Monitoring Your Credit Score
and Credit Report

Original Post
http://guides.wsj.com/personal-finance/credit/how-to-monitor-your-credit-score-and-credit-report/

• Tips

  • You're entitled to one free credit report, once a year, from each of the three credit reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
  • Higher FICO scores mean lower interest rates and can save you thousands of dollars. Try to boost your score before you apply for a loan.
  • Order your free credit report at ANNUALcreditreport.com. Avoid sites like freecreditreport.com. 
  
  Set up a calendar alert and run one of the three report every 4 months.
  
  Bad credit can result in unfavorable interest rates that cost you thousands when you take out a mortgage, a car loan or a student loan. It could block you from leasing that apartment you’ve been pining for. And it can be a black mark on your record that even prevents you from landing your dream job.
  So it pays to know the essentials of your credit report and related score, the behaviors that can make your score rise or plummet, and the services that help you monitor your credit.
  Your credit report is a summary of your borrowing and repayment history—any new accounts, closed accounts, unpaid bills, late bills, and other activity. If you have a loan, mortgage or credit card, it will show up here. Your credit report provides the basis for your credit score.
  
  Your credit score (also called your Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) score) is a three-digit number between 300 and 850 calculated from a formula that’s designed to gauge your creditworthiness. The three main credit-reporting agencies (Equifax Inc., Experian PLC, and TransUnion) buy the formula from Fair Isaac. The bureaus use your personal data and crunch the numbers differently, so your score will vary slightly at each agency. When a lender considers your application for credit, they turn to one (or all) of the credit agencies for your score, which indicates your reliability as a borrower.
  
  Here are a few ingredients of a credit score:
  • Payment History: Whether you pay your bills on time, including credit cards, student loans, utility bills, or any other lender or service provider that reports to the big three agencies. Getting this right is easy: don’t blow the due date.
  • Amounts owed: The breakdown of your credit balances, and how they compare to the limits of what you’re allowed to take out. If you’re maxed out, it can hurt.
  • Years of credit: The age on your accounts. The longer your credit history, the better lenders can gauge your ability to repay. Unfortunately, the formula knocks young borrowers who don’t have an established, detailed history.
  • New credit: How many accounts have you opened recently, and how many lenders have inquired about your credit? The more activity, the more it appears you’re about to go on a debt binge.
  • Types of credit: The mix of accounts you hold, such as auto loans, credit cards, student loans, or mortgages.
  
  In general, higher credit scores equate to lower interest rates, meaning less cash you’ll have to fork over during the life of a loan. Recently, credit experts think any score above 720 will get you the optimum interest rate. In 2007, the national average FICO score is 723, and 58% of Americans have a score higher than 700, according to Fair Isaac.
  Remember that your credit score is important, but it’s not the sole factor in whether you get approved for a loan, credit card, or other forms of credit. Most lenders also look at your annual income, employment history, and other factors.
  
  With many consumers worried about shaky credit—especially with the threat of identity theft and credit card fraud—many financial institutions, companies, and the credit bureaus themselves are pitching products that guard your credit. Their credit monitoring services watch for new accounts, a surge in balances, or other changes to your accounts. Some will produce detailed reports about your credit score and suggest ways to make it more attractive to lenders.
  Don’t confuse credit monitoring with identity theft protection. Credit card fraud is just a piece of the larger problem of identity theft. Paying someone to monitor your credit will not halt identity theft or unauthorized uses of your Social Security number or other personal data, although it can help you detect problems before they escalate.
  
  Do You Need Credit Monitoring?
  The thought of a thief running up huge credit-card debts in your name is frightening. But credit-monitoring firms are banking on that fear, especially if you’re already a victim of a data breach. Before you shell out $100 (or more) per year for a credit watchdog, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Maybe you know that you won’t keep adequate watch yourself. Perhaps you’re applying for a mortgage and want to make sure your credit remains pristine. Or you could just be obsessed with the idea of credit fraud. If so, credit monitoring might be worth the peace of mind.
  
  If you’re on the fence about whether you need credit monitoring, consider these self-serve approaches for protecting your credit:
  
  Watch your bank and credit card statements for fishy transactions — Make a habit of scanning your financial accounts daily, or at least weekly. Some creditors will even allow you to set up your own free alerts to notify you when online transactions are made on your account or when a purchase exceeds a specified amount.
  
  Keep an eye on your credit report — By law, you’re entitled to a free report every year from each of the three bureaus, so you might as well order a different one every four months. Scan it for abnormal activity, such as accounts or credit cards you didn’t open. You can order the report through each agency, or at annualcreditreport.com. Don’t fall for the add-ons; you just want the score.
  
  If you’re curious about your credit score, you might be able to access it for free. Many banks don’t offer this perk—instead they’ll package your score with inflated charts and graphs and make you pay for it. But it doesn’t hurt to ask for it. Another tack is to ask an inquirer (car salesman, credit card company, or landlord) for a peek at your score. They’ll pull your score before doing business with you, and might share it if you ask nicely.
  
  You can also take other common-sense measures, such as protecting your credit accounts online and shredding sensitive documents, to help prevent fraud. It’s good to know that you have the power to control your credit without paying someone else to do it. Remember, annualcreditreport.com is where to order your free credit report.
  
  How to Picking the Right Service and Boosting Your Credit Score
  You should base your buying decision on how comprehensive you want the monitoring to be and what you’re willing to pay for it. If you’re conscientious about your credit, there are many common-sense steps you can take yourself to keep your credit healthy. In that case, credit monitoring may not be worth the extra money.
  
  The big three credit agencies all offer products that will try to detect fraud and generate your credit score. Each provides a variety of packages depending on how vigilant you want them to be. Many banks offer similar services — look around, you might be able to get a better offer through your financial institution. And the identity-theft players, like LifeLock and TrustedID, also pitch credit monitoring as part of their ID theft protection services.
  
  Make sure you consider the cost before signing on. Some services charge as much as $50 monthly to keep tabs on your credit, which can total $600 annually. Weigh that expense against your odds of suffering credit card fraud. By one estimate, identity theft touches 3 percent of Americans each year—with credit card fraud just a fraction of that number.
  Finally, watch out for the bureaus promoting fancy scores that purport to measure your credit risk by some reconfigured formula. You only want the FICO score, the same one lenders request. The other so-called FAKO scores—like Experian’s PLUS score, TransUnion’s TransRisk score or Experian’s Credit ScoreTracker—are money drains. They’ll just confuse you about where you really stand. If you just want your score, you can order it through Fair Isaac.
  
  If you’re merely looking to keep your credit in good health, it’s not too tricky. Limit your credit cards, set up automated payments to pay your bills on time, space out when you apply for loans and accounts, avoid maxing out your credit cards and carrying unpaid balances. And keep it up for years and years. In short, don’t go nuts with credit, and you should be fine.
  If you’re paying for credit monitoring or just doing it on your own, be sure to report any errors you spot in your report. Contact the agency that sent you the report—each of them has a process for reporting errors. Incorrect info can be damaging to your credit.
  

Dear Millennials: Your Love of Socialism Could be America’s Downfall…

Original Tag
http://louderwithcrowder.com/dear-millennials-your-love-of-socialism-will-be-americas-downfall/

Dear Millennials: Your Love of Socialism Could be America’s Downfall…
Courtney Kirchoff Thursday March 31 2016

millennialssocialism

Dear young adults in figurative diapers,

Being an adult can be a major drag. We have to get jobs. Pay bills. Pay taxes. Make our own appointments. Go to bed early so we can get up early and shuffle on to work the next morning so we can pay for all the stuff we need to continue working. Also the refrigerator doesn’t magically fill itself. Someone should tell Whirlpool about that. Have you noticed that in order for food to be prepared… you have to prepare it? Ridiculous. I’m calling my mom.

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Adulthood isn’t what we thought it would be. No, the economy these past several years hasn’t exactly been stellar, either. Okay? Okay.

My fellow millennials, for sure we have our challenges. Many of you were raised in broken homes. Many of you were exposed to divorce. It’s possible a lot of you didn’t live with your father or may not have known him at all. Combine home life with the rise of political correctness in school, taking its dangerous form of “self-esteem above all,” and no wonder you think life is unfair but you should have it all.

Look, I’m sorry life screwed you over in the early years. I’m sorry if you were shuffled to daycare day in and day out. I’m sorry if you don’t have memories of playing with your parents. But most of all, I’m sorry you were not instilled with the grand idea of personal responsibility. I’m sorry you were not empowered with the notion that YOU are the commander of your own life. If you take nothing else from this post, believe that no matter who you are, you can succeed. Without government.

Because guess what, my friends? Your abject loyalty to socialism is going to tank our country. Your insistence on getting what you want and making other people pay for it, all under the guise of “fairness,” will lead to ruin. For everyone. Including you.

You were likely taught in school of the virtues of socialism. How a government looking after its people via taking over businesses would promote equality. To each according to his need. Sharing, you were told, is caring. Awww! It’s a better world where everyone has the same things. It’s a better world when we’re all equal! No one is rich, no one is poor. Utopia.

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Well, the education system kind of screwed fooled you. They told some white lies here and there. Why shouldn’t they? A public school is just a state school. A government school. Why wouldn’t those schools promote the same system which would ensure they continue on regardless of their quality? Regardless of the outcome? Follow the money. Public schools are funded by governments. It doesn’t seem to matter how poorly performing a school is, does it? Why is that? Because it doesn’t matter. FAIRNESS. EQUALITY. SCHOOL IS A RIGHT. HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES, YOU BIGOT!

The truth about socialism is much different. While you may think the tenets are lofty, fair, reasonable, and give you the feels, the reality is darker (read WW2 Survivor’s Account Draws Chilling Similarities between Nazism and Liberalism…). See, socialism removes human ambition from the equation. Actually it does more than that. Socialism punishes human ambition. Those who strive to be their best, to do their best, only highlight the masses of humans who do not strive. Who fail. And that’s just. Not. Fair. It’s not fair for a few people to succeed while others don’t.

Voila, socialism. The idea that people who suck at life get to take from people who don’t suck at life, because it’s not fair that a few people who are either brilliant, hard-working, both brilliant and hardworking, should succeed more than people who are not brilliant or hard-working. BOO! Socialism promotes human mediocrity.


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Question for you: Who are these angels in government who are going to make things fair? After you’ve answered that question, answer me this: why do you put more trust in these elected strangers, who address you while reading from a teleprompter, with YOUR LIFE than you trust your own self? Read Dear Liberals: Your Cult-like Faith in Government is Disturbing… Why do you put so much faith in Bernie Sanders’s plan to save you than you trust yourself to save you? Reminder, it took Bernie Sanders 40 years to earn a paycheck.

Why do you want to change the economy because you just cannot hack it?

Socialism is for losers. Socialism is for bums (see WATCH: Debunking the Myth of ‘Democratic’ Socialism)
http://louderwithcrowder.com/watch-debunking-the-myth-of-democratic-socialism/
. Socialism is for people who think life is unfair and therefore everyone else, who does work, must take care of you. Or even if you are taking care of yourself, you still think everyone else should help those losers who can’t care for themselves. Seeing a theme here? Socialism is for people who see the worst in others. Socialism assumes humans are weak. Pathetic. Read Dear ‘Men’ Who Vote Bernie Sanders: You’re Not Men at All…

America was founded on the idea that human beings should be free to live their own lives. To be masters of their own destiny. That, by the way, is the definition of American Exceptionalism. People, not government, should be in charge of their own lives. They should be free. Free to succeed. Free to fail.

Which is why the blind embrace of socialism would systematically unwind what America is. Why? Because a lot of you just plain suck. Sorry for the tough love, but come on.

Interestingly, and I’m not using that word sarcastically, when you socialist millennials decide to pull on your big boy and big girl pants, go out into the world and fight for yourself, you leave socialism behind. After learning you can take care of yourself, it just requires a crap ton of work and less whining, your imaginary friend socialism loses its appeal.

From The Washington Post:

    The expanded social welfare state Sanders thinks the United States should adopt requires everyday people to pay considerably more in taxes. Yet millennials become averse to social welfare spending if they foot the bill. As they reach the threshold of earning $40,000 to $60,000 a year, the majority of millennials come to oppose income redistribution, including raising taxes to increase financial assistance to the poor.

Lemme translate that for you: you’re totally cool with socialism…until you’re the one paying for it.

Attack on the GOP Ascendancy

From Commentary Magazine just after the election. I thought that this was an excellent review of where we are now and will be until Trump either succeeds or fails as a president.

John Podhoretz / Nov. 12, 2016

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The Republican Party is in the ascendancy. Who could have predicted it? No one. The response of Democrats and liberals since the election has been screaming, crying, and telling tall tales about racist incidents on social media while providing no evidence that they’ve taken place—and, on the activist Left, rioting. That, alas, maybe anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear could have predicted.

First, the ascendancy. Among the many things everybody got wrong about this election, including me, was what we were seeing happening on the Right side of the political divide. We looked at the heated primary, the rise of Donald Trump, the right-of-center politicians who refused to support him and criticized him, and the conservative media that attacked him, and we concluded that the Republican Party was in crisis and in danger of breaking up. Up until the moment it became clear Trump was winning Florida, the major discussion point about the Right was the “civil war” that was about to break out and whether for the first time in 160 years the United States would see the rise of a serious third party.

Oops. Crow eaten, very much including by me.

After election night, the Republican Party is just fine. More than fine. The Republican Party is arguably in the strongest position it has held in the modern era—holding the Presidency, House, Senate, 33 governorships, 69 of 99 state legislatures, total control of offices in 25 states.

It turns out the crisis is not within Republicanism, but within conservatism. This isn’t a complete surprise, of course; fissures have been evident for years on various aspects of foreign and domestic policy. But if Trump does 20 percent of what he has said he’ll do when it comes to his policy agenda, he will create crises on the Right in relation to trade, the size of government, American commitments abroad, and the projection of American power. He will be a Republican president pushing an agenda that unsettles and upends many (largely) settled questions.

Will conservatives abandon their principles because the team with which they are aligned now has extraordinary political power? Will conservatives decide honestly they were wrong about certain fundamentals if Trump implements new approaches and those approaches work? If the changes Trump does make do not work, of course, his heresies will be blamed. What’s even more important, if they don’t work, the Republican ascendancy will end as quickly and decisively as it began.

The question for Democrats, liberals, and Leftists is this: After eight years in which perhaps their key talking point was that the problem with American governance was the GOP’s utter refusal to work with Democrats, can they now turn on a dime and simply do the same to the Trump Republicans? As the Magic 8-Ball says, signs point to yes. How else to interpret the behavior over the past five days, the riots and public nervous breakdowns by Leftists and liberals who cannot believe that what has happened has happened?

There is no real way to claim Trump’s electoral college majority of 304 is illegitimate–a charge that has been the favored tactic of the more paranoiac and conspiratorially-minded Right and Left over the past 16 years. George W. Bush was deemed illegitimate because he supposedly stole Florida; Barack Obama was deemed illegitimate because of the ridiculous charge he wasn’t actually born in America. Both of these absurdities seized the emotions and darkest ids of those whose true problem was that they couldn’t bear the policies being enacted and felt impotent in their efforts to block them.

So the claim instead is that Trump is, in his person, illegitimate. He’s racist and sexist and a demagogue and terrible. And this, I believe, has begun an interior process within the Democratic Left that opposing him by any means necessary is not only vital but a mark of moral superiority. And this grants people license to do illegitimate things in pursuit of delegitimizing the results of the election.

Many of the stories being retailed on Facebook and Twitter and elsewhere about watermelons being smashed on cars and swastikas being etched into cars and water fountains suddenly featuring signs that say “Whites Only” are so patently invented it’s staggering how easily people are falling for them. (Case in point: How many arrests have been made in these cases? How many actual news stories verifying these supposed incidents have you read?) The ones that are lies are being told by those who are telling them because, I expect, they believe they are revealing a deeper truth: They may be inventing these hate crimes but, since Trump is himself a walking hate crime, it is in service to a higher cause.

So, too, the rioting, which is nonsensical since the places in which the riots are taking place were Hillary Clinton strongholds. It happened to set a marker and make it clear that the Republican ascendancy will be opposed at every turn by every possible means.

I feel entirely free to make this argument precisely because I myself viewed Trump’s rise during the Republican primaries as a frightening event that was lowering American discourse. Perhaps had, say, the GOP candidates going up against him chose to aim their fire and hundreds of millions at Trump rather than at each other in the fall and winter, and had the horrified media of the past two months not been devoted to giving him $2 billion worth of air time and attention, Trump might have been stopped before he was given the inestimable gift of facing the worst presidential candidate since Walter Mondale. (At least Mondale was an upstanding and morally unimpeachable person, as opposed to the egregiously amoral and crooked Hillary Clinton.)

Instead, there was a certain glee as liberals watched what they believed was a Republican dumpster fire from which they would benefit immeasurably. When Les Moonves of CBS said he didn’t like Trump but thought he was good for the bottom line, he was saying two things at once: I’m making money off the other guy and it’s a double delight because the team I oppose is going to be punished! No, they didn’t like Trump, but they believed he had risen up from the bubbling depths and would destroy conservatism and the GOP for them.

My views on Trump’s fitness haven’t changed. But I do not question his legitimacy. Instead, I question the legitimacy of the lies being told to discredit him and the riots being staged to set a marker for worse civil unrest to come. Every serious person should.