Finance: Credit Report – How to Improve Your Credit Score

Credit Report – How to Improve Your Credit Score

Written by Charles Essmeier

One of repparttar

great mysteries of life is how repparttar 135675

three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union) score credit. They all have secret statistical formulas for determining your credit score, but they are unwilling to divulge exactly what, exactly, constitutes your score. This can make it difficult for people with problem credit to try to improve their score in hopes of obtaining a home or car loan later. .

While repparttar 135676

exact formula is a secret, there are a few things you can do that will undoubtedly improve your score: .

Pay off a home equity line of credit. These loans, which allow you to borrow more than once against your home’s equity, are considered revolving credit, much like a credit card. Pay it down or pay it off; either should help your score.

Check your credit report regularly; you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once a year. By looking over your credit report, you can make sure that debts you have paid on time are shown on

Buying a New Sports Car – Twelve Tips To Avoid Financial Sticker Shock

Written by Valerie Mills

Nothing (well, almost nothing) can compare to repparttar

thrill of driving a road-hugging high performance sports car. Instant steering response. Power at repparttar 135619

exact nanosecond you ask for it.

Then, if you have one of repparttar 135620 sexier models, you’ll attract attention on repparttar 135621 road, filling up, and in repparttar 135622 shopping mall parking lot.

Yes, you can pretend you’re driving repparttar 135623 Autobahn with repparttar 135624 wind blowing your hair. But beware of state troopers just waiting for an “arrest me red” entry on their ticket issuing track record.

Before You Fall In Love . . .

Before you step into that showroom and fall in love, consider repparttar 135625 following practicalities:

1) How much do you want to spend? $20,000? $30,000? Or more?

2) What’s repparttar 135626 tradeoff between performance (power) and gas mileage? Higher performance usually equals less gas mileage.

Does repparttar 135627 vehicle use premium gas? Right now, repparttar 135628 difference between premium and regular is 20 cents per gallon. At 20 miles per gallon and 15,000 miles per year, repparttar 135629 cost differential is $150.

3) What about reliability? Some upscale models cost considerably more to maintain and have a higher incidence of repair costs. Would you appreciate paying $125 just to diagnose repparttar 135630 problem when repparttar 135631 check engine light comes on? Or paying $70 for an oil change?

4) In a climate where snow and ice are winter realities, do you want to drive it year round? Or store it over repparttar 135632 winter?

A rear wheel drive sports car is impractical for winter driving. A front, all-wheel, or 4-wheel drive sport car can be driven in snow and ice, if you use all-season tires. If repparttar 135633 little devil comes with performance tires, you will want to buy all-season tires (and possibly rims) for winter driving. Add another $1500 to repparttar 135634 price of repparttar 135635 car for repparttar 135636 right tires and rims.

Do Your Homework . . .

5) Once you’ve decided price, performance, gas mileage, reliability, and practicality for all-season driving, get on repparttar 135637 Internet. Here you can compare models and pricing and read reviews. Google “buying a new car” or “new car prices” and several sites will pop up.

Another source is Consumer Report (the new car issue) where your criteria will be easy to find. Red dots are good. Black dots are not. Most American car dealers consider this issue of Consumer Report a nightmare because it favors foreign car models, especially Asian cars. However, as explained in repparttar 135638 newest version of this report, American car manufacturers are catching up.

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