Want to save on groceries? Today, we are covering the pros and cons of using electronic coupons with your grocery card. We’re also sharing one shopper’s personal experience with using these coupons.
Here’s an interesting concept that I wasn’t completely aware of till I read about it the other day: if you’re a loyal [...]
Like many people, you may have resolved to pay off debt or otherwise get your finances in order this year. If so, one of the first things you should do is pull a credit report on yourself and your spouse.
If you are planning to purchase a house or apply for any other large loan, you should pull a report before securing financing, even if it means paying. For everyone else, you should take advantage of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and get a free credit report from each of the major credit bureaus every year.
Your credit report is like a biography focusing only on the credit you have applied for, received, and used in your lifetime. It tells lenders and potential lenders how long you have used credit, how much credit is available to you, how much you are currently using, what types of credit you take advantage of, and whether you have made payments on time. Everything from mortgages to credit cards to library fines can be reported here – as I learned the hard way when I let an $8.00 library fine slip my mind!
The factors on your credit report are taken together to give you a credit score. Any time you apply for new credit, a note is made on your credit report and your score is adjusted accordingly. Lenders use this information to decide whether you are a worthy borrower. When there are mistakes, your credit score could suffer and you could be denied credit. Often mistakes are the result of a similar name or a Social Security number off by one digit. In rare cases, mistakes on your credit report are actually the first sign of identity theft. Regardless of their source, mistakes on your credit report can end up costing you time and money if debt collectors come after you for bad debts. Left uncorrected, they can also lead to higher interest rates on credit you do request, such as a mortgage or auto loan. By checking your report regularly, you can spot mistakes as soon as they happen and sort them out before they cause you any trouble.
There are three major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian), and each is required to give you a free credit report every 12 months. You can space these out to get one free report every four months, rotating through the different bureaus. The three reports will be very similar, but some accounts may only be reported to one or two of the agencies. To get your report online, follow these steps:
Annualcreditreport.com is very safe, but if you’d rather not give out your personal information over the internet, you can also request a free report by phone or mail.
You can also get free credit reports at myFICO and Credit Check Total. But beware – to get the free report you will have to sign up for a free trial of a paid service. You must cancel the service before payment kicks in to make this report truly free!
Another option is to visit Credit Karma. They do not give you an official credit report, but do give you a free credit score as well as a “report card” on what is contributing to your score – if something on the report card seems a little off, you can then pull one of your free credit reports.
However you choose to do it, it’s important to check your credit report at least once a year just to make sure everything is on track as well as before applying for any major credit. Correcting mistakes now can help you save lots of money – and stress – in the long run!
Written by Jill
Click here to leave a comment on this article.
© My Dollar Plan
Get free subscriptions to hundreds of popular magazines!
Mistakes can be costly. With that being said, there are two ways to get out of a financial crisis. The first strategy involves assessing the amount of money being brought into a household on a monthly basis and employs a multiple stream of income approach to increase a family’s finances. The second tactic involves a [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
Modern corporate life has warped some of my perspectives on careers, the nature of work and even the way people relate to each other. No experience did more damage to my sweetly naive belief in the goodness of humans and the purity of the capitalist model than my time with a company I’ll call The [...]
in the salt mine is an original article from the website brip blap.
I’ve never really given thought about buying roadside assistance protection before as I considered it just another unnecessary cost. However, with an alternator failure the other day in our 8 year old car, it made me think about what it would cost to get a tow truck should I ever need one. Along the same line of thought, [...]
Over the weekend I caught up on some blog reading and found an old post from The Simple Dollar where Trent discussed the differences in today’s budgets from those of our parents. It was an interesting post, and the comments provided more food for thought. I began inventorying our own monthly bills and compared them [...]
Post by Frugal Dad
I haven’t traded options before and don’t necessarily advocate this as an investment strategy for the average investor, but I’ve been always curious about more complex investment plays. Tim Parker, who runs Elementary Finance, has offered us a guest post about his experience entering the world of options trading.
Image from eHow
Now that I’m feeling [...]
As we’re getting into the tax season, how to lower tax payment legally is probably on everybody’s mind. While most techniques you could employ to reduce your tax bill for the previous tax year already expired at the end of the year from, there is still one thing you can do to significantly cut your [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
Special bonus offers
Today, I’m focused on three thoughts.
In a few hours, I’ll probably be partaking of more calories in one meal than I should have in a whole day… or two days. Many of you will probably do the same.
Having spent some 90%+ of my life in Boston, I’m a New England Patriots fan. As [...]
Related posts:
Your federal tax return isn’t due until April 15th this year but it’s time to start thinking about gathering together all your tax forms and figuring out what you owe or how much your tax refund will be. If you use TurboTax to file make sure to enter the contest for free turbo tax that [...]
I don’t know what it was like before, but for the first winter we are in Virginia, the snow we got so far was way too much, including 3 in just last week. Last December, we were lucky that we avoided the mess when we left town before last major storm hit. Not this time [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
Special bonus offers
Not all high interest savings accounts or money market accounts are alike. If you look at it from the standpoint of savers who decide to open such accounts, you’ll find that we’re all prompted to select savings accounts according to various reasons and criteria.
Based on where we are in our lives, we [...]
[Last year I posted these tips to save money. I'm disappointed in myself for not being able to come up with more original ideas. I'm going to pay that penalty with my wallet. The person with the idea that I like the best will earn $25 via Paypal, Amazon, or Ebay gift [...]
Related posts:
Are you using iPhone? If you are, then I have some freebies for you. No, it’s not the free Citi Mobile app.
I was contacted by Christopher Chapin at Space Age Industries LLC the other day about sharing a cool tool with readers of this blog, the Compound Interest Calculator (Don’t know how compound interest works? [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
Special bonus offers
Another Friday, another roundup. Before we get to the links I have just a couple of reminders. First, you have until 9 pm EST tonight to get an entry in for a $25 Amazon gift card. That’s right, make sure you leave a comment on the question I asked earlier in the week: what would [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
It’s Free Money Friday and this week’s is a good one! TradeKing is offering existing customers $100 for referring a friend. Hurry because the offer only lasts until February 11, 2010.
Cheap Trades. $4.95 per trade (market or limit), which includes stock and ETF trades. Options have an additional 65 cents per contract. Mutual funds are $14.95 per trade.
Investment Tools. TradeKing offers all clients free access to their suite of investment research tools, like Maxit Tax Manager, Stock and Option Trading Screeners, MarketGrader Research Reports, Probability Calculator, Technical Analysis Tool, Profit and Loss Calculator, and much more.
If you don’t have a TradeKing account yet, you can sign up for a new account. For more information on TradeKing, check out our TradeKing review.
Written by Kate
Click here to leave a comment on this article.
© My Dollar Plan
Get free subscriptions to hundreds of popular magazines!
Laura writes in with the following plea for help with getting out of credit card debt:
I came across your web site today and I love it! My husband was out of work for nearly 2 years. We always had enough money to pay our bills so our credit line was very high. Well, I [...]
Post by Frugal Dad
Our son has been making me proud lately with his unexpected frugal remarks. The first one came as he browsed the toy aisle in a CVS pharmacy while we waited for a prescription to be filled. As he played with the trucks he said:
“we won’t get these… they’re too expensive”
Then the next night when I [...]
Most long term investment and savings goals boil down to achieving a comfortable retirement or reaching financial freedom. Many of us have shorter term financial objectives such as buying a new car or house, maybe saving up for a vacation or investing for our children’s 529 college savings plans. But why not admit [...]
Where to Turn When Your Adviser Does You Wrong
While I’m not a big fan of how many people quickly jump on the litigation bandwagon for almost anything these days, there are legitimate situations where you may have a case against a bad broker or advisor. Even so, keep in mind that you can’t sue just [...]
About the Author: Jeremy is a retirement planning specialist and founder of Generation X Finance and the guide to Financial Planning at About.com. To learn more, follow Jeremy on Twitter.
A few years ago, after a long bout of worrying about money, I came to the realization that it’s expensive to be poor. If you don’t have the money to pay bills on time or at all, you incur expensive late fees and higher interest rates. A lack of available funds to purchase items when [...]
Original Post on The Sun’s Financial Diary
Special bonus offers
I find the story about Craig Cunningham very intriguing. His debt collection story was featured in Better Off Deadbeat.
When credit was free flowing, he borrowed over $100,000 and invested in risky stocks and the sub prime mortgage industry. The greedy extension of a well planned credit card arbitrage strategy.
Of course, the recession hit, and now he’s in up to his eyeballs with bill collectors. Except, instead of paying them back, he sues them. And he’s actually quite successful at it; he’s earned settlements totaling more than $20,000.
He’s sues the debt collectors based on violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other consumer protection laws. The debt collectors call him a “credit terrorist” since knows the game and teaches others how to bait the collectors. He’s actually a regular at Fatwallet, and has become somewhat of an expert on suing debt collectors. Here’s an example: Codename47 vs. National Credit Solutions.
I’m all for making money where opportunities present themselves, but I’m also a firm believer in paying back debt.
I’ll stick to making my money with things like the Chase Sapphire $100 Sign Up Bonus and the PerkStreet $50 Sign Up Bonus, which was just extended, in case you missed it the first time around!
What do you think? Credit terrorist or twisted genius?
Written by Madison
Click here to leave a comment on this article.
© My Dollar Plan
Get free subscriptions to hundreds of popular magazines!
“You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.” – Yogi Berra
How did you do with the 12 questions in the first article of this series? We have found that most investors have quite exaggerated views about long term stock market returns, mainly believing they are much more erratic than they are.
Here are the facts regarding [...]
A free trial of Turbo Tax? If you visit the TurboTax site you’ll notice buttons that say “Start for Free”. You can actually do more than start, you can complete your whole tax return for free without even creating an account with any version of TurboTax online.
You don’t have to pay until you e-file or print [...]
The January unemployment report is due out this Friday, and some are predicting negative news, mostly because of an annual adjustment for jobs “miscounted” last year. I heard the figure 824,000 being tossed about today, as in we really lost 824,000 more jobs last year than reported. My favorite term in these reports has become [...]
Post by Frugal Dad
