Saving Money as Prices Increase

[daugen]

Dave Ramsey is well-meaning, but his advice is awful when it comes to credit. Even if you really expect to never take out another loan, your credit score also affects the rates you pay on things like insurance. Ramsey is giving advice to people about credit as if they were alcoholics and any use of credit will make them relapse. I figure if you have enough discipline to follow his other advice, you can manage credit well.

Debt is a tool to create wealth. It can be trouble for the unwise, but failing to effectively use credit is nearly as foolish as using too much.

this is very good advice.
I'm a retired CFP and spent a long time being a financial doctor to families, showing them how to send their kids to school, how to pay off their credit cards, and to retire before they got too old. I'm also a retired insurance underwriter and can tell you the use of credit scores is insidious. What you pay for your car and homeowners insurance is affected by your credit score. Want that preferred rate on car insurance? Better have a good FICO score.

I just took out short term financing on a used car only to get the paid loan on my file. I have no debt and that really dings you. So I keep the note for 3 months and then pay it off. You have to pay debt on time to get good scores. Mine is in the 830's so I don't care about trying to get it higher. Anything around 750 and above means you are fine.

One credit card, with cash back, airline miles, something, and pay it off every month. Took me a long time to figure that out. Now that I'm retired, lack of debt is very important.

 

[Diggin It]

Never really paid attention to TV pundits and media wizards, but once I found out DR fires unmarried female employees who get pregnant, I knew what a lowlife scum he really was.

I'm also a retired insurance underwriter and can tell you the use of credit scores is insidious. What you pay for your car and homeowners insurance is affected by your credit score. Want that preferred rate on car insurance? Better have a good FICO score.

Quite a few years back when a new agent was quoting an auto policy, she kept commenting that she had rarely seen rates as low as what she was seeing on my application. At least part of it was due to the credit rating.

I just took out short term financing on a used car only to get the paid loan on my file. I have no debt and that really dings you. So I keep the note for 3 months and then pay it off. You have to pay debt on time to get good scores.

I did that a couple of years ago. House and both cars are paid in full, so the only thing on my file was CCs. I pulled $1,000 on an unsecured personal loan for no other reason than to get one added to my file. Had it tranefererd to my checking account, but ever used any of it. Set up auto payments to pay it off a couple of months early. Cost me a small loan origination fee and a little interest, but likely helped me get the tractor loan so easily.

Mine is in the 830's so I don't care about trying to get it higher. Anything around 750 and above means you are fine.

Mine fluctuates between 790 and 820 or so. I don't expect it to ever go higher with no real estate loans which I don't expect to ever need. I don't ever see it crashing either unless some unseen event happens, like major medical costs I can't handle.

The two big companies do their ratings a bit different, so there's always about a 20 point difference between them.

 

[3Ts]

We're retired and have no debts or loans. We pay off our credit cards every month so nothing there either. We watched our credit rating slowly decline due to the lack of loans. So, when it came time to buy a car, we took out a loan instead of paying cash for it which brought our rating back up. The only reason I care about our credit rating is because it affects the amount we pay for insurance (homeowners, auto, etc.) otherwise I could care less.

 

[lman]

I guess I need to figure out what my credit score is. We also have no debts and pay off cc immediately. What's the easiest way to find your score?

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

We haven’t made a single payment since we were in our mid 30s... 9 years ago? I’m not even sure what our credit score is

 

[Hay Dude]

We will be getting a new score soon.
It will be called your “social score”.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

We will be getting a new score soon.
It will be called your “social score”.

The more shots you have on record, the higher it is

 

[Hay Dude]

Talked at length with my daughter last night. Some of her teammates have gotten Omicron. If they live in the dorms, they are banished to 5 days in a “quarantine dorm”. About 15% of the 22,000 student body has it at any given time, so it’s no small number. You must stay in your room at all times. Can’t go anywhere-even for a walk. Most kids leave just the campus and go home.
My daughter hasn’t tested positive yet, but really wants to because then they stop testing you as much for 90 days. She said everyone just wants to get it (except the real panic stricken sissies) just to get it overwith.

 

[Diggin It]

I guess I need to figure out what my credit score is. We also have no debts and pay off cc immediately. What's the easiest way to find your score?

My CCs and banks have a page that shows it once logged in.

You can also try the CreditKarma website, but you have to set up an account and answer a few questions to get verified.

 

[3Ts]

You can get a full credit report for free once each year from each of the credit reporting agencies. It will include much more than just your score and will list all kinds of things and you'll have a chance to challenge/correct any errors. I suggest you do so, I've requested some corrections and they've made the one I requested.

Here's the website to get a free annual credit report.
Free annual credit report