You’ve taken control of your financial well being. You’ve gotten copies of your credit reports, reviewed them and corrected the errors on them. Now you are going to stay on top of your finances, pay your bills on time and not allow the credit companies to constantly hit you with fees and penalties. In Chapter 10 of Debt Cures, Kevin Trudeau goes into further details regarding your credit score and how to begin to use it for your advantage, not for someone else’s.
Your credit score is calculated using an algorithm, a fancy word for complex mathematical formula. After all your information is thrown into a computer your score will come out between 300 and 850 points. In the past the banks wanted to lend only to people with high scores, because they represent the lowest risk. Now they want to lend to people with average or below average scores, because the profits are in the penalties, fees and additional interest they earn when you get behind in payments.
Remember your credit score is nothing personal. The credit reporting companies do not take into consideration your weight, race, religion or nationality. They don’t care if you root for the New York Yankees or the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s a cold hard look at your financial numbers. They are looking at how your financial numbers are painting your life. Not only do creditors look at your credit score, but many employers will check your credit score as part of the hiring process.
With three credit reporting companies a good question is how will banks determine my score if all three scores are different? Trudeau explains that they will take the middle score. If you have scores of 680, 710, and 750, then your credit score will reflect the middle 710. It is not based on your average. Each company uses a slightly different formula to compile your score so it is not uncommon to have three different scores. Also, there is a difference between your credit score and your credit report. The score is simply your number, the report provides details such as how much you owe and who you owe it to.
In general, there are five areas that go into your score:
Trudeau provides details on each of these areas along with their importance.
Banks will almost always use credit reports from all three companies while department stores may only use one. So it is important that you get and clean up all three credit reports. Remember the companies have to provide you with a free credit report annually thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It may also be advantageous to pay a small fee to get an updated credit report a few months after your review, to see if the corrections have been made and to see how much your score has improved. With an improved credit score, you can now save hundreds or thousands of dollars by improving the interest rate on current and future credit. You’ve started down the right path to curing the debt, now Kevin Trudeau wants to keep you moving down that path in future chapters of Debt Cures.
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