Credit Report | blog.firstffcu.com

COVID-19 will undeniably have an impact on consumers’ lives and finances in the coming months. Now is a critical time for people to take the appropriate actions to protect and monitor their credit. How can you keep your credit score in check during this time? Keep reading.

Review your credit score and report regularly.

Monitoring your credit score and report is just as important as monitoring your account balances. Noticing a sudden drop in your bank account balance without any action on your part, is a major indicator that there could be fraudulent activity on your account. The same goes for your credit. Do a monthly review to ensure that all the information on your credit report is accurate, and immediately dispute anything that is incorrect with the credit bureaus – before it has a negative impact on your credit score. It’s best to be proactive!

Sign up for a credit monitoring service.

It’s important to have a credit monitoring service working behind the scenes for you, and in between any periodic reviews. A credit monitoring service will immediately notify you of any unexpected changes or activity that could negatively impact your credit. In today’s world, these alerts are typically in real-time – giving you the ability to stop any fraudsters as soon as possible. Growing unemployment and financial strain during this time will increase fraudulent activity around the globe, and could also up your chances of being hacked or scammed – so please stay on top of your credit report.

Monitor your rates to find more savings.

It’s always recommended to have a rainy day fund for times like the present. Could savings be hidden in your auto loan with a refinance or using the equity in your vehicle (cash out auto loan)? Rates are at historic lows, which means it’s the perfect time to revisit the interest rates you are paying. If you live, work, worship, volunteer, or attend school in Monmouth or Ocean Counties in NJ – contact us to inquire about refinancing your credit card debt into a fixed low-rate personal loan. An auto or mortgage refinance can also often shave dollars, sometimes hundreds – off your monthly payment.*

Staying on top of your credit is important to do for both yourself and your loved ones. Your current credit decisions will have an impact on your finances for years to come. A late payment can stay on your credit report for up to seven years and costs the average person hundreds, if not thousands more in interest. Check out our credit management guidebook, be sure to review your credit report – and if you have questions, reach out to us! We are here for you.

*APR = Annual Percentage Rate. Not all applicants will qualify, subject to credit approval. Additional terms & conditions may apply. Actual rate may vary based on credit worthiness and term. A First Financial membership is required to obtain a First Financial loan and is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers or attends school in Monmouth or Ocean Counties. See credit union for details. A $5 deposit in a base savings account is required for credit union membership prior to opening any other account/loan. First Financial FCU maintains the right to not extend credit, after you respond, if we determine you do not meet our guidelines for creditworthiness. Current loans financed with First Financial FCU are not eligible for review or refinance.

Article Source: Chris Fraenza for Savvymoney.com

Your credit score is a big deal. That number decides what kind of loan you’ll be able to get and what interest rate you’ll have to pay. If your credit score is low, you’ll need to find ways to raise and improve it. If your score is good, here are three things you may want to avoid in order to maintain your high credit rating.

Cosigning a loan: You’re a nice person and you do nice things for people you care about. In reality, you should really never cosign someone else’s loan. If the borrower starts missing payments, your credit score will take a big hit. The last thing you want to do is be on the hook for someone else’s car payments, personal loans, or credit cards.

Closing a credit card account: Maybe you have a credit card that was just used to build credit or have in case of emergencies. You may have paid if off and decided to stop using it, but be sure you don’t close that account. That card’s credit history is good for your credit score. Also, closing the account will lower your amount of available credit which could negatively affect your debt utilization ratio. Closing a credit card account is one action that can damage your credit score in two different ways.

Not looking for errors: Always keep a close eye on your credit score. If you haven’t looked at yours recently, check out annualcreditreport.com. If you don’t keep an eye on your credit report, you could have your identity stolen and not even know it. Even if isn’t the case, there could still be inaccuracies. The day you find an error on your credit report that is negatively impacting your score, is the day you’ll be extremely happy you checked.

If you’d like more insight into your credit score and managing your credit – view our credit and debt management guide here.

Article Source: John Pettit for CUInsight.com