New Credit Card but why? July 28, 2006
Posted by Administrator in : credit , add a commentOk so I am getting a new credit card through my bank. Why? Well for one is to raise my credit score. I will have a higher limit than the cards I received when I was younger. When lenders show they are comfortable giving you a higher credit limit it can improve your credit score as long as you don’t max out the card which I don’t plan on doing. I will be making two big purchases as well with this card but I am taking advantage of the 0% interest for 6 months and I will have that payed off before the 6 months. Hey its same as cash why pay it all at once? I will be buying a laptop which I need badly, and an xbox360 which I don’t need so badly but I have held out since they released back in November. After that I am not making any purchases with this card unless its gas or something.
Since I have been shopping for a good deal on a laptop I have found a few good sites for catching some deals. One of them is dealcatcher.com
I know I work for Dell part-time and I would buy a laptop from them considering the discount I would get but I just really like HP’s 17 inch laptop. I really like the numeric keypad being on there as well as the lightscribe cd/dvd burner combo drive. The Dell 17 inch has no numerical keypad and does not have lightscribe.
Moving in July 19, 2006
Posted by Administrator in : Saving , 7 commentsIt has been a while since I posted. Since then I have been working at my two jobs pulling long hours each day and the spare time that I had was dedicated to sleep and only sleep. Finally today I have a day off and I used it to move out of my current place to move in with my brother and his fiance. One good thing about moving there is that rent is cheap! My rent will be $217.00 per month which equals to a savings of about $180.00 per month in just rent alone not to mention cable, utilities and other costs associated with living in a place. Over a years time thats a savings of $2,160.00. My plan is to still act like I am paying my old rent but the savings from it will go directly in to my savings account. My thing is if I lived with that cost of rent the past year then why cant I this year but just take and save the difference.
SogoInvest a new discount brokerage July 13, 2006
Posted by Administrator in : Uncategorized, accounts/brokerages , 3 comments
I found this out from MyMoneyBlog, its a new discount brokerage that is comparable to Sharebuilder. The name is SogoInvest. There is no minimum to open an account, automatic investments are $3.00 as opposed to Sharebuilder $4.00, real time orders are $3.00 as opposed to Sharebuilders $11.95-$15.95. That is a substantial difference and will really cut down on brokerage fees. Also you have automatic daily investments, Sharebuilder you have to have them on Tuesdays every week. Also like Sharebuilder you can purchase fractional shares, and there is no inactivity fees.
- Pricing and Features
- Demo of opening an account
- Transfer funds to your account
After finding out about this it looks like I will be opening up an account with SogoInvest.
Factors Determining your Credit Score July 10, 2006
Posted by Administrator in : credit , 1 comment so farToday I was checking on my credit report to see if anything was negative. Well there was indeed. I purchased a car back in May of 2004 and in January of 2005 I just landed a new job after not having one for about 3 months. So car payment time came and I couldn’t make the payment because I didnt have the money. So I requested an extension and it was granted to me. So they took that months billing and put it at the end of the payment plan. The problem was though is that the information I faxed to them that enabled me to get the extension somehow didnt reach them until March??? (I was like what in the HELL? MARCH?)
The guy on the phone was explaining that I chose to make a payment in February and that cancelled the extension thus showing that I didnt pay on my account for more than 30 days which negatively effects your credit score. So after talking to the guy on the phone we got it resolved and they are going to wipe that off my record because the extension was supposed to be granted in January and not March which eliminates me from having any wrong doing.
So after dealing with this I was wondering what other factors determine your credit score. The following is from Yahoo Finance that explains a little more on factors that determine your credit.
A credit score or credit bureau risk score is based on information drawn from your credit report. About 30 individual factors are used to determine the score. Certain factors, such as payment history, have more weight than others, such as the length of your credit history. However, a factor may be more important to your credit score than to someone else’s score because of differences in individuals’ credit reports. Also, each factor’s importance can change as your credit report changes. Factors can be categorized in five areas:
- Payment history. Payment information on credit cards, installment loans (such as a car loan), mortgage loans or finance company accounts. Are there public record items, such as judgments or bankruptcy, and collection items? Details on late or missed payments, including how much was owed, how late the payments were and how recently they occurred. How many accounts show no late payments. According to Fair Isaac, this category usually determines about 35% of your score.
- Outstanding debt. Amount owed on all accounts and on different types of accounts, such as credit cards or installment loans. How many accounts have balances? How close are you to each credit limit? According to Fair Isaac, this category usually determines about 30% of your score.
- Credit history. How long have you been building a credit history? How long specific accounts have been established and how long since you used each account? According to Fair Isaac, this category usually determines about 15% of your score.
- Pursuit of new credit. How many inquiries and new accounts does your report show, and how recent are they? How long has it been since the most recent inquiry? Whether you have made on-time payments to re-build your credit after a period of frequent late payments. According to Fair Isaac, this category usually determines about 10% of your score.
- Types of credit in use. How many accounts are reported for bank cards, travel and entertainment cards, department store cards, installment loans, and so on. According to Fair Isaac, this category usually determines about 10% of your score.
Also informative is the list of “reasons” that may be provided to account for why a score isn’t higher. When lenders request your credit score, they also receive a list of the four most significant reasons your score is not higher. Although lenders do not have to tell you your score, they should share the reasons listed on the report with you.
The possible FICO reasons are:
- Amount owed on accounts is too high.
- Delinquency on accounts.
- Too few bank revolving accounts.
- Too many bank or national revolving accounts.
- Too many accounts with balances.
- Consumer finance accounts.
- Account payment history too new to rate.
- Too many recent inquiries in the last 12 months.
- Too many accounts opened in the last 12 months.
- Proportion of balances to credit limits is too high on revolving accounts.
- Amount owed on revolving accounts is too high.
- Length of revolving credit history is too short.
- Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown.
- Length of credit history is too short.
- Lack of recent bank revolving information.
- Lack of recent revolving account information.
- No recent non-mortgage balance information.
- Number of accounts with delinquency.
- Too few accounts currently paid as agreed.
- Time since derogatory public record or collection.
- Amount past due on accounts.
- Serious delinquency, derogatory public record, or collection.
- Too many bank or national revolving accounts with balances.
- No recent revolving balances.
- Proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high.
- Lack of recent installment loan information.
- Date of last inquiry too recent.
- Time since most recent account opening too short.
- Number of revolving accounts.
- Number of bank revolving or other revolving accounts.
- Number of established accounts.
- No recent bankcard balances.
- Too few accounts with recent payment information.
Keep in mind that your credit report changes day to day as you make payments or increase balances. If you pay off your credit cards in full every month but your credit score is compiled before your payments are reported to the credit bureau, your score will reflect those balances. Generally, the total balance on your last statement is the amount shown on your credit report.
Source Yahoo Finance
Financial Calculators July 7, 2006
Posted by Administrator in : Calculators , add a commentTools & Calculators
I am always looking for financial tools and calculators all the time as you may have noticed from my download section I already have some on there. These calculators come from www.tdameritrade.com
Right now I am in the process for looking for a Roth IRA account to open and I was just browsing through tdameritrade’s site and found some of the financial calculators that I thought would be worth sharing.
Disability Income Calculator
See the effect disability can have on your financial future.
Early Payout Planner
View how much money you would net, after tax and penalties, if you cashed in your retirement savings plan early.
IRA Planner
Analyze whether a Roth or traditional IRA may be best for an individual’s unique circumstances.
Life Insurance Calculator
Calculate how much life insurance you may need based on your current financial situation.
Personal Net Worth Calculator
Find out how much you are worth with this simple net worth calculator, which will help you tally your assets and liabilities, and calculate your debt ratio.
Required Minimum Distribution Calculator
Calculate the amount of mandatory withdrawals from IRAs after age 70 ½.
Retirement Planner
Calculate a retirement savings goal based on current income and the amount to be invested each year to pursue that goal for a given rate of return.
Savings Gap Calculator
Evaluate whether or not your savings are on track to meet your retirement income needs.
The Cost of Waiting Calculator
Calculate how much more you’ll need to contribute each year to reach your retirement goal if you put off saving for retirement.
Time Value Calculator
Calculate the value of compound returns for different time periods and rates of return.
Stocks for $4 Sharebuilder
