Yes I did take a loan on the snowmobile. The company offered me 6m no payment, downpayment, and no interest...so I took that and just paid it off right away.

 

Some comments...

I think you are entitled by law for an explanation of why your loan has been denied. Also you are entitled to ask for the credit report that the bank requested. I read this somewhere, but can't remember where... I think I read it in the fine print of Dell Financial Services...

Some good reading on credit history: http://www.creditcardguide.org/

The way I see it, it is a banking game: You play by their rules, you are on. The problem is figuring out what are the best rules for you that will allow you to play losing less money.

1) I believe that paying your debt in full every month is not a good idea. If you carry no balance, you are showing the banks you have no need of borrowing money. Keep a low balance and make minimum payments, so interest will not be that high.
2) Pay on time. Credit history is a measure of responsability. If you miss a payment, you are screwed.
3) I believe credit history, along with your income and financial status are the key to get cheap loans. Your income depends on your job, your financial status depends on how much you owe and your credit history is a record of your payments. You have control in all of them, manage them wisely.
4) Learn how the credit score works. It goes up and down. Missing a payment is a big down. Maxing your CCs is a down (too risky for banks). Having too many CCs is bad (again too risky). And so on. The process of calculating and reporting credit score is complex. Find out what raises it and what lowers it.
5) You could get a credit score directly from the source, the three major reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. It is expensive, but banks ask for reports to these agencies.

The way I see it and from what I've been gathering around: don't get into debt, use your money wisely. Get into debt when you really need to (e.g. buying a house). Other than that, use cash or debit cards for monthly purchases and charge a small ammount to a CC while paying the minimum on time. Keep your CC balance no more than 50% of your limit. Get a loan ocasionally, and distribute the payments so you can do big payments at the beginning and end up paying the minimum for a long period of time. This way you are reporting a lots of payments, low debt and the interests won't kill you. For example, on a $1050 loan 29%APR, do $750, and 11x$35. You will report payments for a year, and only pay 7% of interest of the original $1050. Of course, if you pay 70% upfront, you don't really need the loan. But the only reason to do this is to report and improve credit history.

Hope this helps and hope it is correct. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Good luck!

 

1)Be careful not to apply for too much credit. Everytime you apply for credit your score will drop. Especially if you have too many credit inquiries in a year (companies checking your credit to see if you are worthy of receiving credit).
2)Get rid of your sears card. It is a rip off. Get yourself one credit card with maybe a $1000 limit and keep a low balance on it. Making a minimum payment on a small balance revolving account will improve your credit.
3)If you have ever seen your credit report you should have noticed the section that says highest past balance on account. That will also effect your credit, because it shows that you can be a risk of getting in over your head if all of your accounts have been maxed at some point.
4) check your credit report often. Even though the big 3 reporting agencies only have 1 single purpose in life, they foul it up often. My fiance had 4 different people with her name on her credit report when I met her. We fixed it and refinanced her car afterwards. She went from 14% to 4.9% because of her better credit score.

Credit is very tricky. I think public school systems should make a mandatory class for seniors so that people have some idea of how it works instead of learning the hard way. Sometimes the school of hard knocks is the best way to learn but not when it comes to credit because mistakes are costly and will effect the quality of your life.

Research credit on the the net. There is tons of info out there. Maybe check out about.com. Good Luck It seems like you are heading in the right direction and you're asking the right questions.

 

Don't worry about it, you're still young and sound responsible. You don't have to keep making minimun payments on your credit cards after a purchase is made. If you borrow $500, pay it off in two payments, don't stretch it. This gives them something and shows you're able to pay. Your employment history also has some bearing on this. But I take it you have been with the same company for a couple of years or so?

Anyways in due time you'll be offered more money than you want to borrow. As sometimes the lenders calculations and borrowers don't jive on the other end of the spectrum either.


Good luck

 

I'd like to give my .02's worth for what it's worth.
I have very littel debt, very little in bills and I'm looking to buy a house and be drving a nail in my own wood and peeing in my own yard in May, which I am righ ton track to do. I have a student loan for $14xxx dollars left on it and my truck has about 17xxx on it left to payoff. The student loan was financed for 15 years at 2.25% interest, the truck is at 6.9% apr. I also have a savings account with a lot of money in it and I have enough in my savings account to pay off the student loan if I wanted to and I have thought about it just to get it out of my hair, but the interest I am making off of my money in savings is more than the interest I am paying on my student loan meaning it is cheaper for me to keep my money in savings as it is making more than what I am loosing by payig interest on my student loan. My truck on the other hand i am loosing more in interest than what I am making. I have a very good job and I am making two truck payments every month, I was doing that on my student loans but then i realized it is more cost effective to pay what the payment is and put the rest in savings.

Look at your situation this way, what are your credit cards and such costing you in just interest? What are you making in interest in your savings account? If you are loosing money why don't you pay off the debt and be out from under it (I know how hard it is to "crack the bank" but what good is that money doing for you if you aren't using it to make more when you could be just by gettin out of debt.

Have you got an IRA started, you should as you are young, you can probably put the money into one and on many of them what you put in you can later take out for use on a down payment on a house or whatever and there is no penalty.
I have a very good retirement system with the state where I work but I am setting up an IRA just as a supplement so that when I retire I RETIRE.

Put the money into one of some sorts while you can without hurting your finances or suffering to do it, you will thank yourself later. I kow that when you go to buy a house they want to know everything, by showing them that you are on top of things and you are knowledgeable about what your money is doing for you it shows them that you take some financial initiative and while it may mean nothign to the cronie at a computer 400 miles away that is reviewing this it does mean enough to the man or woman sitting across the desk from you, that particualr person may not be albe to completely convince the person across from you to OK the loan but they will go to bat for someone who is on top of things and has their ducks lined up before they go to bat for someone who just has a bunch of money with no plan associated with it.

 

Good points.

My $5000 savings is something my parents did. Rather than give me a $5 allowance every week when i was younger, they'd take $5 out of my dads paycheck and put it in the credit union. They have taken that money and put it in a CD for me, so as of now it's not very liquid. I'm paying about $60 a month in interest on my credit cards, which is rediculous I know, but I wasn't expecting to carry this debt for long, it has gone on longer than I have expected, but it should be pretty much over with soon. About 90% of my pay can go to these bills, so I should be able to knock it out quick. I've got about $3600 in debt right now. $800 is to my dad, the rest is credit card stuff. I have about 1200 in cash, and another $1000 on the way in a few weeks plus another paycheck in 2 weeks ($800ish). It won't be too long, I'm determined

Do you know of any good sites that I can research IRAs?

After this debt is over, I plan to remain out of debt. I've got to start saving and putting some money away, I had that going for me but got shafted this summer for work (which was a good 4 months without a solid paycheck) so I lost all of it by now. I've worked for this company for 3 years, previous to that I worked at another company for 2 years (5 consecutive years w/ a job, only a couple weeks gap between them). Previous to that I worked for a local supermarket but that was when I was 15-16.

I'm not exactly sure where I want to go in the future. I know I want to buy a house, I don't really want to live in an apartment or condo. I'd rather buy a house, have roomates, and have my morgage as my rent (that way my rent goes to ownership vs someone else). However, houses around here are very expensive, you litterally cannot buy a house for less than $350,000. The average house in my city is about $500,000. So I may have to move somewhere else...I havn't really thought much about that yet as it's alil early.

I'm also a full time college student, which makes work tough cuz I still work 30+ hrs a week...

I also think schools should be teaching stuff more like this, than the stuff they waste their time on. For the amount of time I spent in school (besides college), I really didn't learn all that much for useful information...even in college I've had some wasted classes...but that's another topic...

 

Justin,

If you can raise the capital and you are handy with home repair or construction then buy a lot somehwere, build a duplex or fourplex, rent all the others out and live in one side. If you can do enough of the construction work yourself and handle the maintenance you can get enough in rent to pay for the building (at least enough to do so around here). You may not make enough in rent in a duplex to pay for the building, your insurance (for YOUR contents and YOUR building ) and the properrty taxes but you can make building payments form one side of a duplex (in a good area). I have thougt about doing this, as I know folks that have done it, I'll have to pay out of pocket for taxes and insurance but say 2 years live there, establish good credit, save some money to start another one and build another one.
again if you are proficient in home repair or construction this will be worthwhile, to have it all done will be costly.

Good idea though too on buying a bigger house and renting out the other rooms to pay for the place, the only thign here is your friends may want to pay on credit sometimes so be sure not to count SOLELY on that idea. If you are in a college town as I am in you can make it in the rental business and comeout good in it, but it will take a while and until the building is paid for you'll have to eat some expenses, (an a/c unit or heat goes out, etc, etc, etc). Luckily I worked 3 years as a sheetmetal worker and have been aroudn a lot of construction work so I can do what I described but dealing with rentrs isn't always fun either.

Gotta run NOW but I will be glad to discuss any other ideas later tonight. BTW, I am 25 years old so i am not an old rich man who ahs made it yet but I have a WELL paying job and am looking at severa investment ideas and have gotten some good advice and ideas from several well to do folks who started out like me. I will be glad to share any advice I have been given.
I work midnights and am on here regularly from work so I won't reply quick during the day but I will reply.
Good luck.

 

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions.

My sister purchased a house at 24 for about $375,000. It's a decent house, required lots of work, but she had a bf who did a lot of work to the house for her (he also lived there). Our cousin also lives there, so my sis owns the house, and her (now ex) bf and cousin pay towards the morgage. I liked that idea and may run w/ that somehow if applicable. Try to get reliable people, vs just renters.

I do know basic construction, my dad has done construction for over 30 years, so we have that as leverage, it's still a long ways away but its good to think about it early.

I'm in school for business administration, I hold a management job now...and would like to stay in management for awhile. The company I work for does ok, but it's not a career job. It would be if the company grew and a position opened for more responsiblity, but as of now I don't see that happening any time soon. The two people who run it, have no idea what they are doing. I'd like to get a good paying job and eventually become a business owner.

 

Be careful with renting your place or any other house. Renting seems a very profitable business, but it is also a source of headaches. You can get good renters and bad ones. If you get a bad one, you can loose money big time !!

The best way to rent is to get people with referals of people that you know. It is difficult to get people this way. But think that if you publish your house for rent, anybody could come to rent and you can't say no...

There are very good topics in this thread. Well done!

 

Read post #25, https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...10#post2406910

There is a lot that goes the credit score number. Check the list and see what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

I wish there were classes in school that teach you this...