Posted on 11/24/2008 6:47:21 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
You can a free credit report AND free score from the following site, BUT you must cancel within 30 days or they will begin charging your credit card. It's basically the same score you'll get with FICO. In any case, at least you'd have some general idea:
http://www.creditexpert.com/
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION (from the website):
When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Experian Credit Manager. If you don't cancel your membership within the 30 day trial period, you will be billed $11.95 for each month that you continue your membership. Under a new Federal law, you have the right to receive a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies. To request your free annual report under that law, you must go to www.annualcreditreport.com CreditExpertSM and ConsumerInfo.com, Inc. are not affiliated with the annual free credit report program.
Go for it. We pulled up the carpet in a 5-year-old house and replaced it with laminate. The wife loved it - cut the cleaning time down to next to nothing. The next house we bought we told the builder to leave the floors bare - got a discount to boot, which helped pay for the laminate we installed. Wife still swears by it. A happy wife is a happy house.
What brand did she get?
I’ve been looking at Pergo.
That's probably a good idea. We pondered whether or not to keep one or both of them even if they won't be used.
Sometimes, a credit card is needed, though my bank card (debit/credit) seems to work just as well.
You are entitled to get a copy of your credit report annually from all of the big three.
So let me get this...
Living within your means, not using or even owning a credit card, and saving for the things you want (including a large down payment on a house), and being responsible make you less trustworthy?
OTOH, living on credit cards, no money down mortgages, and living outside of your means (as long as you pay the minimum every month) somehow makes one more attractive to landlords, banks, and employers?
So, in order to make yourself look responsible, you have to go into debt? I’m not just talking about a mortgage, but loans and credit cards and financing vehicles.
Is it just me, or does that sounds a little backwards?
(Signed, soon to be debt-free except for the house—thanks to Dave Ramsey)
No.
Using credit responsibly, which means you have a history of making payments on time and a decent used credit to available credit ratio, makes you a decent credit risk.
Having no credit history means you have no history.
If you want to make yourself look trustworthy, you have to take out small accounts and use them periodically. Or faithfully pay for a car on installments.
Something that shows you have a history.
Being up to your eyeballs in debt doesn’t help.
You can expect that to go UP.Even if it's a transfered balance and you got the rate fixed.
You can also get a free *score* at the site I linked to earlier (again below). BUT you'd have to cancel the free trial before 30 days are up. The score should be similar to FICO. FICO charges about $14.00 for each individual score from the big 3 credit report agencies: Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion.
I do expect it to go up according to the thread topic.
Still, if it goes up, if the creditors renege and raise rates - we pay it off.
We are making payments at this point because we prefer our money earning interest in the bank. If we wind up having to pay more than the 2.99 - the loan ceases to be an asset to our interests.
If they get greedy, the credit companies lose the little they were making on us now and our business in the future.
You go right ahead and use those charge cards...I’ll stick to cash. :)
Pergo - that’s what we got. Good stuff.
>>Until you want to get a mortgage. Good luck doing that with no credit history.<<
Who wants a mortgage. Owning your own home is no longer the american dream. It is the american nightmare.
I’ve owned for two decades, and have rented the last few years. I prefer renting. And now that the “your home is an investment” lie has been exposed, owning looks less and less desirable.
A home is an investment. What it isn’t is a piggy bank to keep cashing equity out of.
sure, we pay our CC off each month, but not so for many people, particularly young people....
they have to learn to get off the CC drug, and expect to pay more each month....
your dtrs sound wonderful.....
>>A home is an investment.<<
Right now it is a bad one. Kinda like Wamu stock in the first half of this year.
Like all real estate, it depends on location.
So true. I swore I wouldn’t buy until maybe 2011. Yet I bought a spectacular place in Kentucky just last month.
Who knew!
So true. I swore I wouldn’t buy until maybe 2011. Yet I bought a spectacular place in Kentucky just last month.
Who knew!
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