Credit Score Magic

If credit scores were a subject in school, we here at Credit Karma would ace every test. We spend our days reading up on new credit legislation, updating you on the new credit score rules, and obsessing over credit card rewards. When it comes to writing about credit scores on the Credit Karma Blog, we focus on clarifying credit misunderstandings.

Today, we’re going to cover three things you might not know about credit scores.

Instead of worrying about your specific three-digit score, take a look at each individual factor of your credit score in your Credit Report Card for insight into what’s making your score fluctuate.

What’s important is that you track one score for progress so that you have one metric helping you gage your overall credit health. If you do that, you should see an improvement across all credit score models.

Spring is the season of green thumbs. But did you know you can save a lot of green on interest rates if you tend to your credit scores as carefully as some people tend their gardens? Credit scores are like gardens: if you don’t give them care and attention, a nasty bad score can show up and ruin everything. If you want to get to the root of your credit scores, FreeScore will help you do the digging.

Know Before You Grow

Before you try to cultivate favor with lenders, insurers and employers, you need to know your 3 credit scores. FreeScore lets you know if your credit scores are flourishing or wilting. And that’s important, because you can’t negotiate the best interest rates without knowing what each of the three national credit bureaus TransUnion, Experian and Equifax has to say about your credit scores.

Monitor New Accounts

Have you ever started a garden, only to find a pervasive weed has snuck in? If you don’t monitor newly opened accounts in your name, you could fall prey to identity theft and not realize it until you receive collection calls for debt you didn’t charge. But with

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Curious how credit bureaus and the whole credit score industry evolved?  Follow the history of credit and credit scores in this data visualization infographic.

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Around this time of year, many recent college graduates are settling down into their first full-time jobs and getting their first taste of life on their own paying bills, shopping around for credit cards and insurance, and trying to pay down student loan debt.

With so many bills to pay, many young people can feel overwhelmed. Thats not surprising, given the fact that the average graduate from the class of 2009 holds $24,000 in student loan debt. Future students and alumni can expect this to rise in the coming years, as this type of debt rose by six percent from 2008 to 2009 alone.

For many young people who are interacting with major lenders and credit card companies for the first time, its important for them to understand that, as in many other areas of life, a first impression can be a valuable one.

Those who choose to let their bills go delinquent could end up hurting their credit histories.

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Lenders use credit scores to gauge whether an applicant has the ability to repay debt in a timely manner. Banks consider borrowers with low credit scores to be high-risk customers because loans that default have to repaid by the government. This results in losses for the bank.

A payment history, outstanding loans, and any other owed money are among the criteria used by the national credit bureaus to calculate credit scores. Equifax, TransUnion and Experian compile these statistics into a score that ranges between the mid-300s and the mid-800s. The lower the score, the worse a borrower’s repayment history is considered to be, according to Investopedia.

Nationally, the average American with a credit card had $174,447 in mortgage loan debt, $15,186 in auto loan debt, and $7,694 in credit card debt, according to the San Francisco Business Times. Debt has a direct impact on an individual’s credit score, and additional points can be taken off depending on how late payments are made.

Credit scores across the country are down two points since the start of 2010. Mas

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Need a Higher Credit Score?

Many people wonder does a secured credit card help your credit scores? If you are trying to repair your own credit you may have asked yourself that very question. The simple answer to that question is “yes a secured credit card will help your credit scores”. With that said however there are a few things that you need to do as a borrower to make sure that you get most from your secured credit card and self credit repair efforts.

How To Make Sure Your Secured Credit Cards Improves Your Credit Score

The very first thing you should do is sign up for the credit card lenders auto pay option so you do not make a late payment on your account. Many lenders offer this option to their borrowers. If your lender does not, there are many third party companies that will let you pay your bills through them, a simple Google search will help you find these services.

Next make sure that you keep your spending habits under control or you could find that your new secured credit card is actually hurting your credit score more then helping it. Read more…