Household Tips

I didn’t know this. Did you know that it is legal to be denied employment because of a low credit score? Did you also know that your credit report might have information on it that is simply untrue? When I bought a rental house a couple of years ago, there was a mysterious loan on my credit report. No, I wasn’t the victim of credit fraud. But someone with a social security number only one number off from my social security number. It really wasn’t very hard to fix, but it was a good thing we found it. And speaking of finding mistakes, did you know that you can check your credit report for free online? You can go to www.experian.com to find out how. Read on for more tips on credit from, of all unlikely sources, Visa:

A Visa survey found that 42 percent of consumers 18 and older have never even checked their credit score and therefore can not know if they have a bad or good score. Men are significantly less likely to check their credit score, as are people over 55 years old.

Many employers have made checking a credit score a mandatory part of the job application process, just as drug testing and criminal background checks are now common requirements for jobs in many industries.

Additional key findings of Visa’s survey of 1,000 adults nationwide include:

— More women (59%) have checked their credit score than men (51%).
— Adults age 55 and up have checked their score at a far lower rate (43%) than those under 55 (62%).
— Only 22% check their credit score once a year.
— A small group of just 18% check their score two or more times each year.

Some key credit score tips include:
— Stick to your budget and pay all of your bills on time
— Keep your credit card balance low in relation to your available credit
— Make more than the minimum payment on your credit card and other loans
— Don’t open a lot of new accounts over a short period of time, especially if you have a short credit history
— Pay off credit card debt rather than moving it around to other cards
— Review your credit report regularly for errors and know your credit score: A free online tool to estimate your current credit score is available at http://www.whatsmyscore.org/estimator