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<title>Latest Articles by stephenchua</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/</link>
<description>Articles at Populate.NET</description>
<language>en-us</language>
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<title>Bankruptcy and Your Credit Score</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/bankruptcy-and-your-credit-score.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/bankruptcy-and-your-credit-score.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ A bankruptcy is the worst negative record you can find in your credit report. Its impact can last for years, as the record will stay in your credit report for up to ten years. You may not be able to get any loans at all during the first few years after you filed bankruptcy. Even if you are lucky to qualify for a loan, the interest rate will probably be ridiculously high that it does not make sense to get the loan at all.

Despite its negative impact, it is an option to consider if you are very seriously in debt and have no way of repaying your bills. No doubt your credit rating will be in ruin but it will allow you to dig yourself out of the overwhelming debt and reestablish good credit rating later. At the same time, it will stop collection call agencies from harassing you and other debt-related problems. 

However, do not use bankruptcy as an easy way out of debt. The procedure of bankruptcy can be emotional draining. After a bankruptcy, you will be ineligible for credit cards and other types of credit. There are also many restrictions you must adhere to. If you are seeking new employments, you may face a lot of rejections as well.

Before you file for bankruptcy, you should talk to credit counselors from reputable non-profit credit counseling organizations. These counselors are experience and will advise you if there is any other way out besides bankruptcy. If that is the only option, they can advise you how to go about filing for bankruptcy.

While a bankruptcy can be depressing, it will at least give you the chance to start all over again without the debt burden. And you should start your credit repair campaign as soon as you can after filing bankruptcy. Start cultivating good habits such as saving and budgeting. Spend on what you can afford. A drastic change of lifestyle may be necessary if you are used to spending lavishly.

You may want to get a secured credit card to re-build your credit history. Make sure the payment history is reported to the three major credit bureaus and you always pay your bills on time. 

A bankruptcy record will not stay in your credit report forever. It should disappear after ten years. By that time, you should have already established a solid history of prompt payment and your credit score should have increase significantly. ]]></description>
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<title>Can Credit Limit Reduction Help Your Credit Score?</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/can-credit-limit-reduction-help-your-credit-score.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/can-credit-limit-reduction-help-your-credit-score.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ If your have poor credit history, you may want to consider reducing your total credit limit. This will prevent excessive credit from hurting your score. In addition, it can reduce your risk of getting into more debt in the long run. 

Do note that reducing your credit limit can temporarily cause your debt-to-credit ratio to rise significantly. This means your credit score may take a dip in the short term. 

However, if any of the following conditions apply to you, you should consider asking your banks to reduce the credit limits on your credit cards, credit lines, and other debts.  

1) You can pay off a large portion of your existing outstanding credit balance quickly

As an example, say you have a credit limit of $5000 on your credit card with an outstanding balance of $4000. You want to reduce the credit limit to $2500 and carry a balance of  $1250 or less.  This means you need to pay off $2750 immediately before you can request the reduction.

If you can't repay the $2750, getting your credit limit reduced can actually hurt you.  You may want to wait until you have pay off a large portion of the outstanding balance before you request to reduce your limit.

2) You have a lot of credit. 

It is quite common for an average consumer to have several types of debts and credit accounts. These include credit cards, store charge cards, a mortgage, a car loan, and a personal line of credit.  Having too much credit can give the impression to lenders that you have a high risk of defaulting on your repayment. Thus, if you have credit accounts that you are not using, you should consider closing them. And if you are still servicing the debts from these accounts, try reducing their limit once you have significantly pay down the debts.

3) You have credit accounts that were opened many years ago

If you have credit accounts that were opened many years ago, you should try to keep them open. However, they are good candidates for credit limit reductions. Long term accounts with lower credit limits can work well for you to boost your credit score in the long run.

4) You are not expected to take up a loan soon.  

Since reducing your credit limits may lower your credit score in the short term, you have to make sure you do not need a loan in the near future. If you decide to take a loan quickly after a credit limit reduction, you may not be able to get the best interest rate for your loan.

Even though a smaller limit can hurt your credit score in the short term, you should try to get that reduction done, as this step will made it harder for you to overextend your credit. In the long run, you credit score will likely rebound to a favorable level that quality you for better interest rates. ]]></description>
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<title>Why Paying Off Debt Will Not Improve Your Credit Score Immediately</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/why-paying-off-debt-will-not-improve-your-credit-score-immediately.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/why-paying-off-debt-will-not-improve-your-credit-score-immediately.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Many credit repair companies will advise you to pay off you debts so that your credit score will increase immediately. Unfortunately, this may not be the case.

For those people with serous debt issue, there are other related issues that they faced too. These issues include charge-off, begin reported to a collection center and bankruptcy. All these are negative records that can stay in your credit report for seven to ten years. The records do not go away immediately even after you cleared all your debts.

Even for small mistakes like not paying bills on time, it will take some time for the record to be erased from your credit report.

If you have been repaying your bills on time, it will still take time to built a good credit history that can boost your credit score.

For any over-due account that you have paid off, it will be marked as 'paid' in your credit report. Even if your credit score does not show any improvement, creditors and lenders may view the paid item more positively than seeing an unpaid account.

If you have faced a major financial disaster such as a bankruptcy, there is really no short-term solution to fix your credit score. You may have to put off larger purchases for the time being. However, the good thing is the severity of the negative record ill diminish significantly over time.
 
For example, if you have declared bankruptcy, your credit score will nosedive sharply for the first two years. This is the time you will likely have a hard time getting any credit at all.  However, if you have been paying your bills on time for the next two years, then the bankruptcy record from two years ago will become less important. 

This does not mean you should sit on the fence and wait for negative records to lose its severity. You should start working on improving your credit as early as possible and also improve your financial management knowledge. You do not want to get yourself into the same financial disasters after your credit score has improved.

Although paying off debts will not improve your credit score immediately, it is still an important part of good financial management. As long as you keep working on eliminating debt and cultivating food financial habits, it is s a matter of time before your credit score take a serious leap upward. ]]></description>
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<title>Where To Get Your Credit Report?</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/where-to-get-your-credit-report.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/where-to-get-your-credit-report.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The first place to get your credit report is from credit bureaus themselves.  Once a year, you can get your report from each of them for free. If you credit or loan application is rejected recently, you can also request a copy of your credit report for free.

If you have used up your quota, you can pay a nominal fee to get your report. The cost is around $30 and is subjected to change anytime.  However, the savings you will enjoy on your loan rates when you improve your credit score will more than pay for the cost of the reports. 

Although you can get the credit reports for free, you will have to pay a fee to get your credit score from them, as the credit bureaus do not include it in your reports. 

There are also a number of companies that offer free online credit reports.  This means you can see the content of your won report without waiting for a physical copy to be send to you. 

However, you will need to read the online company's agreement very carefully. Although they promise you get credit reports for free, there may be strings attached. For example, some companies will require you to purchase a credit repair program or service before granting you access to your report. Other companies may automatically enroll you into a credit monitoring service. Although in most cases, you can decline the offer and still get the report but some companies may follow this practice. 

There are some companies that offer you a 3-in-1 type of report. This is actually a combination of reports from the three major credit bureaus.  This may not useful if your purpose is to repair your credit. Getting your report from each of the three credit bureaus is a better option since the content is not identical. 

Another source to get you free report is the site at www.annualcreditreport.com. You can get this credit report online at their website, through email or by calling 1-877-322-8228.

No matter where you get your credit score and credit report, make sure that you get the most complete information package you can. You should get both your credit report and your credit score together, even if you have to pay extra.  You can't really do effective credit repair if you have one without the other. ]]></description>
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<title>3 Harmless Activities That Can Hurt Your Credit Score</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/3-harmless-activities-that-can-hurt-your-credit-score.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/3-harmless-activities-that-can-hurt-your-credit-score.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There are many things that can hurt your credit score. However, most of these things are seemingly harmless activities that you undertake. Here are three of them:

1) Asking for Too Many Loan Rate Quotes Online

Getting a loan rate quote online is pretty easy. You can get a quote on your car loan, personal loan, student loan, or mortgage loan in seconds. Because of its ease and simplicity, many people like to compare several companies at once in order to make sure that they get the best deal possible.  

The problem is credit bureaus count each of the online quotes as an inquiry. This means that if you compare too many companies online by asking for quotes, your credit score will fall due to too many inquiries.

What you should do is to research the companies and narrow down to two or three of them that you are interested to deal with. This will ensure that the number of inquires on your credit report is small and not adversely affect your score.

2) Closing lots of credit accounts within a short period

It seems like a good practice to closed unused accounts or infrequent use accounts. From a financial management standpoint, this is a good practice. However, this can work against use if you are thinking of improving your credit score.

First of all, most credit bureaus give merit to those who have a good long-term credit history.  Long-term credit history usually indicates stability in the finance area of your life. So closing a credit account that you open ten years ago will have a more negative impact on your credit score than closing one that was opened one year ago.

If you really want to reduce the number of accounts you have, consider closing the most recent accounts first. Leave your old account open as long as you can. 

However, if credit score is not an issue to you, it is good practice to close all those credit accounts that do not need. A short-term dip in your credit score may result but in the long run, it should rebound.

3) Shy away from loans or debts 

While it is good to have no debts, it also means your do not have a credit history. This will result in a lower score for you. The thing is that lenders want to see that you can handle credit and the only way they can tell is you demonstrate this ability by having some form of credit in the past. If you currently have no credit accounts at all, consider opening a low balance credit card, which can boost your credit score if you use it regularly and pay the balance in full and on time.

The credit score system is designed more for lenders rather then consumers. Thus the techniques used to improve you credit score can sometimes contradict good financial habits such as closing unused credit accounts. Nevertheless, good financial habits do give you peace of mind and will work well for you in the long run. ]]></description>
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<title>Practice Safe Banking And Computing To Prevent Identity Theft</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/practice-safe-banking-and-computing-to-prevent-identity-theft.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/practice-safe-banking-and-computing-to-prevent-identity-theft.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Identity theft is on the rise each and every year. It can cause you to lose your hard-earned money as well as ruin your financial reputation. The latter will make it very difficult for you to apply for credit and loans and cause your credit score to take a nosedive.

To protect yourself from identity theft, you should always follow safe banking and financial practices. Here are six steps you can use:

1) Keep your account numbers and PIN numbers safe. 

When you are withdrawing cash from ATM or paying for your purchase using your ATM card, you should cover your PIN numbers with your other hand. 

You should not divulge your PIN to anyone over the phone. This includes officers from your banks.

Do not write down your PIN and account numbers on a piece of paper and leave it in the open. This is common sense yet many people like to do it for convenience sake.

2) Only do transactions with businesses you trust.

If you are going to do a big purchase from a new company, you should do your research to make sure the company is legitimate. Many identity thieves actually set up fake companies in order to steal your personal information.

3) Shred all letters and documents that have your personal information

Your phone bills, credit card statements, bank statement, utility bills and many other bills contained your personal information. Once you are done with the payments, you should shred them immediately before throwing them into the dustbin. 

If you get application forms for credit cards in the mails that are "pre-approved", shred them as well. All credit card receipts should also be shred before going into the dustbin.

Identity thieves will go through the garbage to find these statements and receipts. They will look for pre approved forms so that they can fill them out and apply for credit using your identity.

4) Install a good firewall and anti virus protection system

Most family has at least one computer that is connected to the Internet. Thus it is a must to install a good firewall and anti virus protection system. The anti virus software should be update frequently.  If you are not familiar with all these computer protection stuffs, you can consider taking a basic computer security course at your local college or community center. Alternatively, go to the local library to borrow and read books on these topics.

5) Shop carefully online

Ecommerce has exploded over the last few years. More people are buying things online. For your safety, you should buy from reputable online companies such as Amazon.com. If you are dealing with a new company, make sure it has a good privacy policy and strong encryption technology. The latter is very important when you want to enter your credit card details on the order page.

There are many other things you can do to prevent identity theft but these few steps should be enough to get you started. They are simple to do and you should try to make them part of your life. ]]></description>
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<title>Pay Down Your Credit Card Debts Can Improve Your Credit Score</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/pay-down-your-credit-card-debts-can-improve-your-credit-score.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/pay-down-your-credit-card-debts-can-improve-your-credit-score.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Your debts have a direct impact to your credit score. The larger the amount of debt you have, the worse your credit score. 

One of the things that lenders will look at is the amount of debt you have relative to the total amount of credit you have. If you debt is close to your total credit, you are consider high risk as the chances of you not being able to meet your debt obligation are high.

For example, if you have a $5000 limit on your credit card and you regularly carry a balance of $4700, you will consider riskier to lenders than someone who has the same credit card but carries a smaller balance of $700. 

In general, you should aim to use no more than 60% of your available credit. If your credit card has a limit of $5000, you should try to pay it down to about $3000. You should also avoid adding more debt to the current balance as much as possible.

It is even better if you can pay off your credit card in full each month. However, this can be difficult if the amount of debt is too large. No matter how big the debt is, you can eliminate it as long as you continue to pay down the balance consistently.

If your debts are spread over a few credit cards, you can start with the smallest debt first. The rationale is simple. Eliminate the smallest debt can provide the motivation you need to continue with the debt elimination process.  

Once the smallest debt is eliminated, you can put that credit card away and move on to the next smallest credit card debt. With this process, you may be able to eliminate the debts for two or three credit cards. You will start to see the result of your debt elimination process faster. 

If you prefer to start eliminate the largest debt first, that is fine too. You will need strong discipline to see yourself through the debt elimination process, as it takes much longer to see positive result.

While working to pay down you debt, you should also start cutting down your expenditure. You can cook more often at home instead of eating at the restaurant, buy less clothes, rent DVDs instead of going to the movies and so forth.

At the same time, you should think of ways to increase your income. This includes taking up a part time job, do freelance works or set up garage sales. 

Another thing is to improve your financial education. There are many personal finance management books in the library that you can borrow. If you have some spare cash, you can buy a couple of them from Amazon online store or you local bookstores.

Paying down your debts to a minimum will definitely help elevate your credit score. However, good financial habits such as saving and investing will go a long way to help you avoid debts and keep you credit score high. ]]></description>
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<title>Protect Your Credit Score From Identity Theft</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/protect-your-credit-score-from-identity-theft.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/protect-your-credit-score-from-identity-theft.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ If you have good financial habits such as paying your bill on time, paying your credit card balance in full, have regular saving and so forth, your credit score may still be lower than what you expected. While it is possible that it is due to some small financial mistake or oversight you have made in the past, it is possible that you are victim of identity theft.

Identity theft is a form of crime in which unscrupulous people take your personal information and use that information to pose as you. This enables them to apply for credit cards or loans using your identity. Since they have no intention of paying back the money, you are stuck with the large debts and a poor credit score.

Some identity theft experts can even steal your PIN for your bank accounts. They will access your private bank accounts and steal your money using wire transfer. 

There are many things you can do to prevent identity theft. One of them is to check your bank and credit card account statements carefully each month.  You should keep all the receipts for every transaction you made during the month. Then match them against the entries in your bank statements. You should report any suspicious activities or charges you don't recognize to the banks or credit card companies immediately or as soon as you can. 

It is advisable to keep a copy of all the contact numbers of all the financial institutions you deal with. This is very useful for reporting loss of your credit cards or ATM cards. 

In addition, you should also check your credit report regularly, preferably at least once every six months. If there is any new credit accounts that you do not recognize, you must immediately submit a dispute to the credit bureaus.

If you have been the victim of identity theft, report the matter to the police quickly and get a police statement.  Send copies of this statement to your banks and credit card companies. You should also send a copy to each of the credit bureaus.  Get them to attach the police statement to your credit report.  

You should also consider closing your accounts and reopen new ones.  If this not feasible, you should change the PIN for your bank accounts and password for Internet banking accounts. For credit cards, you can call up the credit card companies and request them to issue new cards to you.

Identity theft is here to stay and you should do everything you can to prevent it from happening to you. ]]></description>
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<title>2 Common Mistakes People Make When Trying To Improve Credit Score</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/2-common-mistakes-people-make-when-trying-to-improve-credit-score.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/2-common-mistakes-people-make-when-trying-to-improve-credit-score.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Many people want a better credit score to qualify for better loan and credit rates. However, there are a few things that people do that can affect their credit score negatively. Here are two common mistakes can bring down your credit score:

1) Having excess debts and credit you don't use.

With so many credit card and line of credit offers, many people probably have a few of them. However, many of them use only one or two credit cards and forget about the rest.

Although it is a good idea to have some excess credit in case of a financial emergency, having too much excess credit can make you a higher risk to lenders. This is because you have a higher chance of overextending your credit.  

In addition, having lots of accounts you don't use increases the fees you have to pay to maintain them. You should consider keeping only those accounts you use frequently and close the other accounts that have no outstanding balance.  Having fewer accounts will make it easier for you to keep track of your debts.

However, closing any credit account can cause your credit score to fall in the short term. This is because you will have higher credit balances spread out over a smaller overall credit account base.  This should not be an issue if you are not going to apply for loans in the short term. With less credit, you will be less likely to go into more debt. As you continue to pay down your debt, your credit score will improve in the long run.

2) Excessive inquiries on your credit report.

Every time a lender looks at your credit report, the inquiry is noted in your credit report.  If you have a lot of inquiries on your report, it may appear that you are either shopping for several loans at once or you have been rejected by many other lenders.  

In either case, the impression you give to lenders are not good and they perceive you as having a higher credit risk. This in turn will affect your credit score.  

If you are shopping for a loan, shop around within a short period of time like within a few days.Inquiries made within a few days of each other will generally be lumped together and counted as one inquiry.  

Another way to cut down on the number of inquiries on your account is to do more thorough research first before approaching the lenders.  Short listed a few that interest you and then approach the them only. This will reduce the number of lenders accessing your credit report at the same time, which can help save your credit score.

These little mistakes will cause the credit score to drop gradually. If  left unnoticed, the credit score will drop to into the red zone and you will have to spend considerable time and effort to nurse it back to health. ]]></description>
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<title>Excessive Credit  Is Bad For Your Credit Score</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/excessive-credit-is-bad-for-your-credit-score.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Finance/Credit/excessive-credit-is-bad-for-your-credit-score.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Although it is better to have more credit than less, there are occasions where excessive credit can hurt your credit score. If you have several lines of credit or credit cards but only use them moderately, lenders will probably consider you of low risk.

However, if you have use them extensively and each of them has a  significant outstanding balance, then you will be consider high credit risk because you are close to overextending your credit . 

Simply put, you are taking on more credit than you can comfortably pay off.  You may be making payments on existing bills on time but lenders know that you will have a difficult time paying off your bills if your debt grows too much.  

For lender to have confidence in you, your debt to credit ratio need to be low. If you have a credit of $10000 and your existing debt is $2000, your debt to credit ratio is 0.2 because you only utilize 20% of your total credit. On the other hand, if you have a debt of $8000, your debt to credit ratio is 0.8, which means your debt is approaching your total credit limit. Lenders will be wary and not likely to approve your credit or loan application. 

The larger your debts, the more you have to pay per month. This also means the risk default on your bills become higher. Statistical studies have shown that those with high debt-to-credit ratio will have a very difficult time financially when faced with a crisis such as a divorce, unemployment, or sudden illness.  

Lenders know this facts and so do the credit bureaus. Thus the credit bureaus will likely give you a lower credit score in view of the risk you present.
 
Thus, in order to have a great credit score, avoid taking out excessive credit.  The temptation of you getting into more debt is just too great. Do not apply for every new credit line or credit card that you do not need immediately. 

One thing you should know is that applying for many new credit accounts in a short period of time will cause your credit score to nosedive. This is because it will look as though you are being financially irresponsible.

In short, you should stick to one or two credit cards and one or two other major debts, such as car loan or mortgage loan, in order to get a good credit score. Most lenders like to see that you are able to handle a range of credit responsibility. Thus a good mix of credit type can give your credit score a boost. ]]></description>
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