If you or someone you care about is concerned about qualifying for a home loan, co-signing a mortgage with help from a non-occupant co-signer may be an option to help with financing.  Prospective homeowners with small down payments, high debt-to-income ratios or credit score issues may have difficulties getting a mortgage on their own. However, the decision to use a co-signer has several pros and cons for both parties.

If you stop making payments on one of your debts altogether, what happens? In the beginning, the consequences are typically in the form of stern letters and late fees. However, when you fall severely behind, your creditors may eventually stop trying to collect and charge off your debt instead. What do charged-off debts mean for you and your creditors? Is the debt gone, or are you still on the hook? In this blog, we’ll explain what happens when debt is…

Did you know that there is a minimum payment warning on every credit card bill you receive? It usually includes a table that spells out how many years and how much money it will take to pay off your debt if you only make minimum payments. Creditors are required by law to include this information. However, most borrowers never look at this information closely, which means that what happens when you make minimum payments remains lost in the fine print.

If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to deal with debt collector phone calls, you know how frustrating and stressful they can be. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a magic spell or code word you could use to get the ringing to stop?

Let’s face it, money problems are scary. The thought of my hard-earned dollars disappearing overnight, or finding out my identity has been stolen and used to rack up thousands in debt, is enough to keep me awake at night. Yet, despite their fear factor, reading about real-life money horror stories is a great way to learn important lessons that could prevent you from having financial nightmares of your own. 

To understand the anatomy of a credit score, you should begin by looking at a credit report, what it includes and how it is used by lenders. The credit score breakdown is based on information available to credit bureaus in a credit report.  

Credit scores are numbers that evaluate your creditworthiness and financial health. They are issued by credit bureaus or other consumer reporting agencies and are used by lenders to evaluate consumers for credit approval, terms and interest rates. In the U.S., there are three main credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Most credit scores are issued by one of these three. A credit score is generated when a bureau or other reporting agency runs consumer information through a scoring model; FICO…

Most people in debt share a common goal: to pay it off quickly and save as much money as possible. No one wants to spend more than they have to. Fortunately, there are many different ways to get out of debt faster and for less money. Consider six of the cheapest ways to get out of debt and find the solution that is right for you. 

Debt consolidation is a common method of refinancing that involves paying off high-interest debt with a new lower-interest loan.

A personal loan is money borrowed from a bank, credit union, family member, or online lender. Many different types of loans fall into this category. Most have a fixed interest rate that allows borrowers to make predictable payments to repay the debt.