People ask me what actually happens when a tradeline shows up on a credit report — like, what does the bureau see, and why does it move the score? It’s simpler than most explanations make it sound, but there’s one detail that trips up a lot of buyers, and it’s worth getting right before you spend money on this.
Buyers ask me this occasionally — usually they have a kid or a younger sibling who’s just starting out and wants to know if they can get a credit card. The answer to “what credit score do you start with” is a bit unsatisfying: you don’t start with one at all.
Of all the factors that go into a credit score, credit utilization rate is the one I find most buyers fixating on — and for good reason. It’s also one of the few you can actually change in a matter of weeks rather than years.
People ask me how to purchase a tradeline like it’s a complicated process. It isn’t, really — but the part most buyers get wrong isn’t the how, it’s the what. What you’re buying matters a lot more than where you buy it.
Continue reading “Purchase a tradeline: what you’re actually buying and how it works”
As I was planning (daydreaming) about my always-postponed digital nomad life I watched, on a plane, of all places, the movie “Nomadland”. The movie is not really about a digital nomad but a “regular” nomad. It won the Oscar(!?) and it is an interesting movie. But it made me think again about life on the road and the movies that portray it. My two favorites by far are “Into the wild” (I also have the book but never read it) and “The motorcycle diaries”.
