Credit Card Solution

Owning a home is one thing; many people often daydream about building their own real estate empire one day. However, just like blue cheese, real estate investing might not be the right choice for all small-scale investors.

Are you aware of the gravity of the investment?

A real estate investment requires serious commitment. You need to abide by basic business principles whether you want to deal in houses or apartments. Real estate is one avenue where the need to recoup your initial investment and thereafter make a profit is more greatly emphasized than other investments.

If you aim to sell, you have to get more than what it cost to buy and fix up the property. If you aim to rent, the income from rental should subsidize a generous portion of the mortgage.

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Paying your bills with credit cards can be a convenient way to stay on top of what you owe. In most cases you can even increase your cash-back earnings on your rewards cards with your bill payments. Before you link your credit card account to all your utility bills, though, be sure to consider the pros and cons of paying your bills with credit cards.

Pros of Paying Bills with Credit Cards

Consider these benefits of paying your bills with your credit card

Automatic payments give you fewer bills to fill out each month.

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There are many reasons to opt out of a credit card account, including, but not limited to, heightened interest rates, excessive late penalties, unfair policies, hidden fees and overall dissatisfaction with the issuer’s support and service. With interest rates being as high as 29% on some accounts, and the universal default clause allowing for excessive interest rate penalties, it’s relatively easy to become infuriated with a credit card company and cancel an account on the spur of the moment. Opting out of the credit card account in the wrong way, however, could result in even more financial troubles, such as higher interest rates on future credit cards. To keep the credit score intact, consider the following before opting out of any credit card account.

Understanding the Utilization Rate

The utilization rate, also known as the credit to debt ratio, is the percentage of credit available in comparison to the percentage of currently outstanding debt. Ide

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Credit bureau Experian announced last week that positive rental history will be included on credit reports going forward.

The move should help underbanked consumers, such as college students and recent immigrants, build credit history.

In the past, only subsets of negative rental activity were included on credit reports, so consumers’ credit scores could only be hurt by their rental history.

The company said one-third of the country rents and argued that on-time rental payments should be included to reflect the “true creditworthiness” of those who pay on time each month.

Banks and lenders also stand to benefit from the change, as they’ll be able to update their underwriting procedures to automatically capture a consumer’s rental payment obligations from a credit report, instead of inputting it manually.

They’ll also have a more accurate understanding of a consumer’s total monthly obligations to assist in making future credit offerings.

Experian noted that the addition of positive rental history on credit reports will boost credit scores for more than one in three consumers in the highest risk VantageScore® score band to at least the next highest score band.

VantageScore uses both a number and letter grade (A, B, C, D or F), and has a credit score range of 501-990.

It’s unclear if the more popular Fico score will utilize positive rental history, but it’s fair to say it would make sense.

All the more reason to ensure you make your rent payments on time each month.