Your FICO Score--A Better Understanding

Your FICO Score

Your "FICO score" is a numeric representation of your "financial responsibility" based on your credit history.

Potential lenders may use your FICO score to decide whether or not to grant you credit and what interest rate to charge. Thus, it's extremely important to know your FICO score before you apply for any loan or credit card.

Your score is a number in the range 300-850, with 300 representing "poor credit risk" and 850 representing "excellent credit risk." Actually, you have three FICO scores, since each of the three national credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) performs its own computation with the data it has and with its own scoring system. Lenders often look at all three scores and combine them with their own assessments of credit worthiness.

Approximately 40% of Americans have FICO scores of 750 or higher, and approximately 1% have scores lower than 500.

Your FICO score will have a profound effect on the interest rate you receive on an automobile loan.

An Example

The interest rate on a 4-year used car loan at a local car dealer was a rock bottom 5.697% for buyers with FICO scores in the range 720-850, but it increased to a whopping 24% for those with scores in the range 500-589. I assume those with scores under 500 did not qualify for a loan.

Some unethical loan providers will approve those with the lowest scores with a down payment, high interest rate and the loan is written for as many as 6 or 7 years, meaning you will be paying as much as four times what the vehicle is worth by the time you pay off the loan. Please always read the fine print and you can always have the salesman/loan officer print out your application and take it to your bank and ask them to explain it to you before you sign it and agree to the terms. The hidden application fees and "loan approval fees" can only add to the amount you are financing.

How to Improve Your FICO Score

In addition to providing your FICO score, MyFICO.com explains in detail how you can improve it. Here's some of the more obvious advice:

- Pay your bills on time.

- If you have missed payments, get up to date and stay up to date.

- Keep your credit card balances low--way below your credit limit.

- Pay off your debt rather than moving it from one account to another.

- Don't open a lot of credit card accounts.

MyFICO offers informative, actionable credit-information services that help people improve and protect their overall financial health.

See the web site for more ideas. MyFico.com Fico Scores/Reports

Identity Theft--How to Protect Yourself

Identity Theft – How to Protect Yourself

Recent statistics show there were as many as 10 Million victims last year and it’s on the rise.
(Federal Trade Commission)

And yes, identity theft can happen to you or anyone else in your family. Consider the consequences for a moment.

You may not lose money, but you may very well end up with a damaged credit history. And a bad credit history impacts many aspects of your life.

Bad credit may prevent you from getting bank loans, credit cards, car loans, mortgages and more. In other words, through no fault of your own, lenders can start saying no to you. And it doesn’t help if you tell them about identity theft. What they’ll base their decisions on is your credit report.

And here’s the worst part. Victims of identity theft typically spend hundreds of hours getting things sorted out and repairing their financial status. This is a process that can go on for months; even a year or more.

Can you afford to take that kind of risk?

Criminals use a wide variety of methods to steal your information.

One way they do this is by calling you directly, pretending to be one of your creditors or from the Social Security Administration, and asking you to verify your credintials. Criminals obtain your name and phone number by reviewing the classified ads.

Identity thieves obtain credit it your name, get mortgages to buy houses--only to later forge documents and resell the house leaving you with a mortgage company coming after you for payment and it will cost you your good credit rating while you're trying to prove you didn't apply or obtain the mortgage in the first place.

How to prevent or minimize the impact of identity theft.

While you cannot always prevent identity theft, you can take an important step to ensure that you don’t become a long time victim.

You need to be aware when it starts happening, not months later when your credit history is in ruins.

The most effective way of doing this is to check your credit report at several times a year. If you are a victim of identity theft you will catch it early by checking your credit report regularly.

And the sooner you find out, the faster you can stop the criminals and repair the damage.

It's time you safe guard your good credit and help us put a stop to Identity Theft.

Here’s an excellent site where you can find out what’s on your credit report, and begin protecting yourself from the ravages of identity theft and prevent it from happening to you: LifeLock is the only Identity Theft Prevention Solution backed by a one-million dollar guarantee!Click here to get a 10% discount.

Affiliate Marketing on Steroids--It's not Rocket Science!

Affiliate Marketing on Steroids--It's not Rocket Science!

This is the amazing true story of how a woman with NO business experience became a Super Affiliate earning $500,000+ (*) per year selling other people's stuff online . Her name is Rosalind Gardner and she is known as the "Affiliate Marketing Queen." She has been dubbed by January 2009 Trade Magazine as the female affiliate marketer (since 1998) with the most experience.

Over the years, she has taught thousands of people how to start and run their own successful affiliate marketing businesses using the methods she teaches in the Super Affiliate Handbook (and as an industry expert speaker, magazine columnist and consultant) and YOU can learn them too!

She teaches by example - using her own affiliate sites. From blog installation, to design, content creation and all methods of marketing - She STILL does it all.

Affiliate marketing is NOT rocket science. Far from it!

You don't need an MBA to do business on the web. Everything in life is a learning process. What you get out of your projects is due only to what you put into them. Learn it once, Rinse & Repeat over an over again. What Rosalind has to teach you can be learned and put into action as you are learning. You will see your income increase as you complete each step in her learning process. Your online presence will come to life right before your very eyes. Why learn it from scratch making your mistakes along the way and eventually giving up on the opportunity of a lifetime when you can learn from her mistakes and learn her award-winning, money making lessons that continue to make her money all day, every day, month after month, year after year?

Using a step-by-step plan to business-building, the 'Super Affiliate Handbook' answers all of the questions you will have and many, many more.

Here are some examples of what you will learn:

* You get 222 information-packed pages of practical tips and real-life examples of WORKING affiliate sites (Note: Many Affiliate Managers recommend the Super Affiliate Handbook to their affiliates. In fact, Anik Singal makes it required reading for his staff. )
* "How To" strategies to save you money, time, and effort while building your affiliate marketing business.
* Get an easy-to-understand 5-step overview of the business-building process.
* Discover the top 25 mistakes that 'normal' affiliates make, and how to AVOID them.
* How to create a web site that keeps visitors coming back for more.
* 29 ways to market your affiliate sites online and off.
* Why you must stay away from the 'flea market' approach to Internet marketing.
* How to assess a market for profitabilty.
* Discover which products are actually sold online.
* Learn which programs to avoid and when to drop others.
* Where to find free software that will save you both time and money.
* Learn how to negotiate a raise in your commissions.
* Learn how to stop Thieves from Stealing YOUR Commissions.

...and there's more... MUCH MORE! You will also Learn:

* Which 6 factors you MUST consider when choosing a domain name.
* How to Promote Associate Programs and Products with a Newsletter.
* How to use Signature Files to Gain MORE Visitors.
* How Forums can bring you more traffic.
* About software that lets you build a 1,000-page site in mere seconds!
* Learn which methods bring traffic to your site FAST.
* 9 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Site for FREE.
* The TRUTH about reciprocal linking.
* How writing a simple ezine article can bring more traffic to your site for FREE.
* How to Get MORE sales from YOUR site even though you are selling the same product as thousands of other affiliates.
* Learn EXACTLY what Super Affiliates do that other affiliates don't do.
* The 20 questions that You MUST get answers to BEFORE you join an affiliate program.
* My favorite places to advertise.
* Which software finds profitable niche topics and saves HOURS, even DAYS of manual labor.
* How to write compelling product endorsement.
* Why you don't want to use the marketing material provided by some affiliate programs.
* 6 Essential Components that EVERY successful web site has in place.

You will also...

* Discover how Keyword and Niche Market Research just got a whole lot easier.
* Learn how to Install a Blog in 7 easy steps with screenshots to show you every step of the process.
* Learn how to Post to your Blog.
* Learn how to put a new Page on your Blog.
* See how to add Categories to your Blog.
* Learn how to Set File Permissions with and without FTP.
* See exactly how to Install Links in your posts and pages.
* Learn how to put Images in your Posts and Pages.
* See exactly how to Install a New Theme (look) for your blog.
* Learn more about Contextual Advertising and where to find the most recommended contextual advertising networks.
* See how to put Google Adsense on your blog.
* See 97 Screenshots of how everything works!

To Get Started Making Money Online as an Affiliate Marketer, get your copy of the Super Affiliate Handbook today by clicking on this link:

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