QuickTips Index

How to Rebuild Bad Credit
After repairing bad credit, you need to rebuild it, prove to your creditors that you can pay your bills on time. Learn what it takes to rebuild bad credit and improve your credit score.

How Closing Credit Cards Affect Your Credit Score
Thinking about closing a credit card? Before you pick up the phone to call your credit card company, take some time to learn what will happen to your credit score if you close the card.

Remove Debt Collections From Your Credit Report
Having a debt collection on your credit report hurts your credit score. Since collection accounts stay on your credit report for seven years, your best option to repair your credit is to have it removed.

What's Not in Your Credit Score
There are specific things that influence your credit score - and specific things that don't. Learn the things that won't affect your credit score

3 Reasons You Shouldn't Opt-Out of a Higher Interest Rate
Opting-out lets you decline the new rate and pay off your balance at the lower interest rate. There’s a catch though, many credit card issuers will close your credit card if you don’t accept the new rate. Think twice about opting-out in these situations.

7 Ways to Stop a Credit Repair Scam
Credit repair organizations are governed by a law known as the Credit Repair Organizations Act. This federal law requires any credit repair service to fulfill certain obligations to you. You should avoid any credit repair service that doesn’t follow these rules.

Smart Ways for College Students to Use Credit Cards
Recent statistics show that students are graduating with more and more credit card debt. College students with credit card debt could have a harder time paying it back. Here are some tips for using credit cards if you're a student.

How to Estimate Your FICO Score
Currently, there's nowhere to get a free FICO score, unless you sign up for some subscription service. Fortunately, there are ways you can estimate your FICO score for free if you know the information in your credit report.

Tips for Sending Credit Letters
Sending letters can be a powerful tool in dealing not only with with credit businesses, but businesses in general. Whenever you send a letter, make sure you follow these tips to get the best results.

What To Do When You Can't Make Your Minimum Credit Card Payment
There may come a month when you don't have enough money to make your credit card minimum payment. Find out what you can do to maintain your credit score, interest rate, and relationship with your creditor.

How to Order Your Credit Score
Your credit score is a number that "grades" the information in your credit report. Banks use it to approve your application. You can order your credit score to find out how well your credit is doing.

Tactics For Paying Off Debt Collections
Before you pay off a collection account, first negotiate with the debt collector to have your credit report updated to something that works in your favor. As you work with debt collectors to negotiate a payment, keep in mind what you and the collector want from the deal.

Should You Pay an Old Collection
When a debt collector contacts you to pay an old collection, you might wonder if it's worth paying, especially if the statute of limitations has run out.

Should You Pay Your Taxes With a Credit Card?
The IRS gives you the convenience of paying your income taxes with your credit card. Is the extra credit card debt worth it?

How to Lower Your Debt-to-Income Ratio
As your debt-to-income ratio rises above 36%, you risk becoming overloaded with debt. Find out how you can lower your debt to income ratio and ease your financial burden.

How to Opt-Out of an Interest Rate Increase
The Truth in Lending Act requires credit cards, in most cases, to give you 15 days advance notice of any interest rate increase. When your interest rate increases, you’re given an opt-out period during which you can reject the new, higher interest rate.

How to Place a Fraud Alert on Your Credit Report
Putting a fraud alert on your credit report can protect you from identity theft. Find out how you place an fraud alert on your credit report at all three credit bureaus.

Ways to Respond to a Credit Limit Cut
When your credit card issuer cuts your credit limit, it puts your credit score in jeopardy. Find out how you can respond to a credit limit cut.

5 Ways to Respond to a Credit Card Interest Rate Increase
When your interest rate increases, you’ll typically have an opt-out period allowing you to reject the interest rate change. There are some cases you might not want to close your credit card account because it will hurt your credit score. Here's what else you can do.

How to Survive Unemployment, Maintain Your Credit, and Manage Your Debt
Suffering a job loss is an unfortunate situation, but unemployment isn't the end of the world, or the end of your finances. Maintaining a good credit score and a reasonable level of debt is important while you look for a new job.

Managing a Joint Credit Card Account
You might get a joint credit card account with a spouse, partner, or even a child to simply bill paying, to merge your lives, or to help that person get a better credit score. Managing a joint credit card account isn’t always easy. You have to discuss everything you’d automatically decide when you have your own credit account.

How to Fix Bad a Bad Credit Report
The specific steps to credit repair depends on what's on your credit report. Here are some of the most common credit blemishes and information on fixing them.

Avoid Paying For Your Free Credit Report
Late-night commercials sing about free credit reports, but those reports aren't actually free. There are many free credit report scams and only one way to get your free annual credit report without using a credit card.

Two Credit Card Payback Methods That Work
Stumped on how to pay back your credit card debt. Here are two methods that will work.

How to Get out of the Over the Limit Fee Trap
Are you wondering why you keep getting over the credit limit fees even though you pay your balance below the limit each month? I'll tell you why plus how you can get out of the trap.