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ChadSexington posted:Has anyone had any experience using CreditKarma? I'm sure more than a few people here use it, and from what I've found it seems to be legit and well-reviewed, but when it asked me for my full SSN that seemed like a pretty big red flag... How else would they pull your credit score? I've had an account there for a while, it's a legit site but I don't think it's the greatest thing ever. The massive amount of advertising bogs down each page and it's basically just a free fake credit score.
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Jun 5, 2012 01:41
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Thanks for all of the advice Remy. To clarify, I've been searching online for a while to get a feel for prices/what is out there and just recently started pounding the pavement. I totally agree another important function is time. If you can watch craigslist like a hawk, know what something is worth, and are ready to write a check that day, it can work out for you. However I work long days during the week and only want to devote so many weekends to shopping around so that will make the used purchase that much harder. Fraternite - First of all there are very few used 1-2 year old Hyundais. I checked and across five dealerships in a major metro area the total was 3 (I guess people love these cars?). One was at the dealership I stopped at. It was an Accent with 8k miles that was a service loaner but as LorneReams mentioned the discount was only about 7% from new. I think people have slowly figured out the 'like new' trick and realize just because a car has a few thousand miles doesn't make it worth a bunch less. Thanks for all of the advice. I realized today as I was on the way to work I don't want to regret buying some older, dirtier, less reliable car with no options because I was to cheap to spend the extra cash to get a car I will really enjoy over the next decade (hopefully!). Now I need to brush up on the new car buying process to make sure I get a decent deal. I've been looking at Edmunds and Truecar to get a feel for what I should be paying and get some minimal hassle quotes. To contribute to the other question - I've used CreditKarma for just over a year and it is a legitimate website.
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Jun 5, 2012 05:24
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Does anyone have advice for selecting a financial planner? I think I need just a few sessions mostly to discuss how much to save for retirement, but also just general personal financing help (e.g. how much to have on hand for emergency funds, what to do with any extra savings). From what I've looked into I want one that is fee-only, CFP, fiduciary, and probably hourly rates. I've come across NAFPA, which seems to fit what I'm looking for. Does anyone have any experience with this? Background info: Chicago, late 20's, married, no children, combined income of about $140k. Only debt is our mortgage (just refinanced to $135k at 4.5%, condo was worth about $160k when we bought it, now worth $100k or less) and have $70k in savings/emergency. Always pay off CC balance every month. I contribute 6% to my 401k, my company matches with 3%, and then there is another 1-3% based on the annual company performance. My wife contributes 5% and her company matches with 5%. We maxed out our Roth IRA two years ago, last year I chose to pay off the rest of my students loans ($12k at 6%) instead. I have a spreadsheet going back the last 3.5 yrs, which I update every month from my bank statements to track our income and expenses. So, I have a good idea of where our money goes, and I'd have it to bring with when meeting with a planner. Any suggestions/recommendations would be appreciated.
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Jun 5, 2012 13:24
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ChadSexington posted:Has anyone had any experience using CreditKarma? I'm sure more than a few people here use it, and from what I've found it seems to be legit and well-reviewed, but when it asked me for my full SSN that seemed like a pretty big red flag... Same here. CreditKarma gives you a version of your score based on TransUnion. There is another site that does the same, CreditSesame, that uses Experian or Equifax I can't remember. Yes, they need your SSN to pull your report and it is legit.
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Jun 5, 2012 14:02
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kaishek posted:Same here. CreditKarma gives you a version of your score based on TransUnion. There is another site that does the same, CreditSesame, that uses Experian or Equifax I can't remember. Yes, they need your SSN to pull your report and it is legit. You may be thinking of Quizzle, which is owned by Quicken. Quizzle doesn't need an SSN for a estimated score.
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Jun 6, 2012 17:08
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FCKGW posted:You may be thinking of Quizzle, which is owned by Quicken. Quizzle doesn't need an SSN for a estimated score. That may be an additional source. Both CreditKarma and CreditSesame I believe ask for full SSN. Do what you feel comfortable with! A slightly more labor-intensive way but more secure is to request one score from each bureau every 4 months. You get 1 free score per agency per year. So in January, get TransUnion, in May, get Equifax, and in September get Experian. In January, repeat. They should all track roughly the same, so this will keep you in the loop if anything changes dramatically.
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Jun 6, 2012 17:41
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My partner was given her credit score when she applied for a car loan with our credit union- any obvious drawbacks if I were to apply for the same just to get mine (with no intention of accepting it)?
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Jun 6, 2012 19:12
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kaishek posted:A slightly more labor-intensive way but more secure is to request one score from each bureau every 4 months. You get 1 free score per agency per year. No, you get one free REPORT per bureau per year. Not score. In reality there are a bunch of different credit scores that different industries or individual lenders can use, and they can vary widely. The FICO score is the one most people mean when they say "credit score," and you can pay to get that at myfico.com I believe. You asking about going to a dealership to get your score: often they charge you for it anyway, and I don't know but that might count as a "hard" inquiry, which can ding your score a bit. Better to check it yourself and have it be a "soft" inquiry. I don't know that it's even that important to know your exact score. Getting your report 3x a year should give you an idea of what standing you're in. Lots of outstanding debt? Probably bad. Accounts all paid up with no late payments? Probably good. Foreclosure? Bad. Etc. There's no sense in fetishizing the score. Focus on improving your overall financial situation and the score will follow... Eventually. Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jun 6, 2012 |
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Jun 6, 2012 19:12
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Not a loan from a dealership but a credit union (my bank). Does only the occasional hard inquiry still make a small ding? I figured I might be safe from that since I very rarely apply for lines of credit and have never applied for a loan apart from my student loan 12 years ago. What's kept me from finding out my score all these years is I know it's not that important and there's not much I can do to affect it that I don't already do, so I wouldn't spend a dollar to learn it. I've always been curious where mine stands and this sounded like a sneaky way for a one-time peek. I've had credit reports to check for identity theft, just always wondered what my FICO was.
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Jun 6, 2012 20:06
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Remy Marathe posted:Not a loan from a dealership but a credit union (my bank). Does only the occasional hard inquiry still make a small ding? I figured I might be safe from that since I very rarely apply for lines of credit and have never applied for a loan apart from my student loan 12 years ago. A hard inquiry does not have a big impact on your credit score. That said, I would NOT intentionally apply for a loan for the purposes of finding out what your credit score is. It is a waste of everyone’s time and resources to put in an application for credit that you have no intention of using. Maybe it’s because I look at credit scores every day so I think they are mundane, but they are not that great of a proxy for financial health. Scores tend to correlate with financial health but they are not the same thing. They also vary considerably, fluctuating dozens of points up or down with no apparent reason so you found out today what it is, it might not be that tomorrow. Once you get to a certain level, maybe 700, you will get the best rates anyway, so an increase in score doesn’t impact even that. I would just go to credit karma and see what they are saying. You can call it a FICO, a FAKO or whatever, but it’s good enough. If you make sure there are no obvious reporting mistakes, apply for credit sparingly, keep balances low, never be late, live below your means, save money, everything else will work out.
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Jun 6, 2012 20:38
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I had a medical procedure two years ago, that due to some confusion about my health insurance, $40 of it didn't get paid for. I stupidly stupidly stupidly ignored the letters the clinic sent me and it went to collections. The collection agency called me on the phone and I paid it right then and there. Recently this year, I ran my credit reports and 2/3 have a nasty red mark on them over it. I've entered disputes because it is now paid (they all still say unpaid), but I really did screw up so I doubt I can get around it completely. I have otherwise exceptional credit, 20 years of credit history with two car loans, a few credit cards, and a 9-year home loan, none of which have ever missed a payment. What sort of damage can I expect something like this to do to my credit? I was thinking about refinancing my home this year.
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Jun 6, 2012 20:58
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SlightlyMadman posted:I had a medical procedure two years ago, that due to some confusion about my health insurance, $40 of it didn't get paid for. I stupidly stupidly stupidly ignored the letters the clinic sent me and it went to collections. The collection agency called me on the phone and I paid it right then and there. Recently this year, I ran my credit reports and 2/3 have a nasty red mark on them over it. I've entered disputes because it is now paid (they all still say unpaid), but I really did screw up so I doubt I can get around it completely. I've been able to get people out of this by saying it was an insurance dispute and that it's a HIPAA violation for them to report it.
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Jun 6, 2012 21:01
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You can get your score and credit report for free from MyFICO if you sign up for a free trial of their score watch product and cancel before the trial is over. I just got my score/report and immediately canceled.
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Jun 6, 2012 21:10
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Maybe I'll just do that so the hassle's entirely mine, since I guess it is sort of a dick move to apply for a loan I don't mean to accept. I'm not counting it as some meaningful metric of financial health, part of why I'd like my credit score ballparked now after years of not caring is to assure myself I'm not handicapped too badly after an uncommon series of stupid mistakes led to me killing my oldest credit card of 15 years (maybe the last stupid mistake in the series) last year. I can look at my credit report and think about my actual creditworthiness till I'm blue in the face, but knowing that the specific formulas the industry applies more or less agree will make me feel better. Remy Marathe fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Jun 6, 2012 |
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Jun 6, 2012 22:06
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Ganon posted:You can get your score and credit report for free from MyFICO if you sign up for a free trial of their score watch product and cancel before the trial is over. I just got my score/report and immediately canceled. Sweeeeet. I know I just said it didn't matter but I am always curious too  765  eta: vvvvvv Yeah, I missed that before. 70k is a huge amount for savings. Dump some of that into your mortgage instead. There's no way you're getting 4.5% return on it where it is, so it's better to put like half of it into the mortgage instead. Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jun 6, 2012 |
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Jun 6, 2012 22:16
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jjack229 posted:Does anyone have advice for selecting a financial planner? I think I need just a few sessions mostly to discuss how much to save for retirement, but also just general personal financing help (e.g. how much to have on hand for emergency funds, what to do with any extra savings). A financial planner isn't really going to do too much for you. You have too much in saving, dump some of it into the condo you (presumably) like or throw it into an IRA. Also might as well max out your 401ks.
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Jun 6, 2012 22:49
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Eggplant Wizard posted:No, you get one free REPORT per bureau per year. Not score. In reality there are a bunch of different credit scores that different industries or individual lenders can use, and they can vary widely. The FICO score is the one most people mean when they say "credit score," and you can pay to get that at myfico.com I believe. Whoops my bad. I definitely meant report, not score. All this talk of scores is going to my head. New thread title: Don't worry about your credit score Yeah, the only reason I'd recommend doing this is to notice earlier rather than later if someone fraudulently opens an account in your name. In no case should you be held liable for this, but the earlier you can catch and shut it down, the easier it will be. To Remy: it won't actually hurt you to have closed that account...just because it is closed doesn't mean it isn't considered in length of accounts. It just stops growing, so it will get averaged in as 15 years until it stops getting reported some time after it was closed. Don't worry about. Nothing that you can do re: opening/closing accounts with more or less time or hard inquiries or yadda yadda will "wreck" your score, as long as you pay your bills on time and have no delinquencies. If you are slightly strategic about things, will it be better? Probably slightly. Will keeping open a 15-year account outweigh never paying your bills on time? No.
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Jun 6, 2012 23:27
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OK I am totally new to this stuff: I am 30 and I freelance in New York. Single, rent an apartment, lease a car. I have all my savings (about 100k) currently in just a plain old savings account. I'd like to do something better with it. I have no debt or loans. So far it sounds like an IRA is the best choice. But I don't know which type works best. I can easily store $25k somewhere right now, if that matters. I don't know what other options might work other than stocks which I'd rather not deal with. Any advice, or even a good place to look would be appreciated. Should I look at using a financial planner? Where can I find one? Or should I just ask an accountant?
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Jun 7, 2012 05:33
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Do you have any retirement account at all? How much do you make a year? I know that'll vary as a freelancer but there are limits for Roth IRA's so give what you earned last year I guess.
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Jun 7, 2012 12:47
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So there's no real rule of thumb for how much a small red mark on your credit would affect an otherwise perfect report? I wasn't sure if it would be considered less bad because it's medical, or because it's under $100, or what? I usually just check my free reports, and not the actual score, so I'm not sure what my score would have been before, to compare it against.
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Jun 7, 2012 14:42
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Do you have any retirement account at all? How much do you make a year? I know that'll vary as a freelancer but there are limits for Roth IRA's so give what you earned last year I guess. I have nothing but that savings account (and a couple small things). I'd say around $80k after taxes, maybe. Somewhere in there.
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Jun 7, 2012 15:11
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From a retirement standpoint, I would go with a Roth + SEP-IRA combo since you are self-employed. You can setup a Roth IRA right now through Vanguard, Fidelity, or whoever you choose. Since you have the money, you can put in the limit for the year ($5000) right away in a target retirement fund and let it work. That seems like a no-brainer to start with. As for the SEP-IRA, I would consult with a tax advisor to figure out how much you can put in. It's based on how you file your taxes as a freelancer. But if you aren't incorporated, it should be 20% of your net adjusted self-employment income. So your gross minus expenses minus half the self-employment tax. It's something I would definitely run by your accountant though first. In any event, likely will be able to put in a rather large chunk into your SEP-IRA this year. I would shoot for $15,000-$20,000 if you can since you are behind in retirement saving. That would give you a solid base moving forward and then you can bring it down to a more reasonable level in the next years (maybe 10% of income goes into retirement accounts). The SEP-IRA is tax deductible too so you'll knock a nice chunk off your tax bill in the process. As for the rest, I'll leave that up to others. But I think getting the retirement plan going is a top priority at your age.
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Jun 7, 2012 15:46
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Not sure if this fits here but I didn't see any other thread it would go in and it's just one question. Recently my father passed away and we are trying to get our finances in order with the sudden change in our family. We are transferring money from his trust to another account in order to reduce the tax hit. The account being transferred to is my IRA which was started when I was a minor and we are now converting it into a full IRA. Such a tranfer requires a signature guarantee. I currently bank with Charles Shwab and they will not provide this service for some reason. Is my only other option sticking $1,500 in a Bank of America account (so I don't get hit with fees) so they will let me get a signature guarantee? I have the money to do this but I'd rather not have $1,500 sitting around for months doing nothing and being untouchable while we get this whole situation sorted out.
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Jun 7, 2012 23:10
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If I am a co-signer for someone else on a car loan will that also show credit history for me later down the line? Or will that not reflect for me since I am not the main borrower
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Jun 8, 2012 03:06
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Nifty posted:If I am a co-signer for someone else on a car loan will that also show credit history for me later down the line? Or will that not reflect for me since I am not the main borrower Yes, yes it will. It's debt in your name, dude. Don't do it unless you can and would be willing to pay the full balance of the loan plus interest.
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Jun 8, 2012 03:14
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How does recently purchasing a home affect your eligibility for new credit? Here's my situation and why I'm asking: We closed on a condo for just over 300k three weeks ago. This is less than we were pre-approved for and left us with plenty of cash for the couple of appliances and minor fixes we need upon moving in. We went to Home Depot to take advantage of some sales and found out we could get a further 10% discount by applying for a Home Depot credit card. I know store credit cards are a bad thing, but is there any harm in taking advantage of the 10% discount on a $2,000 purchase, immediately paying the card off in full and closing the card? I ended up getting declined and just paying cash. I haven't had the chance to ask the credit agency about it yet, but am I right in assuming that the recent house purchase was the deciding factor? This is in Canada, if that makes any difference. Rockzilla fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 03:19
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Rockzilla posted:How does recently purchasing a home affect your eligibility for new credit? The inquiry from the loan would show on your report, but if it was very recently the loan itself may not even show up yet. Even if it does, unless you have a great deal of other debt I wouldn't be too concerned about it. From what I've heard the standards are pretty low for store cards anyway, you'd probably get approved even if you were in bad shape.
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Jun 8, 2012 14:26
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In most cases a new mortgage will drop your score dramatically, but it will recover very fast.
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Jun 8, 2012 14:31
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Zikan posted:Not sure if this fits here but I didn't see any other thread it would go in and it's just one question. I’m not knowledgeable about the best way to get a signature guarantee easily and cheaply, but if it takes putting $1,500 in an account for a few months to do it, and your primary concern seems to be the opportunity cost of the money not earning that much, I’m not sure if this rises to the level of “problem”. You don’t mention how much money you are inheriting, but if it is a significant amount and if you are already well off, I hope you are supporting worthy causes that you believe in.
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Jun 8, 2012 15:05
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I’m not knowledgeable about the best way to get a signature guarantee easily and cheaply, but if it takes putting $1,500 in an account for a few months to do it, and your primary concern seems to be the opportunity cost of the money not earning that much, I’m not sure if this rises to the level of “problem”. You don’t mention how much money you are inheriting, but if it is a significant amount and if you are already well off, I hope you are supporting worthy causes that you believe in. It actually the fact that it's about 1/4 of my whole savings and I'm unemployed, with expensive health insurance paid to via COBRA that's draining my savings really fast. Plus the money I would be inheriting couldn't be touched until I retire because it's an IRA. I'm actually one bad situation away from disaster technically. One good medical emergency or legal issues could wipe me out.
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Jun 8, 2012 17:33
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Zikan posted:It actually the fact that it's about 1/4 of my whole savings and I'm unemployed, with expensive health insurance paid to via COBRA that's draining my savings really fast. Plus the money I would be inheriting couldn't be touched until I retire because it's an IRA. Sorry, I completely misunderstood what you were asking. I read it as “I can afford to put $1,500 in no problem” and “I am getting a big inheritance” and “we have been maxing out my IRA since I was little”.
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Jun 8, 2012 17:38
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I thought you can take the money out of an IRA "tax free" (ignoring estate tax) if you inherit it. Edit: Looks like you pay income tax on it, and it being in a trust makes it another whole complicated matter. Harry fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 17:45
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Harry posted:I thought you can take the money out of an IRA "tax free" (ignoring estate tax) if you inherit it. Estate tax would not be applicable unless the deceased had an estate worth millions of dollars. (BTW, we don’t call it “Death Tax” around here) However, unless it is a Roth, income taxes would be owed based on the beneficiary’s tax bracket, which might not be that much if he is unemployed. What is not owed is the penalty.
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Jun 8, 2012 17:49
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No problem, I just worded it really badly. I've structured my finances to the point where I could put away the money if there was no emergency. However if there is one I've realized I'm basically hosed either way so I'm just going to open a bank account and hope all of this financial signature stuff finishes quickly so I can close it. There is no immediate inheritance due to my mother and father choosing to not renew his life insurance policy due to a huge jump in premiums before he died. All that's left is his retirement accounts (which my mom can't touch without penalty because she's not retirement age yet), his house, and whatever savings they had that the cancer treatments didn't eat up. All of this is organized in a trust that I don't know a thing about. My mother hasn't talked a lot about how all of this is organized, she's kind of secretive about finances. Hell it was a big step for her to reveal her expenses so my siblings and I knew how much we may need to support her by if things get really bad. I'm only really organizing this so it's not a big tax hit. My mom is of the age where it's hard to get a job so we are ruthlessly pairing down all spending and organizing everything before we get hit with other costs due to my father's passing. Basically this is a complicated situation where only one person knows wtf is going on. Thankfully we have an extremely good relationship so I sure she won't screw me over with anything.
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Jun 8, 2012 17:52
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What tax hits do think are lurking around the corner?
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Jun 8, 2012 17:57
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Harry posted:What tax hits do think are lurking around the corner? I don't have a loving clue, she just talked with her accountant and he said we should do this. Like I said, no clue.
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Jun 8, 2012 17:58
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You probably want to talk to the accountant yourself, this sounds like some kind of idiotic scheme. Why does your father even have a trust in the first place? What's in the trust? Was the IRA in the trust?
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Jun 8, 2012 18:03
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As an anecdote to address the cosign issue, pretty much the only time it would make sense is for a family member. My mom cosigned on a car loan for me when I was 20 and had no credit history. I wouldn't have gotten it otherwise, and it actually helped us both improve our credit. Never in a million loving years should you cosign with somebody who's not in your immediate family and you trust with your life, though.
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Jun 8, 2012 18:05
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SlightlyMadman posted:As an anecdote to address the cosign issue, pretty much the only time it would make sense is for a family member. My mom cosigned on a car loan for me when I was 20 and had no credit history. I wouldn't have gotten it otherwise, and it actually helped us both improve our credit. Never in a million loving years should you cosign with somebody who's not in your immediate family and you trust with your life, though. I notice the thread title changed. Apparently someone disagrees with you.
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Jun 8, 2012 18:18
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Zikan posted:I don't have a loving clue, she just talked with her accountant and he said we should do this. Just a few more thoughts. First, my condolences on your father passing and the struggle that all of you must have gone through in his fight against cancer. He could not have been that old. Next, you don’t have to do it now while everyone is hurting, but you and your mom need to have a conversation about how much money is involved, and who is getting what, and where important documents are kept. Last, advisors are great, but sometimes especially tax planners stuck in this frame of mind that no matter what happens taxes must always be minimized at all costs. There is nothing wrong with legally minimizing your tax bill, but there is equally nothing wrong with paying taxes either if that’s what it takes if you need the money. Your advisor needs to explain in ways you understand why he is doing what he is and that explanation needs to be more than “avoiding tax hit”.
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Jun 8, 2012 18:21
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