Before you can take advantage of all that credit has to offer, you must first establish your credit.  There are things that you should do when trying to establish a good credit history. The following are just some of these steps.

It makes sense that you would apply for a credit card if you want to build your credit. Credit cards are one of the easier ways to do this. It is much simpler to be approved for a credit card than it is for a loan to buy a car or house. Obviously. So getting a credit card is a good first step.

You should only apply for credit cards that you have a good chance of being approved for. Being denied credit too many times can hurt your credit rating. So don't apply for a super-platinum-black card unless you are Donald Trump or another of his set.

If you are denied credit by a lender, it is within your rights to ask why you were not approved. It is good to find out these reasons as it can help you in deciding which credit cards are the ones you should be applying for.

Opening bank accounts are another good way to start building good credit. This will not show up on your credit report but this information can be accessed by lenders. And in fact it often is. And because bank accounts are typically accessed it is good to stay on good terms with your bank as they can be a good reference. Do not let your accounts become overdrawn. This will not be looked upon favorably by lenders.

What are your rights with credit?

Your credit rating could mean the difference between you getting a job or not as well as you getting approved for a loan or not. There was a time when credit was primarily only accessed when you had applied for credit or a loan from a bank but no more. Now your credit report is accessed for all kinds of things even employment. This is how people decide if you are reliable and trustworthy. It is the Federal Trade Commission that enforces the laws that ensure that your privacy and your rights are protected. They watch over the companies that offer credit to assure that they give fair and equal chances to everyone that applies.

Your credit report is the key to your getting approved for credit. This report contains all of your important financial information including your employment history and the status of your debt. If you are not good at paying your bills on time or at all that will be on your credit report as well. If your credit report is in bad shape then you will not be getting credit or loans anytime soon. When you apply for credit, any kind of credit, the companies will contact credit reporting agencies in order to get a copy of your credit report. This is done when you apply for credit cards, loans, insurance policies and as mentioned above even employment or rentals.

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has been put into place in order to safeguard your rights to privacy and accuracy when it comes to your credit report. The specific rights that are involved are:

You can get a copy of your credit report for free from each of the three credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

You also have the right to get a free credit report if you are being sued by a company or if they have denied you credit for any reason. All you have to do is contact them within 60 days of your notice of refusal. Not only will you get a copy of your report you will also get the name of the credit reporting company that gave them the information.

If you want to know who has asked for a copy of your credit report in the last year then you can ask for that information. You can also get the information about those who requested it for employment reasons for the last 2 years.

If you find any errors or omissions in your credit report you need to contact the reporting agency right away. You can file a dispute and your claim will be investigated right away. It is up to the credit reporting agency to fix the error within a certain amount of time. And if this error does not get fixed then you can write summary that will be included in your report for future employers and companies to see and read.

You cannot be denied credit for discriminatory reasons such as race, marital status, religion or for any other reasons, this right is protected by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). There is some information that can be asked for in certain situations but they are not permitted to use this information against you. It is due to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) that you have the right to know why you are denied credit every time you apply. You need to be able to know that it was not for one of these discriminatory reasons.

You should be checking your credit card statements and your bank statements every month to make sure that there are no mistakes on them that could hurt you financially. If you do find any errors you should get in touch with the credit reporting company right away. You do not want your credit application to be declined because of an error that is why it is so important that you get a copy of your report and that you check it over carefully as well as your statements. What is on your statements will be on your report.

Debt collectors are the people that your creditors turn to when they cannot get the money you owe from you. Debt collectors re the ones that everyone dreads because they are so persistent. All you have to do to avoid them is pay your debt according to schedule.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA is concerned primarily with your personal debts. Debts like car financing and your credit cards mostly. Debt collectors are not permitted to lie to you or to harass you. This means that they must tell you who they are when they do get you on the phone. Harassment is something that may people worry about. A debt collector cannot call you before 8 am in the morning or after 9 pm at night. Neither can they telephone your work place and they cannot under any circumstances let others know why they are trying to get in touch with you.  If you feel that you are being harassed by debt collectors all you have to do to get them to stop is let them know in writing that you do not wish them to contact you anymore. They have no choice but to honor your request.

The only way for you to improve your bad credit is to let time do it for you. As long as you start paying all of your bills on time, in time your credit will improve. Financial information concerning bankruptcies can stay on your credit report for 10 years while unpaid judgments can stay on for 7 years. Everything else will cease to hurt your relatively quickly.

The next time that you find yourself having trouble paying off your debt you should consider letting your creditors know. They might be able to work out a more lenient payment schedule with you, one that you will be able to keep up with. If you wait until you get too far behind then you will not be able to work out a better payment schedule.

There are different credit problems and there are also different ways to solve them. If you are trying to dispute a charge or error on your credit report or even on your card you will want to write tot he proper department. If you are unsure of which department that is you should call your credit card company, they will be able to answer any questions that you may have.  And when you are writing the letter of dispute you need to include your name, your account number and all of the details of the dispute including the reason that you are disputing. And you should never throw anything away. Keep all of your receipts because you just never know when you might need them. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

Credit counseling companies are there for those who cannot seem to make or stick to a budget. These companies can be helpful but you need to be careful of the ones that you choose. Always check with your local Better Business Bureau in order to check on the legitimacy of a credit counseling service. There are many scams out there that claim to be these services when all they wi9ll do is take your money and leave you in even more debt. A good credit counseling service can help you get on the right track. With these services you will explain your entire situation to them and they will proceed to help you find a solution that fits with your lifestyle.

What you need to know when you get billed and your purchases do not show up

It has happened to us all, we order something online or over the phone and it does not show up, except on our credit cards. What are you supposed to do when this happens to you? There are laws that protect you from getting charged for phantom merchandise but most people do not even know it. They lose their money and they feel that they have no course of action. The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) and the Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule are there for just these types of circumstances. When you pay for merchandise and you don't get it then these are the rules that will get you your money back. They are not the only form of protection that exists. Most credit card companies, at least the big ones like Visa and MasterCard have policies in place that protect you as well. SO if you are ordering with your credit card and you do not receive your item contact your credit card company immediately because there might be something that they can do for you.

In order to take advantage of the Fair Credit Billing Act you will have to contact your credit card company in writing. Your inquiry should not be sent to the same address that you send your payments to, if you send it there it will be ignored. Companies like these have different departments for different aspects of their business and when you are contacting them about an issue like this you will have to get in touch with their billing inquiries department. They are the department that will be able to help you. When you write to them you will have to let them know your name and your address and your credit card account number. You also need to write a detailed description of your billing problem. Do not leave anything out and if you have any documentation you should include that as well.

You need to send your letter within 60 days of the first billing error. The sooner you send the letter the better as it can take credit card companies a while to get on the problem. They have 30 days in which to respond to your complaint. It is always a good idea to send your letter by certified mail as opposed to regular mail. Make sure that you get a return receipt so that you know the credit card company got your letter and this way if there is ever any question about it you will have the proof that the letter was both sent and received.

While your inquiry is being investigated they will look into the amount that you paid and what went wrong. If you had ordered a few items and only one of them did not show up you will be responsible for the rest of the bill. The only part that you will not have to pay right away is the amount being disputed. Your credit card company cannot actually sue the business that did not send you the item and there is a chance that you will have to pay the amount in dispute. But in the end if you come out on top your money will be refunded.

If the premature charge is unexpected you should let your credit card company know it. You will also have to make it clear to them when the package was expected to be delivered. If you have any emails stating that the shipment is on the way you should send them to your credit card company. There is a chance that the credit card company might use the expected date of delivery as the start time for you to be disputing the charges instead of the charge date. This is why it is so important that you report the problem to the credit card company right away.

Credit cards are not the only way to pay for things anymore. It is getting more and more common for people to use their debit cards for payments, even online and over the phone. When you use your debit card you will not have the same protections that you get from a credit card, you will probably not be able to dispute the purchase like you can when you have used a credit card. If you would like to know what you can expect from your debit card issuer you should contact them, they will be able to answer any questions that you may have.

Ordering items over the phone or by mail means that you will have a different sort of protection entirely on your purchases. There is a rule that makes it law that the merchant from which you are buying from must mail your item within the time they state and if they do not give you a time then they have 30 days in which to send you your merchandise. You can expect those thirty days to start from when your order form is received by the company. Sometimes things happen and the items do not get shipped when they should and if this happens it is up to the merchant to notify you in order to give you a revised date for shipping. If you have still not gotten your item then you can request a refund. If you do request a refund then the merchant needs to credit your credit card account. This should be done within one credit card cycle. If you have paid by other means then the merchant that you purchased your item from should send you a refund through the mail within 7 days.

The following are some examples:

Co-Applicant: This is a person who will also receive a card if you fill out the relevant forms. Their credit card and how they treat it will directly effect your credit rating. You will be ultimately responsible for every charge that they make. If they can not or do not make their payments you will have or risk ruining your credit score. Usually people use these options for their spouses or partners.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR): The APR is the cost of credit calculated on an annual basis.

Card Payment Protection: Most credit card companies offer this in case something happens to you and you are no longer able to pay your balance. The way it works is that you pay so many cents on every dollar that you owe. It is basically insurance, if you do become seriously ill or suffer some sort of accident you will have help paying your monthly payments. And in the event of your death, the entire balance would be paid in full.

Cash Advance: You can use your credit card as a debit card by going to the ATM and withdrawing cash from the machine. It is important to not that while you do not pay interest on purchases with a credit card for 1 month, when withdrawing cash interest is charged starting the very same day that the money is withdrawn.

Credit Reference Search: When you apply for credit, the lender you are applying to will do a credit search to find out your credit history and rating. This is how they decide if you are someone they want to enter into a contract with. It helps them decide how much risk they are assuming by approving your application. If you have a very poor credit rating there is a good chance that your application will be refused by many companies.

Risk Based Assessment: This is what the credit card companies use to see what kind of credit you are eligible for. With this tool lenders decide whether to grant or deny your application and what kind of interest rate they are going to charge you with if approved.

Annual Fee: Many credit companies charge an annual fee each year. This is a yearly sum that that you pay as a service fee. It covers part of the administration of your account.  This fee has nothing to do with interest or the amount of credit that you have used. It is a fixed rate you will have to pay as long as you have your credit card. Fewer companies have this fee compared to in the past. The annula fee used to come standard with all credit cards, now there are many that have a $0 annual fee.

Credit Limit: This is the amount of money that you are allowed to borrow using your credit card.

Introductory Rate: An introductory rate is a temporary lower than average rate that is used to draw customers in. The introductory rate generally applies for the first six months that you have your card.

Standard Rate: This is the rate that you will be charged throughout the life of your loan, beginning after the introductory rate timeframe has expired.

Credit Card Checks: Some banks issue checks along with your credit card. When you use these checks to pay for a purchase the money comes off of your credit card instead of out of your bank account. This way you can use your credit card funds to pay for things where credit cards are not accepted.

Balance Transfer: When getting anew credit card you are sometimes offered the option of transferring the balance of one card to another. Essentially what you are doing is using one card to pay off the debt on another. Many credit cards offer an introductory low interest rate for balance transfers.

Cashback: Many cards off this now, it is one of the many different reward options available. In this case when you make purchases with your card you get a certain percentage of the money spent back. Basically it is a discount on all of your purchases.