Tag: credit cards

If one credit bureau removes an item, do the others have to?

Short answer: no. If one credit bureau removes a negative item from your report, the others have no obligation to do the same. Each bureau operates independently — a successful dispute with Experian doesn’t automatically trigger anything at Equifax or TransUnion. You have to file separately with each one. I’ll explain why, and what that means in practice. There’s also a shortcut people pass around for filing these through Credit Karma — I tested it in the Credit Karma dispute hack.

if one credit bureau removes do the others have to

Continue reading “If one credit bureau removes an item, do the others have to?”

Medical bill statute of limitations: what to know

Somebody asked me once if buying a tradeline would fix a medical collection that had tanked their credit score. I told them probably not — not in the way they were hoping. But I also told them to look into whether the statute of limitations on that debt had already expired, because that changes what their options actually are. That question comes up more than you’d think, so here’s what the medical bill statute of limitations actually means.

medical bill statute of limitations

Continue reading “Medical bill statute of limitations: what to know”

How often does Credit Karma update? What to actually know

Buyers ask me this more than you’d expect — usually right after they’ve added a tradeline and are watching Credit Karma every day waiting for the number to move. So let me answer the actual question and then explain the part that matters more: what Credit Karma’s score is, and when to trust it.

Continue reading “How often does Credit Karma update? What to actually know”

Proportion of loan balances too high: what it means

That phrase — “proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high” — shows up in FICO reason codes and on monitoring sites like Credit Karma as one of the factors pulling your score down. It sounds bureaucratic, but what it’s describing is actually pretty simple: your installment loans still have a lot of the original balance left to pay off, and that’s costing you points.

Continue reading “Proportion of loan balances too high: what it means”

Can you lease a car with bad credit? What to actually expect

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”