Everyone is impacted from higher gas, food and other commodity prices. How is each consumer responding to this pressure on their finances? A number just came out that will have longer term implications for many into the future.

Federal rent assistance for millions of Americans comes to an end starting May 1, 2022. For many, the challenges of affordability and of having to start making payments that have increased exponentially since the start of the pandemic, are way beyond reach. So, what is going to happen?

The three major credit bureaus, Experian®, Equifax®, and TransUnion® have marketed different credit monitoring tools to help you track the credit information in your credit report – as long as you pay something. But, why don’t the credit bureaus do it? It is their information. I’ll explain.

Over the last 15 years, the credit score has become a vital part of every consumer’s financial life. Good or bad, politicians have recently got more involved to have their impact on consumer’s credit scores. As one observer correctly pointed it out, those with higher credit ratings are losing out while those with lower credit scores are benefitting. Let's take a look.

Why would an active duty soldier or veteran pay almost $20,000 more than necessary on a mortgage? One mortgage company, NewDay USA, advertises that servicemen and women may want to add a pool for the grandkids, or consolidate some expenses. They advertise to those with VA benefits (soldiers and veterans) to utilize NewDay USA VA 100 Cash Out loan “…to help more veterans.” When a potential applicant looks at the numbers however, there are several costly red flags to what NewDay USA is proposing.

More and more consumers are realizing that their credit impacts their insurance premiums on auto, home, life, and renter’s insurance. However, most consumers do not know how insurance companies utilize credit for their analysis. This is where you can save some money if you do some follow up.

Millions of consumers have been surprised to pull up their credit report and find a collection from a doctor showing up on their credit report. In a historic change, many of these past due bills will no longer show up on a credit report.

We put together a series of questions for students at a couple of universities. 56% of students said they have what they would consider having an above average knowledge about their credit scores. However, after completing this short questionnaire, the percentage of those that answered correctly was 28%. That is not above average. Want to try the questionnaire, here it is -https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CreditScoreSurvey

There is one way lenders make more interest on you and it can cost you lots of money - even if you make extra principal payments.

It takes a lot longer now to get FICO scores to show up after opening the first new account. A change in recent times from FICO requires a longer wait before a person can generate FICO Scores in their credit report.