Bad Credit Card
July 4th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
Is this even legal? How can the insurance industry _honestly_ say that
something who’s FICO score has dropped due to new car/house/cc or whatever
is more of a risk of accident? I mean WTF!!!! State laws says you must have
insurance… insurance companies now say they are raising rates because your
credit rating has gone done… it is less likely you can pay your insurance
premiums so we are going to charge you MORE?
Answer:
Legality depends on the state the insurer operates in. In Pennsylvania, this
is
legal, although I heard that legislation is in the offing that would ban
this
practice. Using credit card scores to influence auto insurance premiums is
a terrible idea because credit card scores are frequently inaccurate and
often
do not reflect the credit worthiness of the policy holder even if accurate. I’m not quite sure… I found a link to an industry site at
http://www.creditscoring.com/ If you live in any of the
following states, you might want to contact your legislators!
By admin
June 30th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
Does anyone knows what is the minimun FICO score that Amex consider
approval for their Green American Express application?
I want to apply, but I have less than perfect credit due to late
payment on one car loan from last year. I have a FICO of 620 in
equifax and 715 in Transunion and 735 in Experian. Equifax shows lower
due to several errros which I shall be cleared hopefuly soon. I like
to have an idea before going to apply to AMEX and risking lowering teh
score from a futile credit inquiry.
Answer:
Thank you ME for your suggestion.
Unfortunely, I tried this and the person who responce the call was not
able to give me an ansear. He just insisted to rush me into filling an
application over the phone.
I just like to know if anyone here has recently applied here for a
AMEX card. DO yu know if AMEX inquiries go to all 3 CB? Well, you are correct. But I am going after their unparralel customers
support. Specially when it comes to real emergencies. You don’t have
to worry about having your weekend business trip seriously hampered
because some fraud got your card and MAxed it out just when you are
1000 miles away from home. The green card should be easy enough given that it’s a charge card and not a
credit card (ie you have to pay it off when the statement comes), however
I’m not entirely sure if that late payment(s) will cause trouble for you.
As for what they pull (report), it usually goes by area but they sounds like
they pull Equifax more often than the others.
By admin
June 21st, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
Wow; an article with actual tips. Nothing earth-shaking but an easy read
just the same. The one “shock” in the article [for me] referred to keeping
paid-off accounts open to help an overall credit score.
Answer:
Good article. I was suprised by this as well. My first assumption with
respect to the credit bureaus would be how long you’ve had accounts (of any
kind) not how long you’ve had a specific account open. We just bought our
first house and are now concentrating on paying off our credit cards. From the
sounds of it though, this will leave us in the crapper credit-wise. it’s
definitely a damned if you do-damned if you don’t situation. Actually, I think you read it wrong. What they are saying is, if you pay
down the balance of a (for example) credit card account that you’ve had open
for a while, it’s better NOT to close that account. That is, leave the
account open with a zero balance, as closing it will hurt your FICO score.
But it’s still a great idea to pay off your credit cards (without closing
the accounts), as a lower revolving credit balance in relation to available
credit will help your FICO score
By admin
June 20th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
I am a 24yo engineer. I am working on saving some serious cash for a
house, which I plan to buy Q4 of this year. I currently have 1 credit
card, 1 debit card, and about $8K left on an auto loan. As of last
week I had a 755 FICO score. I am trying to keep the score high (and
even improve it if I can). I was told last week that I am supposed to
apply for an AMEX corporate T&E card (travel & expenses). How will
this effect my credit score? I assume it will generate an inquiry
(which will lower the score). Should I talk to my boss, and see if I
can hold off for ~6-8 months, or just apply for it and live with it.
(I wont really need the AMEX card for quite a while).
Answer:
I’m a bit more than twice your age, and have about an 800 FICO score,
so your 755 is very good. On the one hand, getting another credit
card can possibly bring down your score some, but as long as you pay,
not enough to worry about, IMHO.
Better make sure they don’t charge you interest even if you pay it
off.
But maybe the card would be in you and your company’s name? That way
you’re responsible for it, but they pay the bill every month. That’s
how it’s been where I’ve worked before.
Whatever you do, don’t get it, then cancel it. That can affect your
score negatively.
If it were me, I’d talk to accounting and my co-workers before
approaching the boss. Do that last. He or she doesn’t want to be
bothered by this, he or she just wants you to do what they want you to
do so he or she can get ahead, so that a smart young guy like yourself
won’t pass up him or her. I agree. What he needs to do is pay the bill when it comes. Maybe
not all of it every month, paying some interest on it. Credit bureaus
and credit card companies like it that way, and seem to reward that
way.
When I was 24, I had no credit. Then I got some, and more, then
didn’t pay all of it on time because I was lazy and irresponsible.
When I wanted to buy a house, (this was early 1990s) I didn’t think
any mortgage company would talk to me. I was wrong. I distinctly
recall one officer at the bank saying, “yes, you have some credit
that’s not been paid. Everyone’s done this. But you have good credit
as well.” Which was true, but I looked at it negatively.
Anyway, I didn’t totally give up being lazy, but I did get responsible
in a hurry, and I think my last FICO score which I ran a month or so
ago was about 780. I could care less about getting to 800, and unless
someone steals my identity, I’m not worried about ever going under
720. I just make sure that I don’t live beyond my means, meaning I
could buy a $250k - 300k house, but my 150k suits me just fine. And I
buy Honda Accords, but not too many of them, because they don’t wear
out quickly.
Oh, well, I kinda got off track…good luck to the bugguy
poster…don’t try to figure everything out. You can’t.
By admin
June 12th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
I will be going away to school and am considering whether it is
realistic for me to buy a car (financially). Since I’m not very good at
figuring out this kind of financing stuff…can anyone help?
I’ll probably have to take out a 10-15k loan and also worry about paying
tuition. (Which reminds me, how do I find out if I’m not likely to
receive that loan either? Can a credit report help me?)
Answer:
I can’t determine whether buying a car makes sense, but keep in mind
the other costs such as car insurance payments, fuel costs, and car
maintenance. Over the life of the car, it may be a significant part of
your outlay. Consumer Reports has good summaries on how to make sure
you get car insurance without paying too much. Savings could be in the
hundreds of dollars.
I do remember a general rule: people seem to buy cars worth 60% of
their annual salary. Since you’re a student, I’m not sure if this
applies. Without more information on current debts, etc and a realistic look
at what you can afford each month it might be difficult.
You can guesstimate two ways. Go to a calculator (like
http://www.national-city.com/natcity/affordit/affordcalc.html) and type
in what you’d like to be paying each month, type in the interest rate,
payment time…and you’ll get an idea of your monthly payments.
Or calculate it the opposite way…take the initial price, downpayment,
interest rate and time to get the estimated payment.
Even so - you may be jumping the gun a bit. You might have to see what
is available to you in loans as a student… perhaps cosigning might help
you secure a loan (with a parent). I wish I could answer your question - but I’ll be darn if I can figure
out what your asking.
If you are going to try to get a car loan - the lender is going to want
to know you have a job and can repay the loan. If you are in school,
then you’ll need a co-signer (parents) on the loan. They guarantee the
repayment of the loan if you can’t. Credit reports will be looked at but
are not important as long as no bad credit problems are found. As a
young person you may not have a credit history or a credit report. Thats
ok - as long as no bad credit is found then your credit is assumed to be
good.
By admin
June 9th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
Hi, everyone. I have checked around the web and looked at self-help
sites that tell you how to get out of credit debt, but I didn’t
find an answer to my dilemma.
First of all, I recently applied to get a new car and I was turned
down because of an amount that I had unpaid on a repossessed
vehicle back in 1996. I then went to a ton of used car dealerships
and I was turned down even though I was willing to bite the bullet
for a few years at 23% interest! That’s pretty sad!
Apparantly I was not aware I still had a balance on the repo’d car
from 96. It wasn’t a large amount, but it was in the $1000 range,
and obviously concerned any willing lenders.
My question is: Are they turning me down because there remains that
unpaid balance, or just the fact that I had a repo’d car, whether
or not it was paid off or not?
I have since called the creditors directly and they agreed to a lump
sum to pay off the debt in full, and are sending me a certified
letter stating that the amount agreed upon will settle the debt.
Once I pay off that debt from the repossession, will it immediately
show up on my credit report? I have already notified Equifax and
requested a free credit report so I can pinpoint any and ALL past
due balances and pay them in full. I know that my unpaid balances
can’t exceed $2000-$3000 dollars. I can pay it all off!
But will that matter that I no longer have any delinquent balances
when I re-apply for a car loan? I mean, do I really have to wait
a while, or can I get what’s called a fresh-start loan, sometimes
offered by banks like Credit Unions? I have a credit union account,
and have had for a few years now, but even applying with them I was
turned down. Are those unpaid balances the flag that immediately
causes me to be turned down? I imagine so. What I really want to
know is if I pay off all my debts, will lenders be more willing to
give me a second chance, even at some ungodly interest rate?
Just looking for help. I really need a car! What can I do NOW to
make me look more tolerable to financiers?
Answer:
Why on earth did you put “not spam” in the subject line. That’s
usually a tipoff that the message *is* spam.
To answer your question, put yourself in the lender’s shoes. They’re
trying to decide whether to lend money to someone who has a history
of not paying back loans. That’s pretty risky. The fact that you
have a repossession on your credit report *is* a definite black
mark. It’s less of a black mark if you eventually discharge the
debt, but it’s still a black mark. No lender likes to think “Huh! If
this guy gets behind in his payments, I’ll have to repossess the car
and I might not be able to sell it for as much as he still owes –
just like the previous dealer.”
This is kind of tough on you, but probably you can see their point.
What can you do? Well, certainly pay off everything you owe. Re-
request your credit report after a reasonable time, and make sure
that everything shows up as paid (though it will show paid late, and
if it was in collection or repo that will still show). hen
concentrate on building good credit. Be *very* wary of taking on any
debt, and make sure you can pay everything on time.
As for your immediate problem of getting a car, you may need either
to get a less expensive car, where you can make a down payment
that’s a bigger part of the purchase price. The less the lender has
to finance, the lower the risk and therefore the more ready to grant
credit. If you can’t get financing on any vehicle that’s acceptable
to you, you may have to do without unless you can find someone with
good credit who is willing to co-sign the loan, which means they
promise to make all the payments if you don’t.
By admin
May 19th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
While we are on the subject of capitalism, has anyone else noticed
that there has been no public suggestion that the leaders of failed
companies should resign and permit competent management to carry on?
There was not the slightest hint that the CEO of General Motors should
step down last week when the employment cuts were announced.
In like manner, when there was a big hooraw this fall about the
failure of public schools to teach anything useful, no reporter
(that I heard or read) had the temerity to suggest to the “educator”
being interviewed that, because he had failed, he should resign.
Maybe the U.S. suffers from arteriosclerosis of the institution.
Answer:
If for no other reason, it defeats the perpetuation of shoddy craftsmanship
and poor engineering, and the pervasive atmosphere that stupid Americans
can be fooled into beleiving that it is somehow patriotic to be raped by
GM, Ford, IBM, etc. I think the hardest hitting point the original poster made was the trickle
down effect that this will have. GM deals with hundreds of thousands of
small firms and shops that contract business with them. With layoffs of
GM workers come canceled contracts with these outside shops. If they have
no business how can they live? People live in America with the stigma of American cars being crap. This is
not true anymore. Everyone heard that Japanese cars were better. That is
not true. Once you get over the stigma we will rebound. Till then we will
watch 75,000 loose jobs ( not because it was their fault or their employers
fault) but because the economy can not support all of this overhead. For
the last 7 years AT&T trimmed over 100,00 jobs because of economies. GM
can not afford to take that amount of time.
Remember that it will not be just 75,000 loosing jobs, but hundreds of
thousands. It is a shame.
By admin
May 17th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
Oh, please. If a portion of the contract is illegal and unenforceable,
the court will simply strike that portion of the contract. There is no
law against signing a contract that contains an unenforceable provision.
Answer:
I agree with Stan completely on this. An example:
I pay my credit card in full each month, and have for the 20 years
I’ve had a VISA card, except maybe 3x when I made a partial payment.
My record with Citibank is stellar. A year or 2 ago I made a number
of large purchases on my credit card and my bill was something like
7K. When it came, I paid it, but the next month’s bill showed
no payment and some exhorbitant finance charge. I called Citibank
immediately and they said they had received no payment.
I told Citibank when I had written the check, and that I could send
them a copy of my check register, and a bank statement as well
that showed I had adequate funds in my account. Without any further
to-do, they dropped the finance charge completely, saying they
could see from my record that I always paid my bill in full each
month. She said just to get the payment to them.
I called my bank, put a stop payment on the original check and issued
another immediately. Some 2 months later I found the check in
an unmailed envelope, wedged between my car seat and the console.
Nearly all but the most unreasonable merchants/creditors will give
you the benefit of the doubt if you’ve shown you’re worthy of it.
In 20 years, it’s the only time a mailed check for my VISA bill
had gotten lost, so it really doesn’t happen often.
I’m a landlord now, and have a Tenant from Heaven. I get his
check the first day of the month, could set my calendar by it.
He’s responsible, takes excellent care of the cottage, and if
he were late once, I’d even believe a ‘dog ate the homework’ story
from him, no problem. So I assume you owed up to your mistake. You did call Citibank to tell
them that it was your mistake and you would be paying the late fees
and interest you owed.
Like I said, the person who pays isn’t always the person who made the
mistake. In this case it looks like Citibank ended up eating the
interest charges and the fees they were owed because of your mistake. I guess its time for a VISA counter-example:
FCC First Card VISA must just be one of those unreasonable
merchants/creditors. I had a check lost in the mail. I called
First Card after I got the following month’s bill showing they
didn’t receive payment. They absolutely refused to budge on the
late fee and interest charges even though I had always paid in full,
on time up until that point. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch even had
an article about mail thefts from my local post office during the
period my checks were lost. But FCC First Card VISA wanted their
money, and weren’t interested in any “excuses.”
So I ended up paying over $40 in late fees, interest, and express
mail charges for a credit card balance less than $20. FCC First
Card got their late fees, and a cut up VISA card.
It seems like half the people in this discussion are saying the person
signed the lease, so he owes the late fee, and should stop complaining.
On the other hand, other people are saying any reasonable landlord will
“forgive” a late payment for “good” customers. But in either case, I’m
saying is you shouldn’t rely on a landlord forgiving a late fee just
because you are a “good” tenent. If a landlord does, you should be
gratefull. But you shouldn’t expect it. When you read a lease, you
should expect the landlord to enforce *ALL* the provisions in full. Don’t
assume the landlord will cut you any slack just because you are a good
tenent.
This person’s landlord refuses to forgive the late fee. So some
people seem to be assuming the person must be a “bad” tenent. It is
possible that this case is one of those “rare” unreasonable landlords.
FCC First Card VISA was legally entitled to their late fees and interest
according to the card agreement. And they made it clear they fully
intended to collect every cent. I have no cause to complain about
First Card wanting their money. Although I think I do have cause to
complain about how they went about telling me they wanted their money.
By admin
May 7th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
Hi, my brother left the country for an overseas assignment.
He left his car with me, right now it just sits at the garage.
Before he left, he canceled his car insurance thinking the
car is not going to be used.
Now, I need to use his car, but it has no insurance. Can
I apply for a car insurance for myself, even though the
car is not registered under my name? Will the insurance
care? Thanks.
Answer:
Did he give you permission to use his car? If so, show that to the
insurance company. If not, don’t use the car.
Aside from the legalities, think how awful you’d feel if something
happened to the car while you were using it without permission. The car probably needs to be register in your name, but
regulations involving auto insurance vary widely from one
state to the next. Call around to some insurance agents to
see what they say. I think Stan meant *written* permission from your brother, which
the insurance company would want before letting you insure it.
It would be best to have the insurance in his name, with you as
one of the named drivers. My mother doesn’t drive any more, but
the car and insurance are still in her name, and I’m the named
driver.
By admin
May 6th, 2009 at 12:00am
Under Bad Credit Card
Question:
Hi,
Does anyone know how to get a credit card like Visa or American Express.
I have a decent job. I don’t have any credit history. I applied for a
credit card but got rejected due to lack of credit history. I never had to
borrow anything before in my life.
Answer:
One easy way to bootstrap a credit history is to apply for a J. C. Penny
card. They took me when I had a crummy job. I got a crummy credit limit –
something like $350 — but it was a start, and they even gave me a coupon
for $n of store credit just for applying. Get a card, buy a pair of jeans or
something, and pay off the first bill in its entirety. Sears will work too,
if you’re a glutton for punishment, or various other department stores.
One sure-fire way to get VISA/MC issuers to beat a path to your door is to
pay off a car loan. Mine’s almost paid off, and I’ve received several offers.
>noteably bad credit history can be difficult. Just hang out at a local
>college campus and wait for any credit card company to set up a table to
>take applications for credit cards from students.
I don’t remember this happening when I was in school. When I graduated,
though, the alumni association sponsored a card with a big local bank and
mailed me an invitation.
By admin
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