Credit

I start today's conversation with that word we all either hate or love. Credit, such a boring topic to have, but never the less I am going to talk about it lol.  Cedit was never, ever an issue for me. I went on several years of my life not really caring about it.  Til one day I thought about owning my own home, and then it hit me what on earth was I going to do. I did not even know what my credit score would be like. The question was, did I even have credit and if I had established credit was it any good. Well in the past I really did not even care or gave it much thought. So I decided to go on a website and check my credit, to see what was going on. In a shock I could not believe what I was reading, most the stuff I had on my report I don't even remember. I was confused, as I continued to read this report and tried to recollect where this stuff had come from. The hospital bills were one thing, but I had a large bill in the thousands for a home that I had co-signed rent on. Confused because I didn't remember the bill being that high, what was I going to do. I have three kids how on earth was I going to manage paying this off so that my credit would go back to normal? I had talked to a few people and most said just contact the place were the monies was due too and set up payments. If only it was that easy, these people didn't care that I had children or was struggling to live they wanted the full amount paid. So I thought to myself I guess if I saved up money maybe by the fourth year I'd be able to pay it. It seemed impossible to me and to far away for this to happen. So reading further on I really started feeling depressed.

To say that realizing you have bad credit is depressing is an understatement. As a lot of you out there would understand if you don't have decent credit it's almost impossible to do anything you would like to do (like purchasing a home ). People kept on ensuring me that I wasn't the only person in america with poor credit. The more people  talked to me about it the more I became aware that a lot of people I knew also had poor credit. Sadly I wish I realized how important credit was when I was younger. I had to become a parent and get some responsibility in my life to realize its importance which sucks. At the beginning of this adventure it took me to a website called ThinkCreditReports.com.  It only cost me a dollar to step up an account, which they refunded back to me the next day. A lot of these credit report places are expensive and since I am a mom of three it was nice to have a break on that.  After I had found out the very large amount of debt that accumulated "mind you that was to only one credit bureau".  The other two major ones had these weird hospital bills on them. The more I read, the more I started to realize, hey! this should not be on here at all. I have had medical insurance for over nine years now and this report was showing ten hospital bills. Now I was starting to get pissed off, why would the hospital charge me when I am covered? So the more I dug the more it was looking suspicious.  I was sitting in my chair, no lie, one hand gripped a phone and the other hand scrolling down the page of the computer. Oh boy I was getting ready to go off on the poor unsuspecting person about to answer the phone at the billing department at the hospital.  Fortunately I regained my composer and began to speak to the person in a civilized manner. Well according to the kind person on the other line, he said that all I had to was contact the medical card and speak with someone there about requesting my years of coverage and   getting it all taking care of. Which was a big relief on my behalf.

So my title was credit is it important, to answer that I'd say yes. You'd have to be a fool to think otherwise, like I was to just let it go and not worry about it. Now it's all about me building my credit and thankfully it will start to recover. I spoke with my bank and got a secured credit card and the building blocks have begun. If you have poor credit or are curious about it, I'd definitely start out with a credit report first and then go from there. Some people are in need of building credit just because they do not have credit at all. If you have a bank account even if you don't, go speak with one so that you can figure out a way to obtain it. Gotta start somewhere and it's always best to start the right way. Not like I did because one day it will come back to haunt you and with the economy the way it is I think we all can use less stress. Before I go I'll leave some websites on here so those who are curious can have a look. www.ThinkCreditReports.com is a good one to go to. also there is Identity Guard, Identity Force. There are other websites to check your report but these are the best in my opinion. Also If you are trying to improve your credit fast a good way to go about it is added an installment loan to the mix. This would only really apply if you have fair credit, you'll get the fastest improvement in your scores if you show you're responsible with both major kinds of credit: revolving (credit cards) and installment (personal loans, auto, mortgages and student loans). If you don't already have an installment loan on your credit reports, consider adding a small personal loan that you can pay back over time. Again, you'll want the loan to be reported to all three bureaus, and you'll probably get the best deal from a community bank or credit union.  Whelp that's the end of my post for the day, I hope I interested at least a few.  Thanks my friends til next time.

Sincerely,

The Sleepless Mommie