Credit 101 - Free Credit Repair Book

I have decided that it is time for me to give out a few of my credit 101 books for free. When I turned 18 I rushed to get my first credit card. It didn't take me more then one month to max out my $500 limit. Once maxed out I ran out to get my second and third card. Before I was 19 I had three credit cards maxed out and owed $3000 in credit card debt, I was doing great! After I married my husband I realised I needed to do something about the poor credit that I made for myself. I was late on bills, both credit and not. I had collection items and judgements. I was doing fantastic!

I put 8 months into researching how to fix my credit and after the research was completed it took me 60 days to delete $5000 from my credit report and bring my credit score up 100 pts to where I could buy my first home. I decided after I bought my home that other people could benefit from my knowledge that I had learned during my 8 months of research. I compiled all my knowledge into a book that I would be able to sell to others and teach them how to fix their credit like I had done. Well, I have already made a lot of money off my book and have now decided that with all my businesses online ad all my lines of income I am no longer going to be selfish. For the next 30 days I will be offering my book for free to anyone that wants to download it. If you would like my book you can download from Uploading.com. When you click on the link above you will be directed to a site where you can buy subscriptions to other programs. you do not need to buy anything, just scroll to the bottom and wait 60 seconds to be able to download the book for free.

Please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments so others can benefit from my book as well. Thanks to everyone tha supports my site.

Credit Repair - step 3 the last and final step

By now you should be done with Step 1 and Step 2. If you have yet to complete the first two steps you might want to go back and read the articles about them first.

Congratulations! Hopefully by now you were able to get negative information deleted from your credit report and are now well versed in how your credit works. The next step is extremely important as well. What good is it to fix the negatives on your credit report if you don’t work on building your credit back up afterwards? The answer, NOT GOOD AT ALL!

This is my favorite part of credit repair because as you get further along you start to feel better about yourself again. Step 1 in credit repair makes you feel sick to your stomach because you see everything that you have been ignoring for a long time. Step 2 is stressful because you just want the bad stuff off and you don’t want to wait the 30, 60, or even 90 days that it takes to get negative items removed. Step 3 ROCKS! Step 3 is all about building up your credit profile and getting new accounts set up. If you’re worried about having credit accounts again then you might want to read my article about budgeting so that you can know exactly how to use your credit accounts.


The first thing you need to do in order to build your credit back up is research the different options out there for credit cards link goes direct to application
and loans. You want to start with a small $500 credit card or loan. Bellow is a list of several different companies that can help you re-apply for credit if you have had bad credit in the past. Some of them do charge set-up and annual fees, but once you’re had these accounts for a while you can get cards without annual fees. Make sure that when you apply for a credit card you only apply for one or two you do not want to have too many new accounts set up at once. So apply for one, wait to see what the approval status is, and then apply for the next credit card. Stop after you have gotten two approvals.





After you have applied for a couple of these companies you should by now have gotten decisions. If you got approved then great! But, not everyone can get approved right away. If you did not get approved then you might have to do a secured credit card. Secured credit cards are where you give a specific amount of money and in return you get a credit card with that limit available on it. When you use the credit card you have a monthly payment due until the balance is paid back. These cards are less risk because if you default on your payment the credit card company has the rest of your money as a balance they can get by lowering your limit.

You can also try to apply for a secured loan through some of your local banks. These two would required money down but you have a little bit more safety with spending because you don’t have to use them like credit cards. You could get let’s say a $300 secured loan you make your first months payment, three weeks later you make your second, then you take the amount out of the loan that you paid on your second payment and you use it for your third payment three weeks later. After doing this for 6 months you can then close out the loan and get your money back, by then you should be able to get approved for a regular credit card.

So once you have a credit card how do you stay out of trouble? Well credit cards are supposed to be for emergencies only. They are not supposed to be used on an every day basis. This is the mistake that most people make and that’s how they get into trouble. They use their credit cards when they don’t have the money to buy something. As a personal banker I can tell you that my best credit customers are the ones that use their credit cards instead of their debit cards for every purchase but they take the purchase out of the checking account balance and then pay off the credit card every month before any interest is accrued. These customers usually do this so that they get the rewards that a lot of the good credit card companies offer like airline mileage or cash back. As long as you pay your credit cards off before the end of your statement cycle you will not have to pay anything in interest. So make sure to do this whenever you can.

There you have it! You are on your way to financial freedom. And a lot less stress regarding your credit.

If you have any questions or would like to comment please feel free to leave a comment. I frequently check for new comments and keep my blog current and up to date.

Credit Repair - Getting Negative Items Deleted (step 2)

So you finished the first step and now you’re wondering what to do next(if you didn’t you might want to go back and read Credit Repair - What you need to know). Well let’s recap what we learned in step one. We learned the break down of what credit is how it is calculated and what factors can help your overall credit score. Now it’s time to dig a little deeper.

Sense your credit score consists of many different components you need to start small and work your way up. Start with the basic components first and try to fix little things at a time. The first thing to do is pull out your credit report that you should have pulled during step one (if you still need to get your credit report Get Equifax Credit Score Now!
). Now in step one you should have circled all of the negative information on your credit report, if you did not please do so now. All of the negative should include late payments, inquiries, high balance credit cards, collections, bankruptcies, judgments, and tax liens. Believe it or not these negative items can be deleted from your credit report.

BUT, before I go any further you need to ask yourself one question. Do I want to do ALL this work myself? If the answer is yes then go ahead and continue down this page, but if the answer is no here is a list of places that will fix your credit for a fee. Make sure to check all of them out because they all offer different things for different prices.

Ok, so you answered yes, you want to do this on your own. It can be done so don’t worry, I fixed my credit in 3 months and was able to buy my first home! The first thing you need to do to get negative items removed from your credit report is write a letter to the credit bureaus. These companies are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. These are the three primary credit reporting agencies and the places that most lenders look at in order to determine your credit eligibility. By now you should have your credit report out and all the negative items circled. You also should have checked your credit report for any and all errors, ranging from your name and address down to the account history on your credit accounts.

Below is an example letter of how to get things removed:


Your Name Here
Your Address Here


To Whom It May Concern,

After carefully reviewing my credit report I have found several inconsistencies. The following items are not my credit accounts and are effecting me negatively.

List all the accounts include the creditor name, the account number, and date opened. (even if they negative accounts are yours you still need to write that they are in error on your credit report)

After you list all of the negative accounts continue your letter as follows:

The above accounts need to be deleted from my credit report as they are not my credit accounts. I have tried to contact the individual creditors and have been unsuccessful at getting these items removed. Please send an updated credit report with any changes that occur.

Thank You,

Your Name
Your Social Security Number
You’re probably asking yourself HOW and WHY this letter will work for you. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows us to challenge anything on our credit report. Here is the beautiful thing about that, you can challenge ANYTHING. If you send a request to the credit reporting agencies with a dispute they legally have 30 days from receiving your request to research it and get back to you. The credit reporting agencies will send letters out to all of the creditors that you are disputing and request that they verify that the accounts are yours. If they fail to respond with in the 30 days or they cannot prove 100% that the accounts are yours then your accounts must be deleted from your credit report. You can even get collection accounts and bankruptcies deleted! I went through this same process and after three months I managed to get a total of $5000 deleted from my credit report. If your accounts don’t get deleted the first time you write a letter you can keep sending a revised letter with the remaining accounts every month until you are fully satisfied that your negatives were deleted. The best time to send these letters is during the holidays. When creditors are busy during the holiday times they are less likely to respond within the 30 day deadline, therefore your accounts get deleted!

Feel free to leave questions or comments at the end of this post I would gladly help out with anyone wanting credit repair.

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Wanting To Refinance?

Have you been thinking about refinancing your current mortgage? Well if you have not you might want to think about doing so. Interest rates are reaching an all time low. Now, more then ever, is the time to refinance your current mortgage, especially if you are in a variable loan.

It's good to take not of financial trends. On average rates follow a five year changing period. They start lower, start to climb up, and then come back down. Well this is now the down climb so the next step of for rates to go back up again. Make sure that you grab a good rate while you can.

How to know if refinancing is right for you. The first thing you want to do is check your rate, you should be able to see what your rate is on your mortgage statement. Next what is your minimum monthly mortgage payment? Make sure when you are comparing payment amounts that you just look at your principal and interest payment amount, and if included your private mortgage insurance. You should never included the amount you pay for taxes and insurance when comparing mortgage payments because these two payment amounts will be the same no matter what bank you choose to use for a refinance. Now that you know what your payment and your interest rate is you are ready to shop.






When rate shopping you do not want to apply at every bank to find out a good comparison. Ask the bank for a Good Faith Estimate. This estimate will allow you to see what the interest rate is, what the payment would be like, what type of loan program you are applying for, and what your closing costs are going to be. Always pay attention to the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) this is the true cost of the loan. One bank may offer you an interest rate of 5% but an APR of 7% this means you are going to pay about 2% in closing costs in order to get the rate at 5%.

How to know which company is offering the best option.

Here's an exmaple to help you compare products.

Bank ABC is offering: 5.25% with an APR of 6%
Closing costs = $2000
Payment = $500

Bank 123 is offering: 5.00% with an APR of 6%
Closing Costs = $3500
Payment = $475

BankUSA is offering: 5.50% with an APR of 5.75%
Closing Costs = $500
Payment = $525

Which one of these is the best deal? How do you compare?

First you can get the lowest payment with Bank 123, a total of $50 less then BankUSA and $25 less then Bank ABC, but how much are you paying for your rate of %5.00? You are paying up to $3000 more for Bank 123 then BankUSA. What you need to do is find out your break even point. Sense you are paying $3000 more for an interest rate of 5.00% and a payment that is $50 less you need to devide $3000 by the $50 a month difference. This equals 60, this means that it will take 60 payments with Bank 123 to save enough to equal the $3000 extra you had to pay. The average person refinances their home every 5 years so in this example you would be better off going with BankUSA and paying $50 a month because you will be saving $3000 and chances are you will refinance again before five years is up, the point where you would actually be saving money if you refinances with Bank 123.








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Budgeting Your Money

With gas prices starting to go up again and employment opportunities becoming scarce it's more important then ever to save your money and learn how to budget correctly. It's amazing to see how expensive things are these days. I went to the store two days ago and spent almost $4 on a gallon of milk! I find this to be rediculous. Even with our families current financial standing being good we still budget our money out every month.

The first thing you need to do when budgeting your money is know exactly how much income you have coming in every month. When budgeting your money you also need to write down the specific times you get paid. Do you get paid once a week, every other week, twice a month, or once a month? Depending on when you get paid your budgeting stratigies are going to be a little different.

Next thing that needs to be done is you need to know exactly how much your minimum monthly payments are on all of your credit accounts. You can find out what your minimum payments are by looking at your bill or if you would like to look at your credit report you can also get that information from Equifax. Once you write down your minimum monthly payments you need to go back down your list and write down what you actually pay for each credit bill. For example if you have a credit card with a minimum payment of $25 but you pay $100 then you would want to write that down (25 / 100 is how I would write it down). Next write down the differnece between the two so you know how much extra money you have in the case of an emeregency. Next write down your other monthly bills such as car insurance, electricity, water & sewer, garbage, cell phone!, ect.






Once you know how much you make and how much your monthly bills all you need to figure out when everything is due. I use a spread sheet to do this. Start with writing down the days of the week. Write down on each day when a bill is due, for instance I lable my spread sheet from 1 to 31 and I will put my mortgage on the 1st, my car on the 12th, my car insurance on the 24th, and so on. This will allow you to have a visual of when all of your bills are due. If you want you can also print your sheet out and put display it somewhere you will see it all the time, I like the fridge! After you've written down all of the due dates of your bills you are going to add the amounts of all the bills that are due. If you are writting down the amounts of bills like your electricity or water then just put down the average so you have an idea.

Here is the fun part, you get to figure out what to do with the extra money. After your done detailing all of your bills, due dates, and amounts, add all the amounts together and subtract them from your income so you know how much extra money you have each month. Once you know how much you have after your bills you need to figure out how much you pay each month in groceries, fast food, gas, convenience stores, entertainment, and misc. spending. For an awesome free program that helps you do all of this visit Acemoney Lite. This program will actually let you download all of your transactions from your online banking and it will help itamize your spendings and even graph it out for a nice visual picture.

The hardest part about budgetingbudgeting is getting used to not spending more then is budgeted out for you. What I like to do is use the envelope system. I have an envelope for gas, food, entertainment, and fun. I figure out how much on average I spend on each of these things and then fill up each envelope with that amount (make sure you fill up the fun and entertainment with smaller bills so that you don't take a twenty with you when you only need five and then spend the other fifteen just because it's in your wallet). When your envelopes run out of cash that's it, you're done for that month. This forces you to know exactly what you have and exactly what will be left over after you take some money out. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EXTRA CASH! The reason for budgeting is to save money and make sure you have enough for every day life. If you start to use the extra money you have left over after bills and your envelops then you're not doing any good.

Check back later for more advice on budgeting.





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Credit Repair- What You Need To Know (Step 1)

So you have a loan for your car, you have a loan for your house, you have a loan for the fence you just put in, and you have a student loan. Do you need anymore? The answer is no! If you are afraid that you have too many loans you might want to look at some options to improve your situation. First off let me explain what too many loans does to your credit report.

Your credit report score is calculated by several different factors. The break down is pretty complex but you can take a look at the pie chart below for an example of the break down.



The biggest part of your credit report is calculated by your payment history, how your payments have been made. Have you been on time? Have you been more then 30 days late? Stuff like that all goes into the credit history which is 35% of your credit score.

The next biggest part of the pie chart is the amount owed on all your debt. This is HUGE! When you apply for a loan with a bank one of the deciding factors is how much debt you have verse how much income you have, banks call this the debt to income ratio. You can figure our your ratio after you pull your credit report. (If you want to pull your credit report visit Equifax)

Calculating your debt to income ratio. The reason I recomended to visit Equifax is because when you calculate your debt to income ratio you need to know the MINIMUM payments required, not the amount that you actually pay because some of us pay more then is due. You also need to know how much your gross income is. If you are married you need to visit Equifax to pull your spouses credit as well. Add up ALL of the minimum payments amount on your credit report and your spouses, write this total down. Now add up all your monthly gross income (the amount before taxes are taken out) that you receive, write this total down. Take your monthly debt total and divide it by your gross monthly income total. This will give you a number that needs to be multiplied by 100. Once you've done that you have your debt to income ratio. Here is an example:

Total minimum monthly debt payments = $870
Total Gross Monthly Income = $3000

870/3000 = 0.29
0.29 x 100 = 29%

So what does your debt to income percentage mean?

Well let's say you're looking to buy a home. Banks do not usually let you have a home loan with a payment that makes your total debt to income percentage higher then 43%. What this means to you. let's say that the above percentage is your percentage. So you already have 29% for your debt to income. This means you can only get a mortgage payment that is about 14% of your income, which is $3000.

so 3000 x 14% = $420

You can afford a monthly mortgage payment of $420.

It is very important that you pull your credit report at least once a year so you know where you stand. So what do you do if you have a high debt to income ratio? Well first things first, pay off what you can. But don't go too quickly to your creditors and pay off every account you own, this could actually hurt your credit. Let's look at the pie chart one more time:




Take a look at the credit history portion, it is 15% of your credit score. Your credit history is determined by the length of time you have had credit established. So why not pay off all your credit cards and loans? Well the minute you pay off a credit card the credit history for that card no longer counts towards the length of time your credit has been established. It's recomended by Equifax and the other credit bureus not to close out the oldest credit card you have on your credit report. Even if you don't have a balance on the credit card it's a good idea, if you want to close all your other ones, to keep that one older card open. Now don't close all your credit cards either. 10% of your credit score is the type of credit you have. Credit bureus say that your credit score will be better if you have between 3 - 5 credit cards, at least one instalment loan (auto, mortgage, suv, ect.). So try to keep at least 3 cards open. BUT you don't want your balance to be any higher then 30% of your available credit limit. For example, if you have a $1000 limit on a credit card you don't want to cary a balance of more then $300 to the next month.

The last part of your credit score is 10% of your score, this part is new credit. Make sure you don't get a bunch of new credit cards or loans all at one time. This could hurt your credit report because it sends red flags out that you might be in a financial bind.

There you have it. Step 1 to what you need to kmow about credit.

Look below for more related articles.

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Top 10 Most Effective Money Savers

Everyone wants to know the best ways to save money. I have compiled a list of what I beleive to be the top 10 most effective ways to save money. Enjoy!

1. Request a rate reduction or consolidate your credit cards. Some companies are willing to lower their interest rates if you are willing to make a phone call. It's worth a shot. If they say no, well then look at option number two, which is to consolidate your credit cards into a low 0% interest credit card. While your interest is low or at 0% continue making payments on your new card for the same amount as all the card payments combined, this will help pay off your debt quicker. Click Here for a great place to apply for a consolidation loan or credit card, no matter what your credit score.


2. Request for a reduction in the interest rate for your home equity line of credit Just like with the credit cards most financial companies will allow you to request a rate reduction, or at least give you an option for a refinance. Before you decide what you're going to do make sure you have compared interest rates.


3. Refinance you mortgage This one takes a little more thought. Interest rates are low again which means it's time to look at those refinance options again. When you refinance it's very important to look at all the prices involved. If you can lower your rate and say save $100 a month and you have to pay $3000 to do it, that would mean it would take 30 months to earn back the $3000 you had to pay to save $100 a month. So before you refinance you need to think about how long you plan on living there, how much it's going to cost, and how much you will save each month.


4. Subscribe to magazines that are must reads or free If you can't afford whats inside don't buy it!


5. Buy your car over the internet







6. Get a rewards credit card - if you can earn cash back for every purchase you're doing good.


7. Shut vents in unused rooms This isn’t advisable if you have forced air heating, but shutting vents in unused rooms can save on your heating and cooling bill, save energy!


8. Get healthy Your health will directly impact the cost of life insurance and, in some cases, can reduce the cost of your health insurance. One of he the things my family and I have started to do is take the Acai Berry every morning. This is the new super food that Opera was ranting and raving about. It's great for losing weight too, I lost 27 in my first month and I feel great! Get your fre trial here. (just make sure you load a gift card with the money for shipping so you don't have to eorry about canceling the free trial.)



9. Stop smoking This is a no brainer. I don't need to say anymore. Click here for some help quiting.


10. Drink less alcohol It costs money and ads calories.