Last week, numerous web sites carried the news story, wrote blog posts, and print articles on the Urban Institute’s study that 35% of all Americans are delinquent on their debt and getting to know their debt collectors on a first name basis. If you live in the Dallas metropolitan area, the news is even worse.
Living with bad credit in America today is tough. Bad credit makes many things difficult, impossible, and even more expensive. For example, did you know insurance companies often charge a higher premium rate for policy holders that have bad credit scores? If you’re getting new utilities turned on in your name, the company will check your credit to decide whether you should pay a security deposit.
These days there are so many online credit monitoring companies offering free credit reports and scores; it’s hard to determine which one provides the best and most accurate information. Credit scores can change daily for a number of reasons and no two credit monitoring companies – – or the credit bureau’s for that matter – – score the same way!
Before credit reports and scores existed, financial institutions had to guess whether someone was a good applicant (or risk) for taking out a loan. Credit reports and scores were “invented” to take the guess work out of it. The national average credit score is approximately 672 – – but how are credit scores calculated?
I was helping a new client with his home insurance earlier this week. I’d made the final modifications to the application and sent it to him to be electronically signed. We reviewed it together by phone and he wanted to ask a couple of questions about a notice on the last page of the application. The notice mentioned he had not received the “best” pricing due to a couple of items that were returned on his insurance score including inquiries.
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