10 New Year's Resolutions For Your Credit

10 COUNTING NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS DOWN FOR YOUR CREDIT RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH A HEALTHIER FINANCIAL FUTURE! 10 AVOID STORE CREDIT CARD "DEALS" Credit applications (including store cards) may impact your scores. ]]< Store cards typically have high interest rates. (23-30% vs. 15.31% for variable credit cards in Nov. 2013). Yet consumers completed 8.8% more store card applications in 2013 than 2012 – be careful! 2. 9 DON'T MAX OUT YOUR CREDIT CARDS Maxing out your cards can negatively impact your credit utilization ratio – the proportion of your Even 1 maxed-out card can lower your credit score dozens of points, and high interest makes it tough to pay off. available credit on individual cards and overall. $15,325: 1 Credit card debt of the avg. American household as of July 2013. 4. $1 28.5% $1 Still, 28.5% of consumers planned to do their 2013 holiday shopping $3 on credit cards. O = $100 8 MAKE SURE YOUR CREDIT CARDS FIT YOUR NEEDS Luxury travel reward cards are good for regular travelers – but if you aren't one, higher annual fees could negate some of the benefits. 6., 7. Credit card applications are "hard" inquiries – these can impact your credit scores. Aug. 2013: The 6 largest U.S. credit 71% card providers advertised rewards systems in at least 71% of solicitations. But 1 IN 3 AMERICANS with rewards cards don't actually know what their benefits are! Ensure they provide rewards you want and can use. 7 START A RAINY DAY FUND Good places to store your fund may be a savings account, certificate of deposit, or Roth IRA (but don't take too much out – Roth IRAS are 10. a valuable retirement asset!) BANK In an income shock, rainy day funds can make all the difference in your available money and your credit. Families without rainy day funds: 28% chance of late mortgage payments. Families with rainy day funds: Just 9% chance of late mortgage payments. 11. 6 WORK TO PAY YOUR BILLS ON TIME Late payments are reported SEPT. 2012 SEPT. 2013 to the credit bureaus and can ding your credit scores. AUTOMATIC BILL PAY CAN CUT OUT THE TEDIOUS Sept. 2013: ONLY 4.09% ACT OF SITTING DOWN TO of mortgage payments are at least PAY EACH BILL. 60 days or more late - 23.3% decline from the previous year. 12 Yet 37% OF US would rather give up TV than take the time to pay our bills – so set up those auto-pays! 13. 5 CREATE AN EXPENSE BUDGET Do you dream of a big vacation, a new house, or a college fund? Big dreams require saving – and saving requires budgeting. 14. ONLY 30% Just 32% of Americans have a monthly have long-term savings and budget with income and expenses. investment plans. 15. 4 MAKE SURE YOUR IDENTITY IS SECURE Identity theft is prevalent not only for adults, but children and even infants – protect your family by securing 521,000,000,000 stolen by identity thieves in 2012. personal data and records. Identity theft can destroy your credit and seriously harm your credit scores. 16 In the U.S., someone fell victim to identity theft on average every 3 seconds in 2012. 17 3 LEARN ABOUT THE 3 PRIMARY CREDIT BUREAUS Your credit scores are determined by the 3 primary credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. SCORES MAY VARY BETWEEN THE BUREAUS, SO YOU NEED TO CHECK AND KNOW ALL 3 SCORES. 18. 20% OF CONSUMERS have errors on at least 1 credit report. 19. 2 MONITOR YOUR 3-BUREAU CREDIT FILES DAILY You can set up alerts for each of the 3 Over 1 IN 5 bureaus. Monitoring constantly alerts consumers you to certain data hitting your credit found an error, disputed it, and files. realized a modification. If you spot something unfamiliar or incorrect, you can take action 20., 21 1 CHECK YOUR 3-BUREAU CREDIT SCORES REGULARLY Always know where you stand with your 3 credit scores - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. KNOWING ALL 3 CREDIT SCORES CAN HELP YOU NEGOTIATE BETTER RATES AND SECURE LOANS WITH MORE FAVORABLE TERMS. Your credit scores change constantly based on your financial (and even non-financial) activity. Regular check-ins keep you informed of changes. UNEXPECTED CHANGES CAN SIGNAL IDENTITY THEFT. IF LEFT UNCHECKED, IDENTITY THEFT CAN DAMAGE YOUR SCORES SIGNIFICANTLY. HAPPY NEW YEAR! SOURCES 1. http://abcnews go.com/Business/top-10-reasons-applying-credit-card-10-percent/story?id=20200163 2. http://www.bankrate.com/financing/credit-cards/subprime-fuels-store-card-growth/ 3. http://business.time.com/2011/10/17/5-things-you-dont-know-about-your-credit-score/ 4. http://www.ibtimes.com/credit-card-debt-us-falling-still-very-high-1390783 5. http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id%3D1692 6. http://money.msn.com/credit-cards/the-7-deadly-credit-card-sins-mainstreet. aspx 7. http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2013/07/31/are-credit-card-rewards-worth-it/ 8. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-15/credit-card-rewards-programs-examined-by-u-s-consumer-bureau.html 9. http://www.jdpower.com/content/press-release/KrslSk2/2013-u-s-credit-card-satisfaction-study.htm http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304106704579135591043205838 11. https://www.finra.org/web/groups/foundation/@foundation/documents/foundation/p221812. pdf. http://newsroom.transunion.com/press-releases/transunion-mortgage-delinquency-rate-drops-nearly-1066953 13. http://www.cnbc.com/id/100593229 14. http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2012/01/18/5-reasons-you-need-a-budget http://www.gallup.com/poll/162872/one-three-americans-prepare-detailed-household-budget.aspx „FREE ScoresAndMore.com- http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/04/14/identity-theft-growing/2082179/ 17. https://www.javelinstrategy.com/brochure/276 18. http://www.usa.gov/topics/money/credit/credit-reports/bureaus-scoring.shtml 19. http://www.today.com/money/error-your-credit-report-complain-feds-2D11703506 www.FreeScoresAndMore.com 20. http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/02/ftc-study-five-percent-consumers-had-errors-their-credit-reports 21. http://www.consumerfed.org/news/669 e2014 Trilegiant Corporation 6 High Ridge Park, Stamford, CT 06905 ...... ....... .... .......