Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Boosting your credit overnight with no money out of your pocket

As I'm writing about this story of how my enemy to deal with in credit repair became my best friend...I realized that the only people that would understand what I'm talking about are well...other credit restoration professionals. So ill save that post for another day and give you guys some simple tricks to boost your credit.

So your credit is a combination of a number of things. Id rather not go into something that can be explained by a google search in images and pulling up a pie chart. Quite simply put...its how long you have had your accounts and how you use credit.

Now here's the catch with credit. You are only going to get credit offers when you DONT need it! Sounds pretty backwards right? Like why would I get credit when I don't need it? Well here's what the bank is thinking...well if your in need of credit, then your spending more then what you can make, and that's risky.

So does this mean that carrying a balance on your credit cards lowers your credit score? To a certain extent...yes. The magic number is 30%. Once you keep balances of more then 30% of your credit limit, you will start to see your score gradually go down.

So why is this relevant to how to boost your credit overnight without any money out of your pocket? Well here you go. There's a little trick that credit bureaus hate...its called authorized users.

So whats an authorized user? Here we go...I'm going to try my hardest to explain it as simple as possible. You add someone to your credit card as someone who can make purchases as well. And there you go...that's an authorized user :) Here's where the magic happens though. Certain credit cards report authorized users the same way they do for their account holders!

So imagine this...you just added your little brother to your credit card. Say...its your **Capital One card**. Now he just took over that whole history for that specific card (all your good and bad history). And BAM! overnight your little bro that had no spec of credit history has a good standing card that has been paying on time.

So lets wrap everything up in this blog. Earlier I spoke about not being able to get credit when you need it. For people trying to build credit from scratch now...good luck. It is a bitch to get your first credit card...but once you get one, and you pay your bill on time for 3 months...every freaking bank will beg you to use theirs. Also I spoke about the balances you keep on your card known as "debt to credit ratio". If you are trying to build credit...don't get a family member to add you to their maxed out, delinquent account. You would be better off handing your social security off to a identity fraudster. At least they would know how get you some cards.

PS. The laws have changed so not every bank reports authorized users...actually I only know of **1 bank** that does it now. Hence them being my best friend now. Ill cover them in another blog, but I wanted to drop you guys a little info on how authorized users work.

The truth about credit and your bank accounts

So I've been a banker for close to 6 years now and the truth is...your banker probably knows little to nothing about credit. Honestly we just say what sounds right to either get you to open an account or to save one. Heres a perfect example, at work just the other day my manager was training me on objections to a person keeping large amounts of cash in safe deposit boxes at home (we get paid on the balances you take into the bank). He said that insurance doesn't cover cash in the case of something like your house burning down because you cant prove it. You can say your house burned down 1 million dollars...is he right? Neither of us are sure, but it sounds pretty damn convincing right? 

So heres the truth about credit and what your banker wont tell you. No closing your account does not affect your credit. Having bad accounts does not affect your credit. The credit and banking system are two different machines. Banking uses a system to screen bad people out or bad history accounts out by a system called chexsystems. The credit bureaus use a system called FICO. 

There's only 1 linking that Ive found between the banks and your credit. If you have an account at a bank, the more likely they will extend to you credit. But there's a trick...the system will only recognize you after you hit a certain time with the bank and have a certain balance in your accounts. The minimum time you have to be with a bank before you get a relationship score is 3 months and the minimum balance you have to hold in your account is $300.

If you have ever tried to apply for a secured card, any place you go your going to have to put an initial down deposit of at least $300. Don't ask me why $300 because I don't know. Maybe its the minimum a bank can make money off you. Because contrary to what you believe...banks are FOR PROFIT companies! Yes...we make money off your money...but it shocks me when someone comes into the bank and wants free shit all the time like checks and safe deposit boxes when you only keep like $30 in your account. Honestly...no company...how big it is will make money off your stupid $30...the economy sucks so don't be surprised when we start charging you monthly fees for your shitty balances people!

Alright...now that I've blown off some steam lets get back to the truth about credit and your bank accounts lol. So yes, the banks are for profit companies. And the more stuff you keep at a bank like direct deposit, online banking and bill pay, a savings account along with your checking the bank makes money off it. So the higher your relationship score will be and the banks will look at it when extending you credit for the first time. So if your starting out your credit journey, first start with your primary bank. After that, Id advise you to open an account with the bank your trying to apply for a credit card with even if you may get a monthly fee. 

Ill post another blog on how to build credit if you don't have any later and the little tricks you can use. Ill even drop some of the tricks I use for my credit restoration business. Keep posted guys, thanks for following me! 

PS. Ive seen more and more linking to bad credit and not being able to open accounts lately. Don't be surprised if pretty soon you cant open a bank account if you owe money to creditors and collections agencies. And definitely don't open a bank account where you owe the bank money on a credit card that your not paying on time...common sense people, dont be stupid. If you owed me money and you asked me to hold some cash while you went on a trip to Hawaii what would you think I'd do? Yea...ill keep your cash safe for you....

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

My Credit Journey

So this is my first blog and Im not sure what to write or where to start...so ill start by beginning with a little blurb about myself and how I came up with the idea of credit conscience.

About 5 years ago a buddy and I decided to become "investors"just like what we read in the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki...even though at the time we didn't realize what that word event meant lol. We just wanted to be rich like any other person. 

The problem is we had no money of our own to start with. Luckily (or unfortunately for us) at the time, the economy was booming and any schmuck or 18 year old kid could access to large credit lines. Which was the case for my buddy and I. There was then...and still is, high speculation of silver being the next big boom. So we had this great idea, lets take out cash advances and buy silver stocks on margin! So we used not our own money to leverage a 2 to 1 trade for silver. I highly advise against ever doing this sort of trick with anything at all. But the idea that we had was if silver was going to be the next big boom, we would capitalize on the market and double the money we borrowed...and have a great way of making money out of thin air story. 

The market was rising and we were riding high or about a month telling everyone that we were going to be rich in 5 months. The problem is that around that time there was a 1 day dip in the silver market that kicked out all the speculating investors (ie my buddy and I) and we lost a ton of money and had to pay it back. 

This was my first experience with the power of leverage. It can make you or break you badly. Credit is a perfect form of leverage. Some people use it for good and expand their business, while others use it foolishly for consumer reasons and have it work against them. 

The point of this blog for me is to document my journey of how I figured how to use credit as a powerful tool to build wealth and educate some people along the way. Since this first incident I've lost much more money, but also learned many lessons along the way. Hopefully whoever reads this learns some tricks to help them on their journey to wealth. Good luck guys, until next time!