credit report - The Art of Bad Money Management?

We all want to be able to be in control of our finances but we often make mistakes without realizing it. If you are concerned that you are using bad money management then you should always seek advice from a financial professional. Here are some of the most common bad money management errors: Not paying your bills on time. Dont wait till the final demand. Get the bills out the way first. Keeping high rate credit cards. There are so many opportunities for really low rate credit cards that regular shopping around makes sense. Neglecting to put aside emergency funds. When that emergency comes up, and it will you do want to have to borrow or to use your credit card. Leaving preparing a will until it is too late. This is something that should be part and parcel of home buying or becoming a parent. Not reading your bank statement carefully.Banks do sometimes make mistakes and if a check comes of twice in error dont you want your money back? Neglecting to contribute to a retirement account. Not doing this can be foolish. After all your years of hard work you should be able to do what you want without worrying too much. Not checking your credit report annually for accuracy. Again mistakes are sometimes made and why should you suffer because your credit report contains something that someone else failed to pay? Only paying the minimum monthly payment on your credit cards.Even a small amount extra can bring the interest that you are paying down. Buying the first insurance you come across without shopping around. You may miss the ideal cover at the ideal payment if you dont. Failing to adjust your W-4 annually to make sure you are not paying too much. If you address the above issues wherever possible then you will no longer be guilty of bad money management and you may be pleasantly surprised how much better off you are financially in the long term. Lorna Mclaren has an information and resources website at http://www.123-debt-consolidation-loans.com where you can find out about all types of Debt Consolidation. Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lorna_Mclaren credit report - 3 Credit Repair Secrets Creditors Don't Want You to Know Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few credit repair secrets that your creditors and the credit reporting agencies do not want you to know about. When you start taking measures to repair your credit, it can cost both the creditors and the reporting agencies a great deal of money. There are many different credit repair secrets that they do no want you to be familiar with, but the one we want to focus on here is the ability to dispute negative items on your credit report. You can significantly improve your credit by disputing the negative items that you find on your credit report. Using a letter that is correctly formatted is the way to accomplish this, and when you do so it is always a good idea to keep a copy of the letter you send as well. You may also want to send along a copy of your credit report so they can see where the problem is as well. The following are a few simple steps that will help you effectively dispute the negative items on your credit report. Step #1 - Get a Copy of Your Credit Report - The first thing you need to do is to get a copy of your credit report. Once you have your report, make sure you look it over for any mistakes. For every separate listing that is on your report, check out the information to make sure that it is really yours. At times you may find that a wrong listing will end up on your report, so if you take care of these first, it will probably help to get rid of the other negative items. Step #2 - List the Items You Want to Dispute - After taking care of wrong listings, then you can start looking at the negative items on your report and make up a list of things that you want to dispute. You should put the most harmful items at the top of your list to be taken care of first. Then it is time for you to start writing. Each separate item should be addressed in a separate letter, and you should be sure to send the letter to each of the credit reporting agencies. Remember, this is one of the many credit repair secrets because agencies do not want to be disputed, but doing so is legal and will help to repair your credit. Step #3 - Personalize and Use Strong Language - One of the reasons that these credit repair secrets are so "hush hush" is because creditors and credit reporting agencies do not want to investigate or get rid of the negative items on your credit reports. You are going to have to use strong language and a great letter to get through to them. Although they may give you some trouble and tell you that you are not allowed to dispute items, remember that what you are doing is legal and that they are required to investigate the problem. Let them know with your words that you mean business. It will take a few weeks for everything to get underway, but after they credit reporting agency investigates, then a new credit report should be issued. Make sure that you check out your report to be sure that negative items have been taken away. This is one of the best kept credit repair secrets, but once you learn how to use it, you can effectively repair your credit report.