It used to be that “people” made decisions about your credit worthiness. You knew your banker and your handshake was all the collateral you needed. Those days are long gone, and now a single number – your FICO score – determines your credit worthiness.

Several credit models can be used for this article, however we are going to focus on the Fair, Isaac Company model. Better known as FICO.

Your FICO credit score can be used to determine your interest rate and how much credit a lender will give you. So taking care of your score, and keeping your credit clean will save you money.

Getting and improving your credit score is not hard at all, just takes time. Here is a tip or two that will help you improve and increase your score.

FIRST: You need to get a copy of your credit history

There are many reasons you may have no credit history. Maybe you’re just starting out, maybe you pay cash for everything and have never needed a loan. In any case, if you have no credit history, your FICO score is likely to be low.

The easiest way to raise your score is acquire a loan, and pay it off on time. In general, installment loans are weighted more heavily than credit cards. In other words, you will improve your credit score faster if you buy goods with an installment loan, rather than acquiring a credit card.

Another option is to take a $1000 and open a 6 month CD at a bank. Now turn around and get an installment loan using the CD as the collateral. You then take that $1000 loan and do it again at another bank. Do this for a total of 3 times.

Let the CD’s mature, paying only the minimum for the 6 months. Once they mature you cash them out and pay off all three loans. Congratulations…you now have a credit history.

SECOND: Maintain Your Good Credit History

Good job – you have paid your bills on time, and do not have high credit card debt. Here’s some ideas to keep your FICO score as high as possible.

Don’t close your old accounts. One part of your credit score is based on the amount of credit available verses amount of credit used. Closing old accounts can lower this part of your score.

Something to think about. The day of the month you pay off your credit card may have a lot to do with your FICO score. Let?s say you have a $2000 credit card. Every month, you charge about $1800 to that card. And, every month you pay it off. But here’s what happens – your credit card company reports your credit information monthly to FICO, but they report it on the 10th of the month…and you pay on the 15th. This would cause the credit agency to see you carry forward a balance every month. Try changing the payment times…just is sure NEVER to pay late.

THIRD: Fix your bad credit

For whatever reason, if you have a poor credit history, there are things you can do to improve your score. Some of them take time, and you will probably be best served by talking to a credit counselor to be sure that you not only repair your credit history, but also eliminate what caused that poor credit history in the first place.

The FICO score is most affected by your credit history. To repair a low credit score start paying your bills onetime. In order of value you need to pay your Mortgage, Installment loans, and last your credit cards.

The next largest portion of your FICO score is based on how you use credit. The fastest way to improve this is to pay down your credit cards.

When you?re all done with the rest of things…review your credit report. Get one from all the credit agencies. Look for errors and mistakes. Contact them to see if they can remove them or correct the errors.

A good FICO score is a huge part of your financial life. Keep it healthy. Use these tips and watch your score climb.

Doc Schmyz has done real estate deals all over the US and Canada. He built a free free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find real estate information by state

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There are two types of housing loan packages in Singapore: fixed rates or floating (variable) rates.

Fixed rates are sometimes offered for up to 3 years. Still, other lenders can extend up to 5 years or 10 years. This is opposite from many Western countries where rates can be fixed throughout the loan tenure.

Floating rates can be categorized into published rates or board rates. Like Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR) or Singapore Swap Offer Rate (SOR), published rates are normally rates that are published daily. Meanwhile, board rates are set by the respective bank or financial institution. Many of the lenders based their board rates to a particular financial bench marks, yet the precise elements are sometimes not clear and variations in board rates turn indefinite.

In general, there are no restrictions on emigrants acquiring housing loans in Singapore but do pay attention of the following.

Loan to Value

In Singapore, the maximum loan to value (LTV) is 90% of the purchase price or valuation, whichever is smaller. Housing loan packages for 90% financing are limited as some loaners do not extend maximum LTV to emigrants. Loan approval for 90% funding is also tighter than for LTV 80% and below.

Proof of Income

A letter of appointment from your local employer or your latest income tax assessment is required for housing loan. Some local loaners do not respect tax assessments from other countries.

Landed Property

The approval from Singapore Land Authority is essential before emigrants can purchase restricted properties such as vacant estate or landed properties such as bungalows, semi-detached, and terrace houses.

In-principle Approval

You may also look at an in-principle approval before purchasing. Consider of hiring a honored and professional housing loan consultant. This may help you spare time and money with your loan approval.

Learn more about a premier Housing Loan advisory firm, providing Housing Loans with free mortgage broking.

Most of the people don’t know that take can change their loan to other investor; others are simply uninterested. They tend to be loyal with their very first lender but they don’t know that such loyalty will bring higher interest rates. Because of increasing number of housing loans and amortization period, the interest can range from thousands to hundreds of thousands of money. Below are some considerations when reinvesting your home.

Latest Interest Rate

When your current interest rate is higher than available housing loan packages on the market, it is time for you to consider reinvesting. Ask your bank or financial institution to reprice your loan package. Your lender might give you an offer. Make a comparison between this offer and with offers from other lenders to see whether you should switch or stay put.

Lock-in and Clawback Time Periods

Lock-in period is when your lender give you a penalty if you want to fully repay your loan. Many housing loans have drawback period. This is when the lender will take back what they gave you when you get your housing loan. Lock-in period and clawback period are different from each other. Thus, it is not advisable for you to reinvest due to these extra costs.

Loan Quantum

The higher the amount of your loan, the greater your savings for the same decrease in interest rates will be. Yet fixed cost to reinvesting does not vary much with quantum loan. The difference between your latest and reinvesting interest rates has to be larger for a relatively lower loan as fixed cost consumes into a more considerable portion of your interest rate savings.

Identify Interest Rate Movements

Your analysis on how interest rates are moving can be a factor when considering whether you should reinvest. If you are currently on a fixed rate package and believe interest rates are dropping, you may want to reinvest to a floating rate package. However, if you are on floating rates, try to switch in fixed rates if the interest rates are increasing.

Personal Financial Evaluation

If your financial state changed, consider reinvesting. Give some thought to take fixed rate package. Think of increasing your loan quantum. When your monthly income increased and you want to decrease interest payments, try to reduce your loan tenure.

Learn more about a premier Housing Loan advisory firm, providing Housing Loans with free mortgage broking.

Currently applying for a business loan requires a bit of luck. If you have an exceptional credit record, you may still be turned down due to banks being more cautious of who they lend money too due to current turbulent financial situation. It is ironic however that the money they are lending comes from the customers themselves.

Bank executives have to suck in a little pride nowadays as they are having to admit that they were careless with their clients money. As a result many people are left with nothing due to the bad investments of the banks.

Bad lending and bad borrowers go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other. However, one must recognize that all though there are checks and balances lenders cannot always prevent a bad loan as we see that people are acquiring large sums of money without having any clue as to how they will pay it back.

A large loan may seem tempting but may lead to a lot more headaches if you cannot pay the loan back. Before you know it, you’re credit score could be negative resulting in no more loans.

It is key that you borrow responsibly. Don’t go overboard with borrowing and only take what you will need. In current times speculation is frowned upon and you will need to monitor your spending habits closely. Make do with what you have.

Borrow sensibly and you can survive economic turmoil and look forward to better days ahead. This may seem like a boring concept but it is key to your success and your future.

You need to get out and get real business credit and stop using your personal credit cards as leverage. I can be the first to tell you that there is a lot of business credit available even in this awful economy. If you start leveraging your personal assets for your business though you could end up broke and homeless. Not to mention stressed out and separated from your family.

Build your Business Credit seperate from your personal credit. Come visit us to see why this is important.

If you don’t know what ‘phishing’ is, it’s time to make yourself aware. ‘Phishing’ is a common technique used by scammers today.

Scammers use phishing to try to obtain information from an unsuspecting victim illegally. The way it works is the person doing the phishing sets up a fake website or sends out an email claiming to be from a legitimate organization, asking you to input your personal information and bank account number. The’90s saw the first traces of this scam, but it’s still popular today.

More advanced identity thieves often make their websites and emails appear like a legitimate company and even copy the look and logo of existing companies. The hope is the victim will have already done business with the company, hence trusting whatever ‘company’ sends them information and following the prompts to input their information.

Consumers aren’t the only ones affected by phishing scams. Business owners can be targets too, especially if they do business online. Because such online scams exist, consumers are wary to make online purchases, fearing their information might be stolen and used. The Federal Trade Commission works to prevent and prosecute such crimes and wants consumers to be vigilant when working with their personal information online.

Not every website can be trusted, even though most credit card companies accept online applications. Before submitting any sort of online application, check the company’s reputation and make sure they’re a legitimate company. The Better Business Bureau rates companies based on their track record and allows consumers to make complaints. Even if you don’t find anything bad about a company, that doesn’t mean everything is fine. Do your research and find out for yourself.

A site using a secure server is also an important tip. A safe site stands out from fraudulent ones if you know what to look for. First, the URL of the site’s address should begin with https:// which is standard for all secure sites. There might also be a pad lock icon at the bottom right hand side of your browser window. When the tiny icon is in the ‘lock’ position, this indicates you’re on a secure site.

I will teach you all about Business Credit including how to get millions in your credit line, now that sounds great right? Come over and read for yourself!