🎙️ Welcome to the 911 Credit Builder Podcast Show! 🎉
Join us, Gene Davis and Laura Summers Davis, your credit decoding experts, on a mission to unravel the mysteries of credit and empower your financial journey.
🔐 Episode Title: Decoding Credit Fundamentals: Your Path to Financial Empowerment
In today's episode, we're diving deep into the fundamental aspects of credit, answering burning questions, and shedding light on essential concepts.
🤔 What is Credit?
Credit is the cornerstone of trust in financial transactions, where one party lends resources to another expecting repayment with interest.
💡 What is Credit Repair?
Credit repair involves identifying and addressing inaccuracies or negative items on your credit report to improve your scores.
❌ What Hurts Your Credit Scores?
Late payments, high credit card balances, collections, charge-offs, bankruptcies, and other negative items can all adversely affect your credit and your credit scores.
💼 Can Your Credit Be Repaired?
Yes, credit repair is possible through strategies like disputing inaccuracies, helping you negotiate settlements, and showing you how important it is to build positive credit habits.
⏳ How Long Does Credit Repair Take?
The timeline varies, yet improvements can be seen in as little as 30 to 45 days, with the average timeframe ranging from 3 1/2 to 9 months.
📊 What is a Credit Score?
A credit score is a numerical representation of your creditworthiness based on factors like payment history, credit utilization, length of credit history, types of credit, and new credit inquiries.
💳 Understanding Credit Utilization
Credit utilization measures the amount of your available credit that you're currently using. Credit Limit compared to available credit to use. Keeping this balance percentage low can rapidly boost your credit scores.
🌟 What is a Good Credit Score?
A FICO score above 670 is generally considered good, indicating lower credit risks to lenders.
❌ What is a Bad Credit Score?
A credit score below 580 is typically considered poor or bad, indicating higher credit risk to lenders and potentially limiting access to credit.
🚀 How to Improve Your Credit
Improving your credit involves actions like making payments on time, reducing debt, having few inquiries, a diverse credit mix, and disputing inaccuracies.
🔄 Why Do I Have More Than One Credit Score?
Different credit bureaus and scoring models may generate varying credit scores, leading to discrepancies in the scores you receive.
📊 What is a Credit Bureau?
Credit bureaus collect and maintain credit information on individuals and businesses, which lenders use to assess creditworthiness.
🔍 How Do I Know My Credit Score?
You can obtain your credit score from various sources, including credit card companies, banks, and credit monitoring services. We recommend starting with IdentityIQ. Here's the link.
📋 What is on My Credit Report?
Your credit report includes information about credit accounts, payment history, inquiries, negative items, date of last activity on each account and your personal information.
🚗 What Score Do I Need for a Car Loan?
Auto lenders generally prefer scores of 660 or higher for favorable loan terms, with lower scores possibly leading to higher interest rates.
🏠 What Score Do I Need for a Mortgage?
Conventional lenders prefer scores of 620 or higher, while government-backed loans may accept lower scores, depending on the type of loan.
🔒 Who Has Access to My Credit Report?
Potential creditors, landlords, employers, and insurance companies may access your credit report with your permission.
📈 What is a FICO Score?
A FICO score is a credit scoring model developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation, widely used by lenders to assess credit risk. Most banks trust this model to be the most accurate.
✅ Can Bad Credit Be Corrected or Deleted?
Legitimate negative items can be corrected when they are inaccurate, unverifiable or not reporting timely. When they are validated. They simply can't just be deleted without a process to go through with the 3 credit reporting bureaus.
📅 Is Credit Repair Legal?
Yes, credit repair is legal, but it's essential to be wary of scams and unethical practices. When it sounds too good then it usually is. Credit repair takes time. Every 30 days the accounts update at the bureau level. That is the fastest timeframe the laws allow.
🕰️ Do Negative Items Stay on My Credit Report Forever?
Negative items generally stay on your credit report for 7 to 10 years, depending on the type of item.
As we wrap up today's episode, remember that knowledge is power, and your credit journey starts here with 911 Credit Builder. Stay informed, stay empowered, and join us next time as we continue our journey through the realm of credit.
🔑 Key Takeaway: Understanding credit fundamentals is your path to financial empowerment. Take control of your credit journey today!
👋 Signing Off: Gene Davis and Laura Summers Davis thank you for joining us on this enlightening expedition.
Until next time, keep building towards financial greatness! See you on the next episode of the 911 Credit Builder Podcast Show! 🎧
