My first posting on this blog. It’s always exciting to do something new, especially if it excites my imagination and fires up my gray cells. Hope people who reads this blog, a remote possibility, finds it stimulating.
Every now and then I believe in reinventing myself and keeping things exciting. I like to differentiate this renewal or reinvention from rediscovery as the latter would mean that I have to relive my past, who wants to do that! Future holds infinite possibilities and I want to be pro active in choosing the right possibility. Sure you do have to learn from your past but living in the past is not the direction anyone in their infinite wisdom would recommend.
This weekend I was listening to radio program Marketplace Money and it had an interesting segment about credit card industry. That got me thinking about how to keep your credit rating strong and I happen to find a interesting segment in CNN in the weekend project section (it might be on the CNN till 2006/12/31) Improve your credit score. The recommendation was 1) Know when your credit card company reports to the Credit bureaus (call your credit card company and ask them) so paying off your high balance before they report will reflect that you haven't maxed out your card/loan 2) Get ride of your store credit card. 3) Get your free credit report (by law each of the 3 agency is supposed to give you one per year). Its important to get it from the three agency.
1 in every 4 credit report contains mistakes. It would be important to check each of these reports for misstatements.
I would say knowledge is power especially when you know that your credit card company is also using the knowledge it gain from your buying pattern to better serve you by providing you the right credit package. I should say there is nothing bad about using or having credit card until you fall in debt that you can't repay. So it’s always good to have a plan. A good plan, take into account some factors that you might neglect out of wishful thinking. Wishful thinking would lead you to a plan which forgets to incorporate "plan b" for worst case scenario. It's hard to plan for worst case scenario because its uncertain.But there is help, for example, most financial planner do advice to have saving that can support you for 3 to 9 months without a source of income. 3 to 9 months depends on how good your career market is and how long it will take to find the next job or gig. Once you are in the worst case scenario keep planning thats your only way out. (Keep good relationship with your family i guess that is important and goes without saying.)
I like this documentary that I watch some time ago and as luck would have it you too can watch it online for free, its called Secret History of the Credit Card . It got some interesting commentaries and facts that will make you look at card less as a gene more as a facilitator that is for rent for a short time. After all, loan the credit card company gives its customers are unsecured loan and that by nature a risky (but profitable) business.
I hope you did find it helpful and I would like to hear back from you!
Thanks for dropping by this "Space in the City" take care!
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