Self-employed people rebuild credit the same way everyone does — on-time payments, low balances, and accurate reports — but with two extra challenges: irregular income and business debt mixing with personal credit. To rebuild, budget around your lowest-earning month, keep a cash buffer so slow months don’t cause late payments, put minimum payments on autopay, …
How Self-Employed People Can Rebuild Their Credit Score Read More »
To calculate your credit utilization, divide your credit card balance by your credit limit and multiply by 100. Do it for each card and for all cards combined, because scoring models look at both. For example, a $450 balance on a $3,000 limit is 15% utilization. A good rule of thumb is to keep utilization …
Credit Utilization Calculator: Find Your Ideal Balance Read More »
Your FICO score is calculated from five categories of information in your credit report: payment history (35%), amounts owed (30%), length of credit history (15%), credit mix (10%), and new credit (10%). Payment history and amounts owed — mainly your credit card utilization — make up about 65% of your score, which is why paying …
How Your Credit Score Is Calculated: The 5 Factors Explained Read More »
The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) is a federal law that protects you from unfair and deceptive credit repair practices. Most importantly, it prohibits credit repair companies from charging you before they fully perform the services they promised. It also bans false or misleading promises, prohibits advising you to lie to credit bureaus or create …
What Does the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) Actually Protect You From? Read More »
No — under current credit bureau policy, medical collections under $500 should not appear on your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. The bureaus also remove paid medical collections of any amount and wait one year before reporting new medical collections. If a medical collection under $500 still shows up, you can dispute it …
Does Medical Debt Under $500 Still Show on Your Credit Report? Read More »
If you see a debt collector’s name on your credit report that you don’t recognize, it usually means a debt you once owed was sold to a debt buyer or assigned to a collection agency — so the name you see isn’t the company you originally did business with. Every collection entry should list the …
The Complete Guide to Understanding Debt Collector Names on Your Credit Report Read More »