Free Optimization Tools from an OR Analyst

Sent to Collections Without Notice: What It Means

One of the more disorienting credit situations people describe is checking their report and finding a collection account they didn’t see coming — no warning letter, no phone call, just a collection showing up on all three bureaus. It happens. Whether it’s a legitimate notification failure or a legitimate debt you genuinely forgot about, the outcome is the same: a collection dragging your score down and sitting there for up to seven years. This post covers what to do when you’ve been sent to collections without notice and what your rights actually are.

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Disadvantages of Increasing Credit Limit

Most posts about increasing your credit limit read like a credit card company wrote them — upside presented first, caveats buried at the bottom. I’d rather flip that and give you the actual tradeoffs. There are real disadvantages to increasing your credit limit, and a few of them are things I’ve run into personally. This gets simpler once you know whether the card you’re increasing is secured or unsecured, since the two work a bit differently — I laid out the differences in secured versus unsecured credit cards.

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A Wealth of Common Sense: Book Review

There’s a certain type of personal finance book that makes you want to close it halfway through and go simplify your portfolio immediately. “A Wealth of Common Sense” by Ben Carlson is one of those books. It doesn’t try to teach you a complicated system or sell you on a strategy you’ve never heard of. The entire argument is: you’re probably doing too much, the complexity isn’t helping, and here’s why simplicity tends to win.

FU Money

Hello, brave souls and fellow seekers of the almighty FU Money. You’ve stumbled upon my little corner of the internet where I share tales of my quest for the ultimate financial freedom. If you’re expecting a dry, step-by-step guide, you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. But if you’re here for a sprinkle of wit on a bed of honest finance advice, grab your favorite beverage and settle in.

Why Did My Credit Limit Increase Automatically?

Most people don’t go looking for a credit limit increase — it just shows up one day. You log in, notice your limit jumped a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, and wonder what triggered it. The short answer: your issuer decided you’d earned it. The longer answer is a bit more interesting.