If you are already late on your payments, you may still be able to work with your creditors to minimize the impact these late payments have on your credit rating. Try negotiating for a new payment plan that ensures you will be able to stay up to date on your payments as you move forward. If you have the money on hand to bring your accounts current, ask if your creditor will remove the negative items from your credit reports in exchange for payment.
What if I’m having trouble keeping my reports clean?
January 22nd, 2012When to Close an Account:
January 15th, 2012Closing a credit account can be tricky business. While it seems harmless, the damage to your credit score can pack a punch if done incorrectly. Hurting your credit utilization ratio and credit history are among the many considerations. So, with evidence piling up in favor of keeping accounts open, when is it a good idea to close an account?
- Identity theft. Bad credit is unfairly doled out when another person steals your credit information. Many thieves can charge thousands in debt before anyone notices, so it is important to review your finances carefully. If you spot an unauthorized charge, call your creditor immediately and close the account to prevent further damage. Ask your creditor to refund the fraudulent purchase prices and reinstate your account with another different account number. Finally, if the creditor will simply invalidate the original card and change the account number without closing it, that will prove least harmful to your score.
- Too many cards. While the credit bureaus may generalize the scoring process, some will tell you why bad credit is plaguing your score. For example, if you own too many consumer credit cards, your credit may suffer as a result. On the other hand, if you simply close cards, your score may plummet. One thing to look for: Multiple cards from the same creditor can often be combined into one account, thereby lowering the raw number of cards while still preserving their collective credit limits. This will likely increase your credit score in turn.
- Divorce. Separating marital finances is a difficult but necessary process. Often, the family court requires you to close your joint accounts to effectively sever joint spending. Go along with this ruling and prevent your ex’s habits from spilling into your finances. Bad credit is easily born this way.
- Damage control. If excess spending has resulted in financial troubles, you may want to limit your options. Closing one account in a sea of others may curb your ability to overspend and further your worries. Yes, your credit utilization ratio and history may suffer, but the effects of overspending may overshadow these issues. If you must, close your most recent card to minimize damage to your record of longstanding credit use. The short-term effects may sting, but long-term bad credit is a greater wound to bear.
Closing an account is a serious and important choice, and one size does not fit all. Assessing your own situation is the best way to choose a course of action and strengthen your finances. Don’t let bad credit get the best of you. Rather, educate yourself and take steps to improve.
2011 Tax Lien Changes
September 28th, 2011February 24, 2011 President Obama announced new policies regarding Federal Tax Liens.
- No Federal Tax Liens will be placed for amounts under $10,000
- No Delinquent balances under $10,000 will be reported with the credit bureaus
- A consumer who makes a payment arrangement with their tax lien and makes their 1st payment as an auto-debt will be able to get the tax lien removed from their credit report.
- This policy is retroactive which will affect all Federal Tax Liens current in place!
Debt Management
August 12th, 2011With the recent changes in the economy, American’s have figured out that we can only rely on ourselves with money management. Many are disappointed in our government on their choices with the debt ceiling and how money is being spent.
We do have control over our own finances. If you need help with budgeting, debt snowball, where to invest or information on purchasing a home, please request information from the home page.
New Leaf Credit is more than a credit restoration service. We want to give you as much information, education and tools to be successful.
New Updates!
May 19th, 2011New Updates are out – Check out the new status portal, a new look, exciting feel and easy to use.
New Pricing
March 1st, 2011New Leaf Credit is here to work with you. Our credit services are not here to put you in a bind, it’s here to help you stay out of one. Adding a new pricing structure is one way that we take steps to better serve our clients. Now you can choose which works best for your budget. Set up today on an easy monthly plan or take advantage today with our Pay Per Deletion structure with NO money down and NO monthly payments!
Live The Life You Deserve
Student Loan Debt Surpasses Credit Card Debt
November 14th, 2010In a new statement released by FastWeb.com, a website dedicated to helping eligible students find financial aid and scholarships, American student debt totaled 830 billion as of June 2010. For the first time in history, this is a number that actually surpasses the total American’s owe in credit card debt. These findings are causing some serious concerns when it comes to the financial future of current students, their credit, and for the economy in general.
In response to these concerns, The Department of Education has released new regulation in an attempt to help protect students in the future. These regulations will apply to for-profit, nonprofit, as well as public institutions. The regulations seek to make improvements in three main areas including improving the quality of degrees, defining “gainful employment” standards for universities, and conserving tax payer and student dollars.
According to a new press release by the U.S. Department of Education, the new rules and regulations were set in 14 different areas. They aim to certify program integrity and ensure that students can use their degrees after graduation. For-Profit institutions are now required to disclose accurate job placement records and graduation statistics to students. Another initiative aims to protect tax payers by ensuring that students use any federal aid dollars in degree programs that actually offer them a shot in the workforce, instead of wasting time and federal dollars.
Some are skeptical about the new regulations, claiming they won’t do enough to alleviate students’ woes. While the costs of college educations are continually on the rise and salaries and employment are down, students are likely to continue to amass large debts as they try their best to gain what is necessary to have a shot at becoming a permanent part of the workforce. To make matters worse, those who were lucky enough to have college funds set aside may have seen a decrease in account value when the recession hit.
According to earlier reports, in addition to amassing student loan debt, students themselves are also funding things such as food, textbooks, and housing costs on credit cards to pick up where student loans leave off. With more and more young Americans starting out in debt, their credit could be at risk.
Get Credit, Raise Your Score
November 3rd, 2010Having trouble getting qualified for credit? Want to raise your credit score but no one will give you a chance?
Qualifying for credit can be difficult and embarrassing, but not for this merchandise account! Simply complete this application and your request for a line of credit for additional purchases will be reviewed along with your credit report. You will be notified usually within 72 hours the amount for which you have qualified.
Consider the Cons of Balance Transfer Offers
November 1st, 2010In order to win your business, credit card companies sometimes offer low interest and 0% interest for a limited time on balance transfers. This allows credit card holders to transfer a debt from one credit card on which they’re presumably paying a higher interest rate onto a card temporarily offering a lower rate.
The average credit card interest rate is about 15%. If you have a good credit history (which is usually the case if you are receiving these offers today), going from a high interest rate to a lower or zero interest rate may help to alleviate some compounding interest, at least for a while. This could possibly allow you to pay off balances faster if you work hard on it, but beware of the alternative outcome. Credit card experts advise that individuals should be careful when it comes to deciding if a card to card balance transfer is the right thing to do. It’s important to look at your individual situation rather than blindly being swayed by low initial rates and prestigious rewards even though they can be tempting. Balance transfer offers may have more disadvantages than advantages.
If you have financial trouble, trouble controlling spending, or lack of discipline when it comes to keeping up with payments, these 0% transfer offers could become a nightmare. One of the biggest cons is adding to your pile of debt. If you can’t keep up with payments or pay off a debt before the offer expires, the initial low rate can jump to a very high penalty rate.
Some experts report that moving balances from credit card to credit card could even harm your credit score. If this has been the case, you’ll need the help of a credit repair expert to get back on track. Another issue is that especially today, most of these offers come with 3-5% fees. This means an additional 3-5% on the balance you’re transferring will be charged to you For example, if you transfer 20,000, you could be charged up to an additional $1000 for the privilege to transfer. To protect your credit, be sure to do the math and consider your ability to pay off your debt quickly before accepting one of these offers.
What is an Inquiry??
October 8th, 2010The definition of a credit inquiry is – A list of all entities that pulled your credit reports and on what date. An inquiry’s two parts (date and industry type) are important, and we’ll dig into that later on. The credit bureaus generally keep a list of inquiries from anywhere between 6 months and 2 years.
All inquiries can be categorized as either “hard” or “soft”. Hard inquiries are usually the result of you applying for some sort of credit or other benefit. Soft inquiries are usually the result of someone pulling your credit for a reason not reactive to an application. For example, a home loan application results in a hard inquiry, as do credit card applications. Consumers claiming copies of their own credit reports results in a soft inquiry.
There are, however, some interesting tidbits regarding inquiries that are not obviously known because they’re not floating around in the cyber-world. When you apply for a job the employer can pull your credit report. This leaves an employment inquiry, which does not count in your scores. When you apply for homeowner’s or auto insurance the insurance company can pull your credit reports in most cases. This leaves an insurance inquiry, which does not count in your scores. When you apply for utilities the service provider can pull your credit reports to determine deposit requirements. This leaves a utility inquiry, which does not count in your scores.
Exceptions aside, the value of inquiries isn’t that great to begin with. In fact, 10% of your FICO score is influenced by inquiries so it’s never the reason why your score is great, or terrible. But, it’s important enough to cost you a loan or a better interest rate because even if you fall 5 or 10 points below a lenders requirement…you’re not scoring good enough. Avoiding unnecessary inquiries or strategically shopping so that you leverage the FICO inquiry logic is the best way to max out the point in the inquiry category.
Request a call from our “request information” section on our home page today!
