People ask me this one a lot — usually after they’ve already tried a dealer and gotten a rough quote. The short answer is yes, you can lease a car with bad credit. The longer answer is that it’ll cost you more, and knowing exactly why gives you a real shot at changing that before you sign anything.
Continue reading “Can you lease a car with bad credit? What to actually expect”
If a lender cancels or forgives a debt — a credit card balance settlement, a short sale on a house, a personal loan they’ve written off — the IRS generally treats that forgiven amount as taxable income. That’s not intuitive, but it’s how it works: money you borrowed and didn’t pay back is treated as if you received it.
Continue reading “Insolvency worksheet: how to fill one out and what it means for your taxes”
Someone messaged me last year asking if there was a way to raise their score 80 points in two weeks. They had a mortgage closing coming up and their broker had told them they needed to hit a certain threshold to lock in the rate they wanted. That’s about as ASAP as credit repair gets — a real deadline with real money on the line.
Continue reading “ASAP credit repair: what actually moves your score quickly (and what doesn’t)”
People ask me this regularly: “Can I get a primary tradeline from your site?” The short answer is no — and it’s worth explaining why, because the difference between a primary tradeline and what I actually sell matters for how you build your credit.
Continue reading “Primary tradelines: what they are and how they’re different from what I sell”
Buyers ask me this every week: can I get a tradeline for free? The honest answer is yes — but the free version comes with tradeoffs that the paid version doesn’t. Understanding what you’re actually trading off helps you make the right call for your situation.
