Personal blog on early retirement, selling tradelines, and analytics projects. I write about what I learn as I am learning it.
Cuando alguien me pregunta cómo empezar a construir crédito desde cero, lo primero que les digo es: no te compliques. Hay caminos más cortos de lo que la mayoría cree, y las tarjetas de crédito de fácil aprobación son uno de ellos. No son perfectas, pero son un punto de entrada real para quien tiene poco o ningún historial.
Continue reading “Tarjetas de Crédito de Fácil Aprobación: Lo Que Nadie Te Explica”
There’s a specific question I get from people who’ve already done some shopping around: “why are tradelines so expensive through the big brokers, and is there a cheaper way to get the same thing?” It’s a completely reasonable thing to ask. The answer is yes — and understanding why prices vary so much is actually pretty useful if you’re trying to spend your money well.
Continue reading “Cheap Tradelines: What You’re Actually Paying For”
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.
Continue reading “What Is Credit Utilization Rate? (And Why It Matters)”
Most people frame this as a dollar-amount question — I owe three thousand, or eight thousand, or fifteen thousand — and want to know if that number is the problem. From a credit score standpoint, the raw dollar amount is almost irrelevant. What matters is the ratio: how much of your available credit you’re using. That ratio is utilization, and it’s the real answer to how much credit card debt is too much. Related: do installment loans help your credit — worth reading if this applies to you.
Buyers often ask me which tradeline will help them the most. Before I answer, I usually ask one question back: what does your revolving utilization look like? If it’s high, a tradeline with a big limit can move your score faster than almost anything else. If it’s already low, the math works differently and we should be looking at age instead. Understanding revolving utilization is where that conversation always starts, because it’s the single fastest-moving part of your credit score.
Continue reading “Revolving Utilization: What It Is and How to Fix It”