Need Loans - Check it out!

MoneyTips Some trends fade and then return after a few decades or so, like bell bottoms and tie-dye. You probably have a few things in the back of your closet waiting patiently to become a hot new retro-style – whether that's good or bad for society in general. Unfortunately, that's true for financial trends as well as clothing. Higher-risk mortgage lending is on the rise again as consumers stretch to overcome soaring home prices and tight credit requirements. According to data from Inside Mortgage Finance as reported in the Wall Street Journal , approximately 30% of loans that were securitized by the government mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went to homebuyers with debt-to-income (DTI) ratios of more than 43%. That's almost twice ... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2HNfh4h

MoneyTips By Andrea Woroch After months of heavy spending – and eating – people across the country start to think to themselves: this isn't sustainable.Like clockwork, Americans make ambitious plans.January is the big month, but that's just the beginning.Or, so they think. According to U.S. News & World Report, by the second week of February, some 80 percent of those resolution makers are back on the couch with a new kind of remorse.They've quit.And worse yet, they only made it a little over a month. The bad news is, going twelve straight months achieving your lofty personal finance goals is tough, but it doesn't have to be impossible. Forbes published indicating that nearly 10 percent go the distance – completing their resolutions.While that's only one in ten people who have the fortitu... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2JLVoNj

MoneyTips By Andrea Woroch After months of heavy spending – and eating – people across the country start to think to themselves: this isn't sustainable.Like clockwork, Americans make ambitious plans.January is the big month, but that's just the beginning.Or, so they think. According to U.S. News & World Report, by the second week of February, some 80 percent of those resolution makers are back on the couch with a new kind of remorse.They've quit.And worse yet, they only made it a little over a month. The bad news is, going twelve straight months achieving your lofty personal finance goals is tough, but it doesn't have to be impossible. Forbes published indicating that nearly 10 percent go the distance – completing their resolutions.While that's only one in ten people who have the fortitu... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2JLVoNj

MoneyTips "Welcome to 850 City, where everyone has a perfect credit score." You won't find 850 City on a map, because it doesn't exist. No city is full of consumers with perfect credit scores – but you can find members of the perfect score club spread throughout the nation. According to data from the credit reporting agency Experian , 1.2% of consumers with a credit score rate a perfect 850 score on the 300-850 FICO scale. Hawaii has the highest concentration of perfect credit score consumers, with 1.76% of the population qualifying. Four more states claim at least 1.6% of their population with an 850 score – Minnesota (1.70%), Connecticut (1.65%), Virginia (1.63%), and Maryland (1.60%). The remaining states in the top ten are New Jersey (1.58%), Massachusetts (1.52%), Wisconsin (1.52%), Colorado (1.... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2wrUeOn

MoneyTips How much of your available credit are you using right now? Experts generally suggest keeping your credit utilization ratio – the amount of credit in use compared to your credit limits – below 30% to keep your credit score high. A new study from CompareCards.com shows that many Americans are struggling to meet that goal, especially in the South. In 27 of the fifty largest metropolitan areas, the credit card utilization rate is above 30% – led by San Antonio, Texas's average utilization rate of 35.1%. If the numbers are rounded, only fourteen of the fifty cities have rates below 30%. Southern cities are well represented in the top ten utilization rates, including Birmingham, AL (33.3%), Memphis, TN (33.0%), Houston, TX (32.7%), Jacksonville, FL (32.0%), and Louisville, KY (31.9%). The remaining four cities with top-ten credit ut... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2wngYiy

MoneyTips How much of your available credit are you using right now? Experts generally suggest keeping your credit utilization ratio – the amount of credit in use compared to your credit limits – below 30% to keep your credit score high. A new study from CompareCards.com shows that many Americans are struggling to meet that goal, especially in the South. In 27 of the fifty largest metropolitan areas, the credit card utilization rate is above 30% – led by San Antonio, Texas's average utilization rate of 35.1%. If the numbers are rounded, only fourteen of the fifty cities have rates below 30%. Southern cities are well represented in the top ten utilization rates, including Birmingham, AL (33.3%), Memphis, TN (33.0%), Houston, TX (32.7%), Jacksonville, FL (32.0%), and Louisville, KY (31.9%). The remaining four cities with top-ten credit ut... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2wngYiy

MoneyTips Risky home loans led to the 2008 housing crisis and the subsequent Great Recession. Regulators and lenders quickly tightened mortgage-underwriting standards to prevent future crashes. Have we forgotten the roots of the housing crisis in just over a decade? The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) thinks so and has taken action to reverse trends showing increased mortgage loan risk. As of March 18, the agency amended its automatic underwriting system to mandate that all loans identified as high-risk must go through a separate manual analysis. That's bad news for homebuyers struggling to enter the housing market. FHA loans are targeted for the higher-risk market, offering low 3.5% down payments to homebuyers with FICO scores of at least 580. Scores as low as 500 may still qualify with a 10% down payment and other mitigating factors. FHA loans also require debt-to-income (DTI ratios) less than 43%, al... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2HGTADc

MoneyTips You want to buy a home, but you haven't been saving for one. You want to retire near the typical retirement age, but you haven't been saving for that, either. Don't worry, the homeowner and retirement fairies will be pulling up to your door soon to deliver a truckload of cash. Absurd, isn't it? Nobody believes in homeowner or retirement fairies – but a sizable number of Americans act like they do. A recent Business Insider and Morning Consult survey found that 25% of millennials who expect to retire between the ages of 66 and 75 don't have any retirement savings at all. Over half of all millennials (52%) have no retirement savings account, but 46% of that group expect to retire between 56 and 75 and 12% of them expect to retire before age 55. A separate

MoneyTips You see lines on your credit or debit card statement that read "APL*ITUNES.CON/BILL 866-712-7753 CA" or something similar. Where did all those charges from iTunes come from? Maybe it's your spouse downloading audiobooks. Maybe it's your kids downloading their favorite songs or inadvertently making in-app purchases while playing online games. Maybe it's subscription renewals that you forgot about. Or, maybe it's an identity thief who's making small charges on your account to see if you're paying attention. Scams involving iTunes have been around almost as long as iTunes has existed. Identity thieves like to use iTunes to test the waters with a stolen identity. To rectify the problem, you need to know where the charges are really coming from. Start by checking the purchase history under all Apple IDs that are attached to that credit or debit card account... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2JBsJdI

MoneyTips You see lines on your credit or debit card statement that read "APL*ITUNES.CON/BILL 866-712-7753 CA" or something similar. Where did all those charges from iTunes come from? Maybe it's your spouse downloading audiobooks. Maybe it's your kids downloading their favorite songs or inadvertently making in-app purchases while playing online games. Maybe it's subscription renewals that you forgot about. Or, maybe it's an identity thief who's making small charges on your account to see if you're paying attention. Scams involving iTunes have been around almost as long as iTunes has existed. Identity thieves like to use iTunes to test the waters with a stolen identity. To rectify the problem, you need to know where the charges are really coming from. Start by checking the purchase history under all Apple IDs that are attached to that credit or debit card account... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2JBsJdI

MoneyTips Do you sometimes use your credit card just to get rewards? According to a new poll from finder.com, more Americans are making purchases to chase rewards – but at least we're spending less in the process. Finder.com's recent Chasing Points study found that almost 2 in 5 (39%) respondents have used a credit card just to get rewards points. That corresponds to approximately 81.7 million cardholders – a 21% increase over the 71.7 million point-chasers in last year's survey . Overall, Americans are racking up higher credit card balances. New York Federal Reserve data shows Americans held $870 billion in outstanding credit card balances as of the end of 2018, continuing an upward trend. However, the finder.com survey shows the opposite trend with rewards-based spending. According to the

MoneyTips Has your credit card information been exposed in a data breach? If not, it probably will be at some point. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), 14.2 million credit card numbers were exposed in 2017 – an 88% increase from 2016. Given the collective data breaches, there's little reason to expect 2018 and 2019 numbers to improve. An excellent way to protect existing credit card accounts is to store your information in as few places as possible. However, if you don't store your account information with vendors, you'll have to enter your credit card number for every transaction. That's safer, but tedious – and if you're using an unsecured connection, you're exposing your data each time. The Token app offers a solution. Token is based on the same tokenization principle that payment systems use to prevent identity theft at the point of sale. The credit card... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2WgIb4T

MoneyTips Do you have excellent credit, with a credit score between 801 and 850? If not, it may help to review the common habits of those who do. A credit score is a single number based on your credit report , which is a history of all your borrowing activities. A higher credit score shows lower risk to creditors, allowing them to offer lower interest rates. LendingTree recently analyzed credit reports of high-credit-score Americans to look for common threads in their credit profiles. As expected, they closely track the major factors that go into calculating a credit score. On-time payments are the most important factor affecting credit scores. The average American has ... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2HTjum7

MoneyTips A recent survey by Credit Takeoff revealed that although the majority of the 500 American respondents prioritize having a good credit score, many have a poor understanding of how credit scores and credit reporting work. Only 28% Are Very Knowledgeable About How Their Credit Score is Calculated The results of the survey suggest that Americans don't have a solid understanding of how credit scores are calculated. Only 28% of respondents report being very knowledgeable on the subject, while 49% are somewhat knowledgeable. Twenty-three percent admitted to not being very knowledgeable about how their credit scores are calculated. Even so, the vast majority of respondents (87%) agree that having a good credit score is important to them. Eighty percent know they can check their credit score for free, and 78% have checked theirs in the last twelve months. Further,... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/30r1CHx

MoneyTips You reach into your pocket or purse, but your wallet isn’t where it belongs. With a sinking feeling, you realize that your wallet is lost, and likely stolen. What do you do now? Avoid the urge to panic and think of where it may have been taken or lost – but don't search too long before you begin to take action. If your wallet really has been stolen, the thief is probably headed to the nearest ATM to tap your account or going online to rack up charges on your credit cards. Take a deep breath, and then follow these ten steps to limit the damage. 1. Contact All Your Card Issuers – For each bank account you have, contact your bank immediately to let them know of the stolen ATM card. They will issue you a new card and cancel the old account. You must act quickly to be able to limit fraudulent charges and dispute any that occur. Similarly, contact all of your credit card issuers to cancel the accounts and get new cards issued. Your liability ... from MoneyTips http:/

MoneyTips You reach into your pocket or purse, but your wallet isn’t where it belongs. With a sinking feeling, you realize that your wallet is lost, and likely stolen. What do you do now? Avoid the urge to panic and think of where it may have been taken or lost – but don't search too long before you begin to take action. If your wallet really has been stolen, the thief is probably headed to the nearest ATM to tap your account or going online to rack up charges on your credit cards. Take a deep breath, and then follow these ten steps to limit the damage. 1. Contact All Your Card Issuers – For each bank account you have, contact your bank immediately to let them know of the stolen ATM card. They will issue you a new card and cancel the old account. You must act quickly to be able to limit fraudulent charges and dispute any that occur. Similarly, contact all of your credit card issuers to cancel the accounts and get new cards issued. Your liability ... from MoneyTips http:/

MoneyTips America's debt load continues to rise. According to the latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit from the New York Federal Reserve, our collective debt is $13.54 trillion as of Q4 2018. While the vast majority is mortgage debt, credit card debt topped a trillion dollars recently, and we're compounding the problem by paying more in interest and fees on our credit card accounts. According to MagnifyMoney , Americans paid $113.3 billion in credit card interest and fees in 2018. That's a 12% increase over the $101 billion paid in 2017 and a 49% increase from the $76.3 billion paid in 2013. Credit card interest and fees are expected to top $122 billion in 2019. Increased average annual percentage rates (APRs) on credit cards are partly to blame. Federal Reserve data shows that the average interest rate hit 16.86% in 201... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/30qyMqH

MoneyTips Americans love credit cards. As of Q4 2018, the New York Federal Reserve estimates that there are nearly 480 million credit cards in circulation throughout the United States, racking up a total balance of $870 billion. How many cards do you have, and why do you have them? What benefits do you see – aside from being able to buy things that you can't afford to buy with cash? A new Experian survey finds that 62% of Americans have one to five credit cards, with three on average. In addition, one-third of respondents plan to apply for a new credit card within the next six months. "It's difficult to imagine a world without credit cards," said Rod Griffin, Director of Public Education at Experian. "So much of our everyday lives rely on credit for convenience, to respond to an emergency, to pay for something over time – enabling yo... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2LP4wCK

MoneyTips Lower APRs for You According to CreditCards.com , the average annual percentage rate (APR) across all credit cards is 17.73%. How does your card's APR stack up? Could you benefit from a credit card interest rate cap of 15%? Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) say yes, recently releasing a plan to cap credit card APRs at 15%. Any credit card cap legislation is unlikely to pass under the current political climate, but Congressional progressives are letting Americans know what to expect should they win control of Congress and the White House in 2020. Would a 15% APR cap help or hurt your situation? If you're in the group of struggling consumers that progressives are trying to help, it could go either way. Savings Are Available According to ValuePenguin, the average credit card debt for households that carr... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2YBfKMP

MoneyTips Millennials have had a difficult time establishing financial security. Many of them came of age during the housing crisis and subsequent recession, saddled with excessive student loan debt and a shrinking job market. The slow recovery from the Great Recession kept Millennials at a disadvantage – and a new study from Experian shows that they are still feeling the aftereffects. Experian's data shows that Millennials have the lowest average FICO credit score of all generations that have had significant time to build a credit score. Millennials had an average FICO score of 665 on the 300-850 scale – the upper end of the fair credit range (580-669). That's a similar score to Generation Z (ages 18-22), who have had limited time to build a credit history of any kind. Millennial credit scores lag far behind the average scores of the Silent G... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2HlMIcN

MoneyTips You've heard about identity theft, but just how widespread is it? Our exclusive MoneyTips survey revealed that nearly half of adult Americans are identity theft victims. We surveyed 509 Americans in November to learn that nearly 2 in 3 Americans had either lost or had stolen their wallets , purses, pocketbooks or money clips (we'll use 'wallet' from now on to represent these four accessories). We then asked all of the respondents: 44% (223) of those surveyed said they had fallen victim to identity theft. 17% blamed their wallet's disappearance, while the rest attributed it to other reasons. Among those whose wallets vanished, 47% reported they were an identity theft victim, compared to only 38% of those who never had their wallet disappear. The hi... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2LAKI5Z

MoneyTips Is credit score perfection possible? Yes, according to recent data from the credit reporting agency Experian. America's average credit score on the 300-850 FICO scale is 701, but 1.2% of all consumers have a perfect 850. Experian pored over data from the fourth quarter of 2018 to look for common threads in perfect credit score profiles. Do you need lots of money, a few credit cards, or no debts? In order – no, no, and no. Credit scores are all about using credit regularly and managing it well. Primary factors in calculating your credit score are on-time payments and credit utilization – how much credit you use compared to your limits, both overall and individual accounts. Your income is irrelevant.

MoneyTips By Eric Olsen, Executive Director, HELPS Nonprofit Law Firm Recreational Vehicle (RV) loans last typically for 10-15 years and sometimes up to twenty years. Often a medical condition or simply a change in lifestyle makes the RV no longer necessary. Sometimes a high RV payment can become simply unaffordable. What are the solutions for seniors with an RV they no longer need or with an unaffordable RV payment? If you have equity in your RV, meaning it is worth more than what is owed, you can sell it, pay off the loan, and pocket the difference. Or you can sell the RV for what it is worth and cover the difference owed to the bank, so the bank will release the title to the new purchaser. However, often more is owed on the vehicle than the amount it would sell for and many seniors can't afford to make up the difference. I have been an attorney for over forty years and am the Executive Director of HELPS, a national charitable nonprofit law firm that helps seniors ... fr

MoneyTips By Eric Olsen, Executive Director, HELPS Nonprofit Law Firm Recreational Vehicle (RV) loans last typically for 10-15 years and sometimes up to twenty years. Often a medical condition or simply a change in lifestyle makes the RV no longer necessary. Sometimes a high RV payment can become simply unaffordable. What are the solutions for seniors with an RV they no longer need or with an unaffordable RV payment? If you have equity in your RV, meaning it is worth more than what is owed, you can sell it, pay off the loan, and pocket the difference. Or you can sell the RV for what it is worth and cover the difference owed to the bank, so the bank will release the title to the new purchaser. However, often more is owed on the vehicle than the amount it would sell for and many seniors can't afford to make up the difference. I have been an attorney for over forty years and am the Executive Director of HELPS, a national charitable nonprofit law firm that helps seniors ... fr

MoneyTips Do as I say, not as I do. Do you ever fall into that trap? New research from Debt.com suggests that you might have that attitude when it comes to budgets. Debt.com recently surveyed the budgeting habits and attitudes of Americans and found a wide discrepancy in following through on budgeting beliefs. A huge majority (93%) of respondents agreed that everyone needs a budget, with 97% of women and 90% of men agreeing – yet only two-thirds of respondents actually do maintain a budget. The remaining 7% agreed that some people need to budget – for example, if you have limited income, are a big spender, or have a lot of debt – but they didn't feel that budgets should be universal. Why do budgeters budget? Most want to do a better job managing their money (34%), or budget because they've always done so (25%). Another 13% budget out of necessity to get out of debt. Other budgeting reasons centered on saving for wealth building and/or retirement, or budgeting as ... f

MoneyTips Congratulations! You're worth a bit more this year than you were last year – at least in the eyes of identity thieves. The website Top10VPN recently released their 2019 Dark Web Market Price Index , a summary of current market prices for individual pieces of stolen identities. Last year , Top10VPN estimated that an identity thief could buy your entire identity – everything from proof-of-identity documents to credit/banking information to shopping and social media logins – for around $1,170. In 2019, identity thieves will have to pay approximately 3.8% more (around $1,215) for your entire credit profile. Congratulations again! You whipped inflation, which hasn't topped 3% since 2011. Of course, fraudsters probably won't pa... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2Ha3fS8

MoneyTips Your home equity is the amount of your home that you own – in other words, the market value of your home minus the amount of principal that you owe on your loan. For many Americans, it's one of their largest financial assets. If you need money for various projects and expenses, your home equity can be a useful source of collateral. You can draw on this asset with a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit (HELOC). While home equity loans are usually lump sum loans with fixed payments and interest rates, a HELOC acts more like a credit card limit. You can draw against your HELOC up to that limit and replenish the supply of available credit by paying off part of the HELOC and the associated interest. Home equity loans can be attractive for moderately large expenses. Currently, home equity loan interest rates are near 6% and HELOC rates are approximately 6.... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2V6Ep9L

MoneyTips Watch Your Credit Card Debt Are you keeping your credit card debt under control? Recent data from Bloomberg shows that more consumers are having a hard time doing so. Credit card issuers reported a 3.82% charge-off rate on credit cards in the first quarter of 2019 – the highest percentage of written-off accounts in almost seven years. In addition, accounts that are 30 days past due increased for each of the seven largest card issuers, suggesting the charge-off trend will continue. (If you're already 30 days late on your payments, you're at increased risk of default.) Banks are nowhere near panic, nor should they be. Data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve shows that delinquencies are still near historic lows, well below the 6.77% peak in the second quarter of 2009. For perspective, St. Louis Fed data shows that the delinquency rate on credit card loans for all commercial banks fell below the 3% mark in Q2 2012 and has not topped 3% since then. Fro... from Mo

MoneyTips Watch Your Credit Card Debt Are you keeping your credit card debt under control? Recent data from Bloomberg shows that more consumers are having a hard time doing so. Credit card issuers reported a 3.82% charge-off rate on credit cards in the first quarter of 2019 – the highest percentage of written-off accounts in almost seven years. In addition, accounts that are 30 days past due increased for each of the seven largest card issuers, suggesting the charge-off trend will continue. (If you're already 30 days late on your payments, you're at increased risk of default.) Banks are nowhere near panic, nor should they be. Data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve shows that delinquencies are still near historic lows, well below the 6.77% peak in the second quarter of 2009. For perspective, St. Louis Fed data shows that the delinquency rate on credit card loans for all commercial banks fell below the 3% mark in Q2 2012 and has not topped 3% since then. Fro... from Mo

MoneyTips Watch Your Credit Card Debt Are you keeping your credit card debt under control? Recent data from Bloomberg shows that more consumers are having a hard time doing so. Credit card issuers reported a 3.82% charge-off rate on credit cards in the first quarter of 2019 – the highest percentage of written-off accounts in almost seven years. In addition, accounts that are 30 days past due increased for each of the seven largest card issuers, suggesting the charge-off trend will continue. (If you're already 30 days late on your payments, you're at increased risk of default.) Banks are nowhere near panic, nor should they be. Data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve shows that delinquencies are still near historic lows, well below the 6.77% peak in the second quarter of 2009. For perspective, St. Louis Fed data shows that the delinquency rate on credit card loans for all commercial banks fell below the 3% mark in Q2 2012 and has not topped 3% since then. Fro... from Mo

MoneyTips Your wallet is gone, along with your credit cards. Is your worry justified that someone will try to use your credit cards and stick you with the bill? We decided to find out. In an exclusive MoneyTips survey, we asked 509 Americans in November whether they had ever lost or had stolen their wallets , purses, pocketbooks or money clips (we'll use 'wallets' from now on to represent these four accessories). We then asked those who were victims of missing wallets: Of those who did have missing cards, nearly 1 in 3 (32%) reported that someone unauthorized had tried to use their debit or credit cards. This misfortune appeared to increase with age: only 28% of those under 45 were affected, versus 36% of those 45 and over. This identity theft issue affected 35% of the women, com... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2PKzI4b

MoneyTips If you check your credit report regularly (and you should), there's a reasonable chance that you've come across an error. A 2012 Federal Trade Commission study of U.S. credit reporting found that upon reviewing their credit reports, one in four consumers identified errors that might affect their credit score. Further, 1 in 20 found errors that might lead to financial impacts, like paying a higher interest rate on an auto loan. Taylor Kosla, an attorney with Agruss Law Firm , works with many clients who've been impacted by inaccuracies on their credit report. She says, "It happens all the time. And un... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2ZS32ur

MoneyTips How much does your credit score affect a mortgage offer? In some cases, a credit score could make the difference between purchasing a home or being forced to rent instead. That's especially true for millennials. Many entered the housing market at the worst possible time – amid the Great Recession. They dealt with a crumbling housing market, limited job options, and crushing student loan burdens . Do credit scores make a difference for millennial homeowners, and how do their borrowing habits compare with their renting counterparts? LendingTree reviewed the credit records of over one million millennial users of their platform and verified that millennial homeowners do have higher credit scores compared to renters. Median credit scores were 671 for millennial homeowners and 582 for non-homeowners. How much difference can a credit ... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2PKWJE6

MoneyTips Do you carry a balance on your credit card? Does the balance haunt you each month, running up interest charges, despite your best efforts to pay it off? You're not alone. According to a new survey by Clever, a real estate data company, almost half (47%) of credit card users report carrying balances, and 56% of those cardholders have had debt for at least a year. Almost three-quarters (72%) of balance-carrying consumers had more than $1,000 in outstanding credit card debt. Most balance holders aren't optimistic about paying off their debt anytime soon. Clever found that only 30% of Americans with credit card debt expect to completely pay it off this year. One in five Americans think it will take more than three years to pay off their credit card debt, 7% say it will take over five years to be free of credit card debt, and 8% have no idea when they'll pay off their debt – if ever.

MoneyTips Can you raise your credit score by taking out a personal loan? You can if you borrow responsibly – and a new study from LendingTree.com shows that borrowers with lower credit scores can see significant benefits. Outstanding personal loan balances have nearly tripled since 2011, rising from $46.4 billion to $125.4 billion by June 2018. While that's a small slice of America's $13.54 trillion total household debt, the effect on credit scores shouldn't be ignored. LendingTree found that 62.4% of personal loan recipients had a higher score one month after receiving a loan – surprising since pre-loan credit checks from lenders should drop scores slightly. The credit score increase in the first month may come from borrowers shifting high-interest balances to a more manageable personal loan and making an impact with their first payment. According to LendingTree, 61% of 2018 personal loans were used to

MoneyTips Can you raise your credit score by taking out a personal loan? You can if you borrow responsibly – and a new study from LendingTree.com shows that borrowers with lower credit scores can see significant benefits. Outstanding personal loan balances have nearly tripled since 2011, rising from $46.4 billion to $125.4 billion by June 2018. While that's a small slice of America's $13.54 trillion total household debt, the effect on credit scores shouldn't be ignored. LendingTree found that 62.4% of personal loan recipients had a higher score one month after receiving a loan – surprising since pre-loan credit checks from lenders should drop scores slightly. The credit score increase in the first month may come from borrowers shifting high-interest balances to a more manageable personal loan and making an impact with their first payment. According to LendingTree, 61% of 2018 personal loans were used to

MoneyTips What do you plan to do with your tax refund? Maybe you have your eye on upgrading your phone, buying a new computer, or splurging on a long overdue vacation. Have you considered using your tax refund to build your credit? Granted, credit building doesn't compare with lying on the beach enjoying the sunshine, but you'll get long-term benefits that go beyond good memories and a tan. Last year's federal tax refunds averaged $2,899, which could go a long way toward establishing new credit or restoring damaged credit. If you don't have any credit at all, your tax refund could help you get a secured credit card. Traditional credit cards require a minimum credit score, but secured credit cards usually don't because they're backed by a cash deposit that determines your credit limit. By making small regular charges and paying them off on time and in full each month, you'll b... from MoneyTips http://bit.ly/2ZLW5Lc