Do You Have an Emergency Fund?

Life is full of surprises. One day we are making ends meet with something left over and then a day comes when all of that can change. With the unpredictability of day to day living, having an emergency fund saves worry over finances when you are already worried over other things.

What is an emergency fund? Well, it is a certain amount of money that is set aside for situations that we cannot foresee. It could be an illness in the family, an accident, car repairs, or a natural disaster. Whatever it is, such tragedies can deplete a bank account and lead us into financial disaster.

The thing about life is that unforeseen circumstances can happen to anyone and everyone. No one is exempt from them. The best we can do is to prepare in advance so that we are not focused on money. An emergency fund is roughly equal to several months’ worth of income. Ideally at least three months' worth of total household income is a good amount to have put away.

That is a lot of money. When you add up the income of everyone in the house who holds a job, we could be talking about $10,000 at least. It is hard for most people to save a little, let alone that much money.

Don’t let this stun you into doing nothing. Starting anywhere is better than not starting at all. If you can manage to save fifty dollars a paycheck, then do it. Sure, it will take a while to build up an appreciable fund, but you will still have money put aside in the event that something happens.

The emergency fund is tapped when our regular finances can’t handle the strain of an incident. Now this is not to be used because we are living above our means and overshooting our budget every month. But, then again, if we are living beyond our means, we wouldn’t have any money to contribute to an emergency fund.

One way to build your emergency fund when money is low is to use bonuses, raises, and tax refunds. Instead of buying extra goodies with that raise, take the extra money from the check and add it to what you are already putting away. A tax refund will build up that emergency fund quickly.

An emergency fund saves headache. Costly car repairs can set you back several hundred dollars. An emergency fund will keep you from having to choose between having your car back and having your lights on. And when a loved one is ill, you can concentrate on them and not think about how you will pay the bills.

Start an emergency fund today. Whatever you can contribute is good. Encourage the entire family to help out. While you are building a cushion for possible emergencies, you are also teaching them to save money.

Using Credit Unions and Your Credit

A credit union is a good organization that is for individuals based on where they live or where they are employed. It will work in the same ways as most banks but offer loans that are more exclusive to their members and offer a better and much lower interest rate. Those who deposit the money are able to borrow money because the members run it. This is the best place for someone to earn a stable paycheck but is somehow managed to accumulate bad credit because of sometimes the community will base it on their character and not on their creditability. A bank can turn you down easily if your credit rating is not good but with a credit union you will have the chance to explain what you want before you are approved or denied.

You can benefit financially because you are a member of the credit union. A savings account with a bank will accumulate interest over time. It is set by the percentage of what your balance is over time. Credit unions will pay higher interest to their members and the interest rates on any loan are going to be lower as well. Any profits that are accumulated will go into serving the members better because it is a non profit organization that is ran by volunteers in the community only.

There are different ways of finding out which credit unions are available to you with your employment, residence, or what your part is in an organization. If you have a stable job, you can ask your employer if there is one that you are able to get based on your involvement with the company. There may also be a member of your family who belongs to a credit union that encourages members to have their entire family members join. In most areas, you may be available to join because of where you are living. It is viewed as a way for the community to work together as one to take care of all the members.

Everyone needs to be a member of a financial institution in order to get and build up good credit, gain eligibility, and to take out a loan if it is needed. They will also be able to have a reference of stability on his or her credit report. Many people will want to use the credit unions over banks because they are friendlier and locally ran by members of the community. They are non-profit so you will not have to pay a fee to be a member and take advantage on the positive things that they offer. They will give anyone who has bad credit a chance to be eligible for loans and rebuilding their credit score.

Using a Co-Signer to Boost Your Credit

Having a co-signer on a loan application can either be a good thing or a bad one. This can be anyone that you know like a friend or family member who agrees to share the responsibility for repaying the loan if you cannot make the payments for some reason. Usually it is a parent that will co-sign for a child who has no credit or low credit. It can be a good way to build your good credit up and get the results that you are looking for. In other cases, the co-signers good credit may help someone with poor credit get a loan that they would otherwise be denied for.

We all start out with a credit score of 0. Having no credit score is almost as bad as having a bad one. There is no record of your credibility, which is not very convenient if you are a young adult trying to get a loan for a home or car or college education. There are parents or guardians who will understand the meaning of having credit will put their child’s name on a utility bill and let theme make payments from a job or pay for it themselves. As long as the bill is paid in full and on time, it will put a positive reflect on the person’s credibility. It will be a lot easier to move into the adult work of making a large purchase like a first home when you have good credit to your name.

For the person that has managed to make a bad name for himself or herself in the world of credit and they are in need of a loan, they may have to rely on a co-singer to help them out of this jam. No one wants to be in debt and a family member or friend will be more understanding than the institution from where you want to borrow the money. A co-signer must have a good credit score and they must be willing to take over the remaining money that is owed on the loan for any reason if the primary borrower cannot make payments.

If you are in debt and you cannot seem to get a break, a co-signer could be what you are looking for. No matter what your reason for bad credit, it is up to the lender to approve or deny you based on the facts of your credit report. As long as you know someone who has good credit and enough trust in your ability to repay the loan that you are looking for, you may have a good chance to get back to where you want. A co-singer is a good way to establish or re-build good credit for you.

The Best Things About Credit Counseling

Sometimes we cannot keep a good credit score all the time on our own. There are times in life when we may need to have a little bit of help keeping our credit score at a good level or raising it to a level that we want it to be at. Thank goodness that there are organizations out there to help us to do this and keep our credit on track where it should be.

Debt counseling is for anyone that may have bills that are scattered with different companies and find it hard to keep up with all of them from month to month. It can be hard to remember who you have to pay each month and how much. There is debt counseling to help put all of your bills into one low payment so that you can make your payments to one company and they will distribute the money to where it needs to be.

This will take all of the guessing out of paying your bills. Now the payment will be lower because the debt counselor will work with all of the companies that you owe money to so that they can accept the lower amount of money each month. This is not for everyone however, and the fees and interest rates are going to be high.

After you consolidate your bills into one payment it should only take two or three years to pay them off. If it would take more than five years to pay these debts back, you may want to think about it more because it may not be the right option for you. There are a few different reasons why debt counseling will increase your credit score. Making the payment before it is actually due then you are paying all of your bills at once.

Credit companies will see this on your credit report and reward you for being more responsible and paying your payments on time. This is true even though they are consolidated into one payment because everyone is still getting their money on time. Many will believe that consolidating your bills will decrease your credit score, but this is not the right idea. Many think that this is a major reason for concern but it is actually helping people out. It may have been a risk in the past, but there are many legitimate companies out there that are going to help you rebuild your credit score.

Using the debt counseling for your debt is actually very responsible and will benefit you in many ways. It is a good idea to do when you are looking to get out of debt and get things back on track for you and for your credit reputation.

Figure Your Credit Score

You may want to know how your credit score is calculated. The process is long and each of the three major companies in the United States will participate in reporting credit scores and histories with a different method. This is why your credit score is going to be a little bit different from one to the next. There are some factors that you can take into consideration if you want to estimate your credit score on your own.

The first thing is if you have not ever owned a credit card or had any type of bill in your name or if you have borrowed money of any kind, your credit score is going to be zero. Even though this is not considered to be bad credit, it is hard to even get a loan with no credit as it is with bad credit. There are some companies that may be willing to take a chance on someone with no credit but it is much better to build up your credit little by little as you go by having cards in your name and living a comfortable and stable life within your means of income.

Your credit history is going to make up about 35% of your total credit score and it is very important. The bills that are not paid or if you have debts that have defaulted you will hurt your credit score for 7 to 10 years before they are all erased. You need to think about this and all of the bad choices that you make today can hurt your credit in the future. If you are repaying these debts now, chances are they will still show up on your credit report now as bills that were paid late. There is 15% that is going to be the length of your credit history. It is a good idea to start building credit as soon as you can. Your score is will improve as time goes on as long as you are maintaining a bank account. The information like length of employment or residence so that it can be classified in this section so if you have a regular and stable life, you will have a better score than someone else that moves around all the time.

Then 30% of your score will depend on what you are currently owing to creditors. Even if you are not late on paying your bills, if you have many loans out at one time, it may be possible that you are denied to have another. Therefore it is important to only take out the loans you really need and to repay them on time or early if you can. If you pay off your loans early, you will not only see your credit score rise, you will also save money on paying interest. This will show up on your credit history. You will also want to try and keep your money in one place if possible. 10% of your credit score is going to be based on new accounts. They will look at how many different types of loans you have applied for and how many you have open now. When you are opening and closing accounts too fast is not a recommendation.

You need to use your common sense. Know your credit score and how it is calculated is going to help you find mistakes on it. This may help you and your credit score in the future. You are able to see a free copy of your credit report annually for free so you should review this as well as get your credit score to be sure that you are being treated fairly.

Credit and the Law

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act says that all lenders will apply the same credit standards to all the consumers no matter what their race, sex, marital status, national origin, religion, age, or public assistance program that is involved. This does not say for sure that the loan approved or credit will be given to you. It will give you an equal chance to obtain credit. The only good measurement for creditors to use is your ability to pay the debts that you owe.

Many of the applications will have questions about some of the above things. However you are not required to answer them on an application for credit. These may be asked because of the fair housing laws or affirmative action laws but these are at your discretion. You should not be asked about your material status, unless your partner will help you secure the loan. You may be asked your age because of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, but only to determine if you are old enough to have the credit. This means that you have to be over the age of 18 in the U.S.

Creditors must tell any applicants of their decision within 30 days. If the application is not approved, the creditor must provide a written statement that has full detail of the outcome or decision along with the reason for the denial and the information on the applicant’s rights. This act will help to seal for certain it is kept with all applications for credit no matter who the applicant is.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act will also give people the right to see their credit report. To make this better, everyone is entitled to a free credit report every 12 months. This act will help people to receive their credit history for all three national credit-reporting agencies. When you are reviewing your credit, you can dispute items on the credit report and this will allow the consumer to control some of what the credit reporting agencies have against them. If the correction to your credit in not right, you can also add a statement of 100 words or less to help clarify the item that you want to dispute.

The act was started to uphold the accuracy and privacy of a person’s private information in the credit report. It was passed with the intention of preventing identity theft, which has become more popular in recent years. By reviewing one’s credit report each year, he or she will be able to determine if any kind of identity theft has happened.

Both of these acts will protect you by helping the fairness of the lending industry while allowing you to take control of your credit history and making sure that it is accurate. If you want to maintain good credit, you need to learn as much about it as you can. Understanding these laws means that you are taking a good and positive step in creating good credit for yourself and making it possible to have a more stable financial future.