Credit Score Lessons - Free Videos and Product Reviews

Learn what credit card usage impacts your score and what usage does not impact your score

There are many "free" sites out there - over 200 - but this is the government sanctioned site where you can get 1 free report from each of the 3 credit bureaus every year. But, be warned, scores cost extra! This review walks through the user experience

TrueCredit’s 3-Bureau monitoring includes unlimited 3-in-1 Credit Reports and Scores for $14.95 per month has a really nice user interface with its clean layout and its main advantage is that it features true tri-merged reports. This is useful as it allows you to see your 3 credit reports side-by-side. The product also delivers alerts in several areas and allows you to see trending in credit scores, balances, inquiries and more

An alert places a statement on your credit report so that If a fraudster attempts to obtain credit in your name, the creditor, in checking your credit, will encounter a statement that says something to this effect: I may be a victim of fraud. Call me at my phone number 312-555-7890 before extending credit.; By calling you, the creditor ensures more security. A security freeze means that your credit file cannot be shared with potential creditors or insurance companies; It can help prevent identity theft since most businesses will not open credit accounts without checking a consumer's credit history first. Once your credit account is frozen, credit cannot be granted until you unfreeze it

Suze Orman’s FICO Kit was developed to provide more assistance to a large part of the consumer market which needs more coaching. Essentially, it’s the same product base as the FICO Complete in that it features 3 FICO Scores and 3 credit reports from the 3 bureaus. But, it takes this base product and expands the flexibility to that you can pull 3 reports from any of the 3 bureaus at any time. So instead of getting all 3 scores at once, you can wait and pull one now and one in a few months. Plus, the product can be shared across family members. Suze wouldn’t be Suze if she didn’t offer advice, and she’s done a great job of organizing the product around the action planner. This includes dispute assistance, the debt eliminator, a mortgage payment watcher and the InfoVault. The Dispute tool is neat as it has a simple process to generate a letter. The debt eliminator is a great tool to help you negotiate with credit card companies for better rates and develop an action plan

If you become a victim of Identity theft there are numerous steps you should follow to ensure the integrity of your credit file and credit score. First, file a 90-Day Fraud Alert. Next, you should create a Identity Theft Report. You should dispute the fraudulent charges against existing accounts and/or new accounts and include the ID Theft report. Send follow up letters to the credit bureaus detailing status with credit/financial institution companies (aka banks). While the bureaus should get an update anyway, it's a good idea to follow up on your own. Consider a 7-year fraud alert or a credit freeze on your account.

Identity Theft vs. Credit Card Theft: This lesson first explains the difference between identity theft and credit card theft. Many people don’t know that credit card liability is restricted to $50. Although you must dispute the charges in 60 days to qualify

Getting the most out of your credit scores if your credit scores are low is manageable. There are no quick fixes. Time and diligence are key. There are many examples of people who increase their scores by 100+ points in less than a year

This lesson addresses some myths about credit score merging and how to best set up credit cards once you are married to manage your credit scores. You now have 6 credit scores between the two of you and this lesson addresses how lenders see you as a couple.

This lesson addresses some myths about credit score such as it seems like closing down credit card accounts should help. This is incorrect. It comes back to the credit utilization.