BUILD CREDIT

You know it’s important to have good credit; it has bearing on the interest rates you pay and whether or not you are even approved for a loan. A prospective employer might want to look at your credit report, and insurance companies want to know what kind of credit you have in order to help determine your premium rates.

Having good credit can make a big difference in your financial situation and help you save thousands of dollars over your lifetime. So if your credit is in need of help, here are 5 things you can do to change it for the better:

By Casey Bond

This is the fourth installment of our financial myth-busting series. Today, we will be targeting typical misconceptions about credit. Be sure to check out the rest of the series.

One consumer struggles to build credit without dinging her credit score and Credit Karma gives some honest recommendations:

This post comes from Michael, chief editor of DoughRoller.net, which helps consumers find the best online discount brokers.

If you find yourself moving from one country to another, there are a lot of things you’ll need to take care of. After securing the house, the job and making sure your family is ready to start a new life, it’s time to tackle your credit.

In an effort to help individuals identified as unbanked and underbanked open savings accounts, a new pilot program was created by the FDIC. The program will be identified by participating banking institutions as the FDIC Model Safe Accounts Template and will offer safe, low-cost transactional and savings accounts to lower-income households.

Some products to be offered include specific electronic deposit accounts that may not charge fees for insufficient funds or overdrafts. The hope with this new program is that in addition to good savings account rates, customers will have an opportunity to build credit and work toward financial security (Loan Safe).

At some point, everyone learns that in order to build good credit, you must take on some debt. Paying the debt back on time ensures your score goes up and usually, credit cards are relied upon for this purpose.

By Casey Bond

One of the factors that can impact your credit score negatively is too many credit inquiries. The more credit checks performed against you, such as when you apply for credit card offers or loans, the likelier it is your credit score will drop.

You may not think of your credit score as treasure, but it is. Good credit is the foundation to being able to afford the things you want — a home, a car and loans for pretty much everything else.

Those three little numbers determine a lot of your life and you should always be working toward getting closer to the elusive 800. To help you get there, we gave you a map of how to find your own credit score treasure.

Check out the infographic below to find out!

A report released on Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s shows that consumer credit lines showed drops in defaults in the month of May. Bank card loan defaults dropped from 9.1 to 8.9 percent. First and second mortgages dropped from 7.2 to 3.4 percent and 2.9 to 2.4 percent, respectively. And defaults on auto loans dropped to 1.8 percent, lightening 10 basis points.

The report notes that the reason we’re seeing a decline in defaults is because consumers are making a concerted effort to bring down their debt levels after struggling through the financial crisis. (Market Watch)

A free checking account is one of the first tools of finance most individuals start managing in order to build some credit and qualify for low loan rates. However, unlike obtaining a credit card or a loan, a checking account allows you to directly manage cash you deposit, withdraw and budget yourself.

Instead of using borrowed money paid back in monthly installments, bank checking account funds are accessed with a debit card that spends money you already have on deposit. A checking account gives you easy access to your cash, along with checks and a register to track the balance.