortgage.  Well that's my two cents about what may (or may not) have gone wrong last time. As for what to do next I would agree that the most helpful thing you could do is check your credit score and fix any errors that might negatively impact your credit score. (There might also be non-errors that need addressed such as open credit accounts that you thought you had closed.) When building credit history, time is on your side. If you just go on living your life and paying your bills promptly, your credit will slowly climb to an acceptable level. Unfortunately in the time frame you mentioned (~1 year) there isn't really enough time to build it significantly.  You bring up a valid point about credit applications reducing your credit score. Of course, that effect is somewhat minimal and temporary (2 yrs according to the thread linked to above). But again 1 year is not enough to recover. If you're considering applying for additional credit as a means to improve your credit score it may be too late to reap the benefits before your mortgage application. Of course if you could pay off any debts, that would help your debt to income ratio. But it would also reduce any house down payment you could save up and thereby increase the amount of your mortgage.  Better just save those pennies (or preferably Washingtons and Benjamins) to put toward a down payment.
I can't address the psychology of trust involved in your question, but here are some common sense guidelines for dealing with your issue. Make sure you know who you are talking to.  Call the company you need to speak to via a publicly available phone number. An email or something you got in a letter might be from a different source.  If you use a website, you should be sure you are on the correct website. Keep careful records.  Make good notes of each phone call and keep all emails and letters forever. Note the time, name and/or ID of the person you spoke to and numbers called in addition to keeping notes on what actions should be done.  Keep your faxing transmission receipts and shipping tracking numbers too. If you are nervous, ask them why they want the info.  The fraud department should be able to explain it to you.  For example, they probably want your social because that is how your credit report is identified.  If they are going to fix a credit report, they will need a social.  It is doubtful they would have a good explanation why they need your mother's maiden name. Ask for secure transmission, or confirm they have it.  Postal mail isn't so secure, but I'll go out on a limb and say most fax machines today are not really fax machines, but software that deals in PDFs.  At some point you will have to realize you will have to transmit something.  No method is perfect, but you can limit your exposure. Help them do their jobs.  If you are (understandably) nervous, consider their motivations: corporate profit.  BUT that could very well mean not running afoul of the law and (with any luck) treating customers the best way they know to earn business.  If you stymy the fraud department, how can they help you? If the ID theft was serious enough, document your issue for future law enforcement so you getting pulled over for speeding doesn't result in you going to jail for whatever crime the other person did.  Perhaps the fraud department you are dealing with can assist there. Finally, while you work with fraud departments to clear up your name and account, work on the other end to limit future damage.  Freeze your credit.  See if you bank or credit card have monitoring.  Use CreditKarma.com or a similar if you cannot find a free service.  (Please don't ever pay for credit monitoring.)
Fill out the form manually, using last year's return as an example of how to report these gains.  Or experiment with one of the low-priced tax programs; I've been told that they are available for as little as $17, and if your alternative is doing it manually, spending a bit of time checking their results isn't a huge problem. Or run the basic TTax, and tell it to add the appropriate forms manually. It supports them, it just doesn't have the interview sections to handle them. (@DanielCarson's answer has more details about that.) Or...
I applied to a travel credit card after my local branch of Bank of America told me I should look into it due to my constant traveling. I've been with them for 3 years and have never had an issue and I was declined on my travel credit card even though I have a decent credit score of 730. I'm also a 22 year old and have my senior year of school to finish but have always been good with Bank of America. Is it because I'm young?
"I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and I must say, found a lot of value in it.  And I like to think I have a very good understanding of finance - both personal and corporate.  Econ major, have worked at several major brokerages dispensing financial advice for a living, including at my current employer.  But I do remember, back in 2005, when I read Kiyosaki's book, signing up to be contacted by a ""Rich Dad Coach"" - or something like that.  Basically, some guy at the Rich Dad company who would be a financial mentor or sorts.    Long story short, the Rich Dad Coach asked for my credit score, which was high, and proceeded to recommend that I max out my credit to buy a house to flip in ""1-2 months.""  Now, it's true that it could have worked.  But was it good advice?  Fucking hell no it wasn't.  And I think he wanted 5k to coach me through the process.  I could have made money doing it, even with paying him 5k, but SPECULATING by taking out personal lines of credit is not consistent with anything in the Rich Dad book.  Showed me right there that while the book's advice may be good, that organization was just out to make a buck at the readers' expense."
1. you want /r/personalfiance  2. 1 payment or 4-5 makes no difference 3. what makes the difference are a) interest rate b) pay as much as possible every month 4. pay as much as you can into the credit card with the highest interest rate, and the minimum payment on the rest; as you pay off a credit card, make as big of a payment to the one that has the highest interest rate 5. stop charging anything on any credit card and stop getting into any kind of debt 6. as you pay off a credit card, call the company and cancel it.
The OP might have obtained his credit card by now but I'm answering now as there is one more easy way to get a credit card. All major Indian banks like SBI, ICICI, HDFC and Axis issue instant credit cards on opening a FD (Fixed Deposit).  For instance ICICI offers one for FD amount of as less as ₹20000. The credit limit on such cards will be 85% of the deposit amount. Another advantage of these kind of cards is customer won't be charged any annual fees and at the same time interest will be paid on original FD.
If you can use and pay off your credit card in full every month, there are plenty of benefits including improved credit, reward points and more. Many fall into the trap of just making the minimum payments and facing high interest charges or missing payments and getting a hit on their credit reports.  To start off, put something small that you know you can pay off every month. It could be your Netflix or your gas. Make sure you pay it off before any interest is accrued. Over time, you can ask for higher limits to boost your utilization rate.
Are financial institutions less likely to lend me money because of my age Yes.  But they are especially unlikely to loan you money because you have little income.   or because they know I avoid interest by paying things off aggressively? This won't affect them.  But you might ask yourself how much credit history you have.  Credit history can include all of loans, credit cards, rent, utilities, etc.  You mention three loans.  But you don't mention rent or utilities.  You may simply not have much credit history, even if what you do have is good.   But again, the biggest thing that they will look at is your income history.  If you have a small income, then it doesn't matter what your payment history is.  They don't want to loan money to people who need money.  They want to loan money to people who don't need to borrow but are instead bringing a future purchase into the present.   The ideal recipient is someone who has a high income and spends it all every month.  Such a person is likely to borrow heavily but be able to keep up the payments.   Obsessing about your ability to borrow is probably the wrong approach.  Instead focus on how you can meet your goals without borrowing.  Eventually your ability to pay will catch up.  Then they'll offer you money.  Of course, you might not need it then.   Note that when I say little income, I'm talking about their perspective.  You may be fully on track and making decent money or even very good money for your age.  But they're looking for people who are mature in their careers and regularly bringing home large sums but who spend it faster than they can get it.
"I'm not aware that any US bank has any way to access your credit rating in France (especially as you basically don't have one!). In the US, banks are not the only way to get finance for a home.  In many regions, there are plenty of ""owner financed"" or ""Owner will carry"" homes.  For these, the previous owner will provide a private mortgage for the balance if you have a large (25%+) downpayment.  No strict lending rules, no fancy credit scoring systems, just a large enough downpayment so they know they'll get their money back if they have to foreclose.  For the seller, it's a way to shift a house that is hard to sell plus get a regular income. Often this mortgage is for only 3-10 years, but that gives you the time to establish more credit and then refinance.  Maybe the interest rate is a little higher also, but again it's just until you can refinance to something better (or sell other assets then pay the loan off quick). For new homes, the builders/developers may offer similar finance. For both owner-will-carry and developer finance, a large deposit will trump any credit rating concerns.  There is usually a simplified foreclosure process, so they're not really taking much of a risk, so can afford to be flexible. Make sure the owner mortgage is via a title company, trust company, or escrow company, so that there's a third party involved to ensure each party lives up to their obligations."
You are on the right path. Especially for the fact that you are paying the highest rate card with highest priority.  As long as your credit score will not stop you from getting the credit union loan, this is a great idea. It will turn the highest rate card(s) into something more reasonable and let you continue to attack principal instead of mostly paying interest.
"I would strongly try to influence circumstances so that buying is feasible. That means: Buy something where it is likely that you can resell it at the same price or even higher - or, at the least for significantly more than ""total cost of ownership - rent payed elsewhere"". For example, if it is in an area where you have good reasons to assume that prices will go up in the future. Or if the object needs refurbishing and you are sure that you can do it yourself. You will, no doubt, sell it later. You will near certainly not live in such a small house for all time. So the question of ""whether"" you will sell it is moot. So, when you have a potential house to buy, you will have to calculate everything very carefully, with an estimate of how long you will stay. You need to make your calculation as optimistic/pessimistic as you like (this is more a question of your character). Whatever calculation comes out better, wins. It goes without saying that if you miscalculate (for example, overestimating your ability or time to refurbish; forgetting to calculate non-obvious costs of refurbishing; being surprised by hidden damage to the object; misjudging the price development in the area) you run a considerable risk. So, the question of whether you are able to calculate the risks correctly will need to influence the calculation itself (add 20% or whatever risk buffer if you are not sure, etc.). But the potential is for you to have a very good start in the whole financial game of your life. Your house will likely be for a considerable time the biggest single part of costs in your life, and getting that under control from the get-go is a huge benefit."
"There are loans. Usually they're secured by the assets, and you also cosign them personally. Your own credit worthiness comes to play, your own assets are in jeopardy. As to what it is that you're buying - no, it is not necessary for the seller to sell you the building. You might buy the business, but not the actual space it occupies. In fact, the space may not even belong to the seller. You may find yourself taking over the lease, which is in fact a liability, not an asset. You should agree with the seller on what exactly it is that you're buying. You should ask for a full inventory list that would include all the assets and the liabilities that would be transferred to you. Lease, as mentioned, but you might also ""buy"" loans, debts, lawsuits, and god knows what else that is attached to the business."
In the situation you describe, I would strongly consider purchasing.  Before purchasing, I would do the following: Think about your goals. Work with good people. Set a budget. Be able to handle surprises. If buying a home makes sense, you can do the following after buying:
Another factor that makes Buy to let more expensive is the risk involved. With a buy to let you are dependent on finding a tenant that will keep regular payments. if the property is left empty you need to finance the mortgage yourself putting you under financial strain and raising risk. Also as Chis mentioned they are regarded as a business enterprise, If the mortgage was to be taken by a business that would be very high risk for a bank as the business could dissolve leaving the bank out of pocket. Because of this it can be very difficult to get a buy to let through a business unless you are moving from a personal portfolio. For a regular mortgage these risks don't exist so this is reflected in lower interest repayments. It's because of these differences in risk that banks created buy to let so they can better manage those risks.
Factors to consider: For the taxable investments:
&gt; Or are there multiple ways of buying a company?  Yes, there are, and it would depend on your contextual definition of what it means to buy a business.  If you were intending to acquire a company by being its majority shareholder (i.e. &gt;50% equity stake), then you would have to buy over its shares from existing shareholders at a negotiated price (read: not necessarily book value) to attain the desired shareholding.  However, buy a business could also refer to an asset purchase, where the target's fixed assets are bought by the acquirer, in which case the target equity might not necessarily be involved in the acquisition.