Want FREE Credit Reports From The Big Three?

[Bwana]

Want to check to make sure there isn't any thing funky on your credit report with no strings? I just got done with this myself. It's free once a year and isn't one of those BS pages that wants you to sign up for a 30 day gig and give them a credit card. It's all free! Just click here, it only takes a minutes or so to get the ball rolling.

Cheers,

Bwana

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

[alnorth]

I'm sure Dave Ramsey is a good man and doesnt beat his wife and all that.

When it comes to financial advice, his ideas are pretty stupid for people who are disciplined enough to manage their debts and investments wisely.

His advice is kind of like dealing with an alchoholic. With a normal person its fine to have an occasional drink or two, but with a recovering alchoholic, you need to have zero tolerance. They cant have a drop or they will just fall right back into the gutter. Dave Ramsey's advice is good for debtaholics, people who are too immature or foolish to manage their impulses to buy and borrow unwisely.

For everyone else with good credit and discipline, paying cash instead of borrowing at under 4.5% after-tax interest is equivalent to throwing money down a rathole. If you take the upfront cash or the extra principle payments you would have made and invested it instead in a broadly-diversified portfolio of funds over the long haul, when the mortgage is finally paid off you will be wealthier than the guy who paid it off earlier.

Dave Ramsey also believes that you should never use credit cards at all, which is just plain stupid. Again, if you are mature and disciplined enough to pay the balance off every month, its not hard to find credit card companies willing to pay you free money and airline miles for giving their card the action and processing fee that the merchant has to pay them. Its pretty simple: whether I write a check or use my card and pay the balance, I have a certain amount of money I have to spend every month to live. I can either write the check/use cash, or I can charge it all and pay the balance off. Same money is spent either way, except my credit card company is willing to give me a 1% kickback for giving their card some action and processing fees received from the stores.

By dealing only in cash and not having credit cards, over time your credit will return a "no-hit" or a "no-score", which is basically about as bad as having bad credit, preventing you from ever being able to borrow at good rates if you need the money.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by banyon

BTW, for people's info.

I'd recommend choosing the Equifax report, since it is the only one you can print off instantly.

2nd, don't do this too much, multiple credit report requests could actually affect your FICO score.

3rd, disputing anything wrong with one of the agencies means that they have to report it to the other two as well.

1. All 3 can be printed instantly
2. Your own pulls have ZERO affect on your credit rating
3. You must send notice to ALL three agencies if they all show a problem. Not all problems may even show on the 3 reports, thats why it's important to get all 3.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

It says I have nine credit card accounts. Only one of which that I use. How do I cancel these things? Or would it be against my best interests to leave them open and not use them?

It depends. Having too high of a credit line can be a liability. How long have the accounts been open? The older accounts are helping your score by showing longevity. My advice would be take a look at the nine. Close all but the 3 or 4 longest held accounts, assuming they are years old and have decent limits.

[Hootie]

Originally Posted by alnorth

I'm sure Dave Ramsey is a good man and doesnt beat his wife and all that.

When it comes to financial advice, his ideas are pretty stupid for people who are disciplined enough to manage their debts and investments wisely.

His advice is kind of like dealing with an alchoholic. With a normal person its fine to have an occasional drink or two, but with a recovering alchoholic, you need to have zero tolerance. They cant have a drop or they will just fall right back into the gutter. Dave Ramsey's advice is good for debtaholics, people who are too immature or foolish to manage their impulses to buy and borrow unwisely.

For everyone else with good credit and discipline, paying cash instead of borrowing at under 4.5% after-tax interest is equivalent to throwing money down a rathole. If you take the upfront cash or the extra principle payments you would have made and invested it instead in a broadly-diversified portfolio of funds over the long haul, when the mortgage is finally paid off you will be wealthier than the guy who paid it off earlier.

Dave Ramsey also believes that you should never use credit cards at all, which is just plain stupid. Again, if you are mature and disciplined enough to pay the balance off every month, its not hard to find credit card companies willing to pay you free money and airline miles for giving their card the action and processing fee that the merchant has to pay them. Its pretty simple: whether I write a check or use my card and pay the balance, I have a certain amount of money I have to spend every month to live. I can either write the check/use cash, or I can charge it all and pay the balance off. Same money is spent either way, except my credit card company is willing to give me a 1% kickback for giving their card some action and processing fees received from the stores.

By dealing only in cash and not having credit cards, over time your credit will return a "no-hit" or a "no-score", which is basically about as bad as having bad credit, preventing you from ever being able to borrow at good rates if you need the money.

and that's pretty much my point...

Why would anyone with enough money to buy a house up front, in full, actually do it?! Hire a freaking financial adviser and invest for the future...

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

I don't understand what is so top secret about credit reports. I think everybody should have the right to know their credit report. Personally, I find it hilarious that people actually have bad credit. I never have bought anything I couldn't afford. I charge EVERYTHING to my credit card since I was 16 years old. My credit card bill usually racks up about 1500 a month and I've NEVER paid interest on it. Just pay it off in time, if you can't, don't buy all that shit you don't need.

I also was paying a loan off on my car under my name, but my dad just paid me for it in hs to up my credit. That was a great idea, if you buy a car for your kids in college, I suggest you do that. Now I have perfect credit but I don't think I'm the person to use it the way most people would. I'm never going to buy a car where I have to pay interest. The next car I buy, I'm going to buy it in cash, and the next one, and the next one. I'm just going to save my money up until I'm 30, and buy a house with cash. I see no point in paying interest on something you can't buy..unless it's student loans.

Hard to miss a payment when you're daddy's makin em.

[Logical]

Originally Posted by DTLB58

People DO pay cash for houses. If you listen to the Dave Ramsey show or read his books you would know this.

In Dave's book "The Total money Makeover" Dave tells the story of a young married couple that lived in an very small apartment over a rich ladies garage. She only charged them $250 a month. He was making $50,000 a year and his wife $30,000. His granfather had preached to him to never borrow money. For 3 years they lived on nothing and did nothing extra that cost money. After 3 years they had saved $150,000 and paid cash for their first home.

Paying cash for a house is possible, very possible (I also work with someone who paid cash for their house). What's hard is to find people willing to pay the price in sacraficed lifestyle.

How much more wealth could you build if you didn't have a house payment? Look at all the stress off the marriage without a huge house payment.

reeruned??? Are you kidding me?

reeruned? Maybe not. Bad financial practice, absolutely. Interest on a house is going to be at most 6.5%, then you get to deduct those interest payments on your income taxes. Meanwhile it is pretty easy to invest and make a 10% dividend per year, so paying cash for a house is a bad financial strategy.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Hootie

Why would anyone with enough money to buy a house up front, in full, actually do it?!

The only reason I can think of is if you are in a low tax bracket and your credit is so terrible (or you have no credit since you only deal in cash) that you have to take out an 8% mortgage. In that case... eh, for someone who is very nervous and faint-hearted about the market, paying it off is kind of like buying an 8% guaranteed CD, which isnt too bad.

If you have the ability to get a 5-5.5% mortgage and you are in the 25% or higher tax bracket, then paying it off early is just stupid. I wouldnt get a warm fuzzy feeling from paying off the mortgage so that I can be land-rich and cash-poor later on thinking about a reverse mortgage to get half of it back. I'm only interested in making as much money for my retirement as possible. A home is just a structure built on a patch of dirt where I can sleep without freezing or getting rained on.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by Dr. Doom

reeruned? Maybe not. Bad financial practice, absolutely. Interest on a house is going to be at most 6.5%, then you get to deduct those interest payments on your income taxes. Meanwhile it is pretty easy to invest and make a 10% dividend per year, so paying cash for a house is a bad financial strategy.

absolutely. The only reason to pay cash for a house is if you're a multi-multi-multi millionaire, and don't care about the tax and financial advantages.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by Methamphetamine

The people who run the credit system are all kikes.

Well, at least you're getting more creative with your names Marlboro...

[Bob Dole]

It's that time of year again.

[Mark M]

I thought that perhaps this was a new thread warning people that the "Freecreditreport.com" site is, in fact, ran by one of the bureaus (I want to say TransUnion, but it may be Experian) and is a total ripoff.

As someone who writes articles on personal finance for a living, I've read numerous horror stories about all the sites claiming to give free reports. All but annualcreditreport.com will sign you up for a monthly service costing from $9 - $20 a month, often without really letting you know they're doing so.

So yeah ... everyone get their ass over to annualcreditreport.com and get your copies today. Just be forewarned that getting one from TransUnion is nearly impossible.

MM
~~

[beach tribe]

Is it true that bad credit marks disappear in 7 yrs??

[Mark M]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

Is it true that bad credit marks disappear in 7 yrs??

It depends on what you mean by "bad credit marks" and "disappear."

Bankruptcies are listed on your report for 7 - 13 years, depending on which chapter you file. After that, the notice is removed.

A missed payment won't actually "disappear" -- it will be listed as a red square amongst a bunch of green ones (or hopefully a bunch of green ones) in your payment history to the creditor in question.

But overall, yes, the records on your report usually only go back about 7 years or so. Your credit score, however, is cumulative and will reflect your entire credit history.

Hope that helps.

MM
~~

[bowener]

Originally Posted by Mark M

It depends on what you mean by "bad credit marks" and "disappear."

Bankruptcies are listed on your report for 7 - 13 years, depending on which chapter you file. After that, the notice is removed.

A missed payment won't actually "disappear" -- it will be listed as a red square amongst a bunch of green ones (or hopefully a bunch of green ones) in your payment history to the creditor in question.

But overall, yes, the records on your report usually only go back about 7 years or so. Your credit score, however, is cumulative and will reflect your entire credit history.

Hope that helps.

MM
~~

Why do we have credit, why cant they just take my ****ing word on it?

Also, how much do student loans affect your credit, and the credit of a cosigner?

If it helps, $32,000, soon to be ~$39,000 in loans.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by Mark M

It depends on what you mean by "bad credit marks" and "disappear."

Bankruptcies are listed on your report for 7 - 13 years, depending on which chapter you file. After that, the notice is removed.

A missed payment won't actually "disappear" -- it will be listed as a red square amongst a bunch of green ones (or hopefully a bunch of green ones) in your payment history to the creditor in question.

But overall, yes, the records on your report usually only go back about 7 years or so. Your credit score, however, is cumulative and will reflect your entire credit history.

Hope that helps.

MM
~~

My sister has some old CC bills that are 6 yrs old. Are they going to be gone from her credit report soon.

She's thinking about filing bankruptcy, and I'm trying to figure out if it would be best for her to just wait it out.