background preloader

Personal Finances and Health

Facebook Twitter

7 Items Your Credit Report Won't Reveal. Do you feel like your credit report is spying on you?

7 Items Your Credit Report Won't Reveal

Sometimes it seems like just about everything personal is included in your credit history, including your name, address and Social Security number. Even your birth date is on it. But you still have a few things that even your credit report doesn't know. Here are seven items that lenders won't see when they pull your credit report. Your salary Salaries haven't "been on a report since the early 1990s," says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for SmartCredit.com. If you ask someone what they will make this year, there are "too many variables," such as layoffs, raises, commissions and bonuses to get an accurate answer, says Ulzheimer. Another reason you won't see salaries on credit reports: "Income really isn't a measure of creditworthiness," he says. Your credit report and your credit scores are meant to tell "a creditor whether or not you're going to make a payment, not whether you can make a payment," Ulzheimer says.

Five extreme ways to lower your cell phone bill - iPhone app article - Brad Spirrison. The average wireless phone bill jumped more than 50 percent between 2006 and 2011.

Five extreme ways to lower your cell phone bill - iPhone app article - Brad Spirrison

According to market research firm JD Power & Associates, this figure is approaching $1,200 per year. Ouch! While many of us are getting value from our mobile phones by surfing the web, watching videos and playing games, spending more than a grand a year on these and related activities is difficult to justify. There can be considerable price relief, however, if you are willing to modify your cellular consumption with some new and/or unorthodox services. Here are five extreme ways to lower your cell phone bill. Try the “hybrid” approach When new cell phone service Republic Wireless debuted last year, many people wondered if its $19-per-month rate for unlimited voice and data services was too good to be true.

The good? The not so good? Keep your phone, but use Voice Over IP services. 7 Things You Didn't Know Affect Your Credit Score. We all know to pay our bills on time and carry as little debt as possible, and most of the time, that is all that matters in your credit score.

7 Things You Didn't Know Affect Your Credit Score

Yet, there are other, smaller factors that many people aren't aware of that can cause your score to suffer. Small Unpaid Private Debts Many people pay their mortgage, credit card and utility bills with unflappable consistency, yet neglect smaller debts. They may feel that these debts are illegitimate or that they will just go away if ignored.

For example, municipalities have been known to report unpaid parking tickets and even library fines to credit bureaus. Unfortunately, any unpaid debt can weigh down your credit score. Tax Liens You might not think of the IRS as an agency that reports to credit bureaus, but Uncle Sam figured out long ago how to use your credit history as leverage. Utility Bills Your electricity bill or gas bill is not a loan, but failing to pay it will hurt your credit score. More From Investopedia. Three Crazy-Fun Ab Exercises.