Your Credit report is a permanent record of how you acquire and pay off debt. It affects whether you get such things as a job, a home and even insurance. There are three credit reporting agencies that your creditors can report to: Eperian, Equifax and Transunon.


It is important to review your report regularly because both you creditor and the reporting agencies can make mistakes. Here are some myths about your credit score and report that may help you manage your credit score.

1. The less credit I have the better my score will be. Actually, no credit is as bad as poor credit. The credit bureaus want to see that you can manage your finances responsibly. You have to have credit to prove this.


2. All I have to do to fix my report is to pay off my debts. Paying off your debt is a good start but your credit report is a running history of your credit. Over time as you continue to pay off debt in a timely manner, your history will reflect that and the bad stuff will eventually come off and be replaced by good.

3. My credit report is cleared after seven years. If you file a chapter 13 bankruptcy the bankruptcy will clear 7 years after you finish paying it off. A chapter 7 bankruptcy takes 10 years. Everything else, good and bad stays on your record for 10 years.

4. No one sees my credit report unless I say it’s okay. Actually the only entity that needs your permission to access your credit is a prospective employer. Anyone else who as a “permissible reason” can pull your credit. However, they will need your social Security number to do so. Guard your number closely and keep track of who you give the number to.

5. Lots of inquiries will hurt my credit score. This is a myth that is commonly spread by a lender that does not want you to shop around. If you have multiple inquiries for a mortgage or large ticket item, the credit bureau will assume you are shopping around for the best deal and they will treat all inquiries within a 45 day period as one inquiry.


6. Requesting my own credit report will hurt my score. Credit bureaus can tell if a business is pulling your credit or you are checking your credit. Pulling you own credit is considered responsible so it does not go against your score.

Be careful of companies that promise you a free credit report because they show up as a business pulling a report on your behalf. Go directly to the reporting agency or to www.annualcreditreport.com. The other websites are: www.experian.com, www.equifax.com, www.transunion.com. Also you can get your credit report for free but you generally have to pay for your credit score.

7. Closing my credit card accounts will better my credit score. Credit experts generally agree that once you have opened a credit card it is better to keep it open. Having a lot of credit cards with balances isn’t healthy for you finances or credit, but you need to have at least two or three revolving credit accounts in good standing to boost your credit score.

8. I have to keep a balance to have a good credit score. Keeping a balance on your credit cards is unnecessary and can cause you to pay interest that you don’t need to pay. The credit bureaus care that you pay on time and it does not matter if it is the full balance or a payment.

9. Using credit counseling will hurt my credit score. This used to be true. Being in counseling in and of itself does not lower your score. However, if the counselor negotiates a lower payment or payoff it can be reported as “in arrears.”

Also, it is reported that you are in counseling and some lender consider that as your inability to manage your finances. Also you run the risk of the counseling company not making the payment on time which will affect your score. Anyone who promises to “fix” your credit score is simply not being honest with you.

10. I can increase my credit score by paying on my collection accounts. If you have an old collection account it is better not to make payments on that account. If you wait until you have the full amount you can often negotiate with the creditor to pay it off in exchange for a letter of deletion which will remove it from your report.

Credit is a delicate thing. If you have had credit problems in the past there are many lenders who

who will work with you but at a higher interest rate. Having a small amount of credit can help rebuild your score. For more information I recommend the book “7 steps to a 720 Credit Score,” by Philip X. Tirone.

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Philosophers have been debating what is good and what is not for centuries. Many people find that it's more complicated than just being kind, and several complex religions have arisen with the attempt to understand the difference between good and evil. While every person's journey is different, being good has a lot to do with discovering yourself and your role in the world. Here's how to be a good person on your own terms.



Steps:


1.Be proactive.It's tempting to infer that as long as you avoid doing the things you know are bad (stealing, badmouthing, lying, intentionally saying hurtful things etc.) then that means you're a good person, but there's more to it than that. By avoiding bad behavior, you've made a big step towards becoming a good person, but you've only just begun. In order to be good, you actually have to do good things rather than just avoid doing bad things.

2.
Consider the results. Have you ever heard the saying that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions"? It's not enough to want to do good, and to try to do good--you must also think about whether your actions actually had good results. Not every attempt to do good will end with good results, so when things don't work out, be willing to reconsider your actions and change them accordingly. Never let your sense of duty, loyalty, or obligation get in the way of doing what's right.[1] For example, many parents feel that it's always good to help their children in every way they can, but there are times when children need to learn lessons on their own and face challenges in order to achieve or to avoid mistakes in the future. A child who has been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving needs to bear the responsibility of his or her actions. If the parent bails the child out, then helps the child avoid consequences, s/he will only learn that the parent will be there to help even if s/he does wrong. The intention is good (wanting to help the child succeed) but the action might not be (removing all obstacles from their path).


3.
Consider the greater good. What might seem like a good head in your situation might not have a very good impact on a broader scale (in the example above, the child doesn't have a DUI on his record, but is then free to go and violate the law again, this time possibly hurting or killing someone else). People often do right things for the wrong reasons, and wrong things for the right reasons. If you're playing a game with your team, for instance, it might seem good to try and score as many goals as you can to bring your team to victory. But look at the big picture. How will your teammates feel if you score all the points instead of helping set them up to score at times, never allowing them to get a shot in? How will that kind of victory affect the team spirit? Would you still feel good if your team won, but your teammates felt that it was an individual effort and they weren't involved?


4.
Define what "good" means to you. Ultimately, you have to decide on your own code of ethics, and what matters is that you follow through with what you believe makes you a good person. At times, this may conflict with what others believe is good, and they might even accuse you of being wrong or evil. Consider their views - either they know something you don't, in which case you may learn something from them and "update" your morality, or perhaps their experience is limited, meaning that you should take their views with a grain of salt.


5.
Be balanced. In the struggle to be good, it's easy to swing from one extreme to another. However, any form of extremism can lead to closed-mindedness, a quality that can be found behind what most people can agree are bad deeds. In Buddhism, there's a term for avoiding extremism: "the Middle Way". Whenever you find yourself leaning towards an extreme, try to find the Middle Way before you act. This isn't going to be easy, but if being good was easy, wouldn't every good-hearted person be good? Here are some dilemmas you may encounter:


It's good to be humble and kind, but is it not good to be so humble and kind that you let people walk all over you, to the extent that it damages your physical and emotional health, or lessens your ability to care for, spend time with, and provide for your family?


It's good to be responsible (pay your bills on time, plan for retirement, save up for your kids to go to college) but is it good to be this way to the point that you hoard away hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and wealth for your own family's financial security without ever giving someone else (who isn't fortunate enough to be born into your family) a helping hand?


It's good to be positive, but is it good to be so positive that you ignore risks and brush mistakes under the rug, never learning from bad decisions because you're always "positive" that it'll work out the next time around?


It's good to be honest, but is it good to be so honest that you hurt people's feelings unnecessarily, violate someone's privacy or prevent someone from finding answers that they might need to find for themselves?

6.
Give people the benefit of the doubt. To the extent that it doesn't jeopardize your safety (like getting in the car with a group of people you just met), assume each person you meet is a good person, and act likewise. If you see someone do something that you consider to be bad, consider what they are dealing with in the context of their own life--don't jump to conclusions. Try to discover what motivated their bad act, and if appropriate, show them how it was hurtful by using nonviolent communication. Many times, helping someone else become a good person in a gentle, open-minded and unimposing way can help you learn and become a better person yourself.

7.
Be good for its own sake. Don't try to be a good person because your parents told you to, because you want recognition or respect, or for any kind of reward except your own satisfaction in doing what you believe is good. Never act superior to anyone else or brag about your "goodness" or "righteousness". Your dedication to a particular creed, ideology, or set of guidelines does not make you better than anyone else. Do what you believe makes you a good person on your own terms, and remember that it's an individual journey--everyone's path is unique. Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.