Cutting Back to Save My Credit

Many Americans find out the hard way that they need to cut back to help their credit score. If you find yourself in that position don’t be afraid. It is simple management and control over your spending that will help you get back in control.
Start will building a budget that helps you reduce your debt. Even if you are adding an additional $10 a month to reducing your debt, it will help. Once you see that you are not missing that $10 you can increase it little by little until you are making double payments to your credit cards. This will help you reduce your debt quickly.
Pay attention to your credit cards and their interest rates. It is best to pay down your cards with the highest interest rates first. By getting them paid down and possibly paid off you will save money on the interest you were paying. Don’t close out those accounts though because you may want to keep them for your credit score. If they are your oldest accounts, you will find that they help your credit score but you do have to use them. Generally you should charge something on the card and pay it off completely at the end of statement period. This keeps the card showing some activity and you are not getting slammed with a lot of interest. By paying off your credit cards in order from the highest interest rate to the lowest interest rate, you will find that your credit score is going up simply by reducing your debt.
After you have setup a budget and started reducing your debt, you can start planning to save some money to help you build that financial nest egg. Once you have reduced your debt take that extra money you were using to pay down your debt and transfer that directly into a savings account. Building an emergency fund for life’s unexpected things will help you protect yourself from falling into financial ruin. Medical emergencies, unemployment or simple accidents can cause a lot of problems if you don’t have any protection. A good nest-egg is basically 6 months worth of living expenses. What you spend each month for home, food, utilities is what you should consider living expenses. This gives you some time to recover if you become ill or lose your job.
Setting a budget, reducing your debt, building an emergency fund are all the steps you will need to take to improve your credit. Sometimes it will feel that you are attempting the impossible but if start small and try to improve each month it will become easier as you go along. Getting your debt under control is the most important thing because it will help you with your credit score. Then you might be able to refinance things to save you some money.

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Benefits Of Cash Back Credit Cards

It has always been recommended that we have an emergency credit card. This card should be used when we run into any car trouble, financial trouble, or even medical trouble. If you are looking for the right emergency credit card, you should look at all of the extras that you can receive. Cash back credit cards have become increasingly popular over the past few years. Take a look here and find out what you should look for in a cash back credit card.

With cash back credit cards, you want to maximize the amount fo cash that you are going to receive. In order to get the most amount of cash back, you need to make some purchases. With each purchase that you make with your credit card, you are going to get a certain amount back. After you hit a certain total, you will be able to cash in and receive your money!

The research that you will do will allow you to compare some of the top rated credit cards out there. Make a point to look at the cash back rates as well as the interest rates. It does not make any sense to have a cash back credit card with high interest rates. All of your returned money is simply going to go back to the credit card company.

Because of the amount of technology that we have at our fingertips, we can now apply for a credit card online. No only can we apply, we can find out if we are approved or not within minutes. All you need to do is sit down and plug in all of your information.

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build credit with a Debit Card

My brother had always insisted on using a debit card the entire time he went through high school and college.  I never understood his obsession of avoiding a credit charge. Many times that we would go places and he couldn’t use the debit cards because the company only accepted credit charges.

At times like this, I was often the one who had to pay.  I used my credit card to pay and he would pay me back the next day.  He always paid me without fail.  I always made an online payment as soon as he paid me.  I knew he was afraid of bad credit because our parents had that problem and it took them almost 14 years to rebuild their credit.
The weird thing was that when he decided to buy a car, he had trouble getting approval.  When he questioned the salesperson, he found that he didn’t have bad credit but that he had no credit history, which was almost as bad.  Since he never used any credit cards , he never built any real credit history.
The dealer worked out a loan agreement but the interest rate was too high for my brother’s taste.  Just for fun, I asked the salesperson to run my credit and see if I could co-sign for him.  To our surprise, the salesperson said I could have any car on the lot right now and at the lowest interest rate.  Apparently, all the payments I had made on my credit cards over the last few years had given me a great credit history.
My brother allowed me to co-sign and he no longer pays everything by debit card.  He does what I did.  He makes a charge, then goes home, and makes an online payment immediately.  My brother didn’t build his credit with a debit card, but I sure did!

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