I know that most of the time my posts are about how to get good credit and boosting your score. I talk about credit repair tips on how to get good credit and also offer you advice about dealing with the “credit bureaus” and how bogus the whole system is.
What I’m not sure that we’ve really covered is the importance of having good credit. Everyone has times in their lives that they need credit. Everyone at some point will need or want to get a loan for something – and this is where knowing how to get good credit comes in handy.
You might think that I am all about spending cash – which is wonderful if you have it and I do it myself, but that’s not really it.
It’s all about how to get good credit so I can get what I want, when I want it!!!
Having good credit is a little like flipping lenders and the “credit bureaus” the bird every single time you are given credit at a great low rate with little or no hassles!!!
That’s why I love having good credit and that’s what drove me to learn how to get good credit. See, your lenders make hardly any money off of those of us with good credit, but they still need the steady stream of borrowers like us that don’t know how to get good credit to give them a constant income. That’s why we get such good benefits.
So, now that I’ve shared a little about myself and the reason that knowing how to get good credit is not only important, but essential, let’s talk a little more about good credit and how you can have more of it.
If you know how to get good credit you will be able to build healthy spending habits and that allows you to get what you need when you need it.
Here’s a scenario: your six year old has suddenly outgrown her shoes – for the second time in two months. Yes, this happens. If her shoes are too small her feet hurt, so are you really able to wait until your next paycheck to get them? Probably not.
So, what do you do? Do you dip into savings to cover the cost of yet another pair of shoes? What if you don’t have the savings to spend? Do you bounce a check or do you hope and pray that they don’t hurt her feet too badly for the next week?
When you know how to get good credit, you can get a good credit card and keep a small balance on it so you can go get those shoes right now when she needs them. It’s really that simple.
Knowing how to get good credit isn’t so much about being able to mindlessly spend money whenever you feel like it, it’s about knowing how to manage the money and credit you do have.
Lots of us know how hard it can be to make things come together if we don’t know how to get good credit – the credit we all need. You can risk running into the negatives and over time, you will probably wind up spending more money than you should by trying to keep up with every need you have that comes up.
Understanding how to get good credit isn’t about being able to run out and get that flat screen television today – it’s about having the flexibility to spend the money if you have it when you want to and being able to fill your needs, such as housing, insurance and cars, without having to pay more than you can afford.
You can learn how to get good credit and start building good credit – even with a bad credit score.
This is something that so many people really don’t understand, but it’s quite simple. Credit scores fluctuate. People’s spending needs and habits change, incomes change and credit scores often reflect these changes.
You can begin learning how to get good credit today even if you still have things sitting on your credit report that might be causing your score to drop. Let’s take a look at a common situation:
You don’t have any debt to speak of and you’ve cut back on your expenses. No credit cards, no car loans… You only have your mortgage.
For a long time you were making your payments on time and it was enough to give you a “usable” score. Recently, however, you’ve suffered some cutbacks in your hours at work and things have gotten tough. It’s been tough to get your mortgage payment in on time, so you’re really doing the best you can right now.
You’ve had a couple of late payments and even got behind for a while, but things are getting better. Great – but now the only source of credit you had is reporting late pays!!! Your score has plummeted by 50 points and you might just want to get a little loan to get you through. But you can’t because your score is so low.
This happens all the time, but you can fix it.
If this sounds like you, the first thing you need to do is to work on making sure to make all of your mortgage payments on time from now on. It might mean that you have to get a second job (I know, I had to…) for a while, but on time payments can help you to boost your score dramatically.
You also want to get your credit report to double check everything. We are all allowed on free credit report, once a year from this website: https://www.annualcreditreport.com
The next thing you should be doing is looking for that little loan or credit card from a creditor or lender who is flexible with their lending standards. Some smaller financial institutions have their own underwriters and that can help you to get a loan or credit card.
Make sure that you only spend what you can afford to repay and do it in a timely manner. Keep your balances low and slowly but surely, you will begin to build a strong credit history and improve your score.
I know how hard it is to have bad credit. I also know how good it feels to have the buying power of good credit. It’s not about how much money you make, it’s about how well you manage it. Why not get started making the most of those little numbers that mean so much and stop the “credit bureaus” from biting your proverbial ego off for a change?
Isn’t it time that you’re able to give the “credit bureaus” and creditors the bird and make it so they can’t turn you down for credit?
When you understand how to get good credit you can do this!