Bev O’Shea writes about consumer credit for NerdWallet. She has been a speaker at FinCon, a national personal finance conference. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, MarketWatch, USA Today and MSN Money, and on the Associated Press wire. Her credit score was briefly a perfect 850, she won’t co-sign, even for her children, and she is a serial mortgage refinancer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: BeverlyOShea
Consumers filed complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in record numbers in 2020, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer…
Your credit history can affect how much you pay for car or home insurance, your ability to rent a house or an apartment and even your chances of getting some…
Breaking a lease won’t hurt your credit score if your landlord agrees that you have paid everything you owe, including penalties such as a fee for early termination, plus the…
Checking your credit reports can help you ensure that the information being used to calculate your credit scores is accurate and up to date. That’s valuable when you’re working on…
Credit scores are designed to help lenders understand how likely you are to repay borrowed money. Credit-scoring companies apply a mathematical formula to data about how you’ve handled credit in…
Your current credit score is the starting point for your journey toward building credit or restoring it after a setback. The next step is understanding how the way you handle…
Like many people who set money goals for 2021, you may have your eye on a better credit score. But it can feel like such a big job that it’s hard…
Decluttering your wallet can give you a quick sense of accomplishment in the new year. You can check a task off your list and feel more organized and safer. A…
One side effect of the coronavirus pandemic is an abundance of criminals trying to take advantage of people. The arrival of vaccines and a second round of relief payments bring…
The holiday season is getting closer — and wallets lighter. Still, there are unpurchased gifts left on your list. Here’s how to come up with presents that will delight recipients without…
