The Credit Score Blueprint: Strategies and Secrets to Raising Your Credit Score: Strategies and Secrets to Raising Your Credit Score

By Brian Anderson

Are You Guilty of One of These 12 Financial Sins That Could Be Killing Your Credit Score?

Can you honestly say that you are a financially responsible person?

Do you always pay your bills on time?

How many credit cards do you possess?

How often do you max out your credit card

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ryan Tiernan Publishing LLC
• Release date: Dec 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781954172050

Brian Anderson

Brian Anderson started his security career as a USMC Military Police officer. During his tour in the USMC Brian also served as an instructor for weapons marksmanship, urban combat, building entry techniques and less than lethal munitions. He also took part in the Somalia humanitarian efforts and several training engagements in the Middle East. Brian’s technical experience began when he joined EDS where he became part of a leveraged team and specialized in infrastructure problem resolution, disaster recovery and design and security. His career progression was swift carrying him through security engineering and into architecture where he earned a lead role. Brian was a key participant in many high level security projects driven by HIPAA, PCI, SOX, FIPS and other regulatory compliance which included infrastructure dependent services, multi-tenant directories, IdM, RBAC, SSO, WLAN, full disk and removable media encryption, leveraged perimeter design and strategy. He has earned multiple certifications for client, server and network technologies. Brian has written numerous viewpoint and whitepapers for current and emerging technologies and is a sought out expert on matters of security, privacy and penetration testing. Brian is an avid security researcher with expertise in reverse engineering focusing on vulnerabilities and exploits and advising clients on proper remediation.

Book preview

Introduction

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.

Benjamin Franklin

Bad credit is one of the few issues that is capable of impacting people of every demographic. Those who have just graduated college with thousands of dollars in student loans and little idea of how to effectively save money are hit just as hard as those ready to buy a house or start a family but whose credit scores don’t qualify them for affordable plans. People of every sex and race experience debt and low credit scores. Even those who would otherwise be rather wealthy can make unfortunate decisions with their money that lead them into high amounts of debt. 

In this way, credit is the great equalizer, boiling people of wildly varied backgrounds down to a simple number, their credit score, that is reflective of everything a financial company needs to know about you before making a decision about your trustworthiness and fiscal responsibility.

Of course, while credit can affect anyone, it also frequently targets younger people who have less experience building their credit and less credit history to build off of. If you have not spent years improving your credit score and you make one bad purchase you struggle to pay off, the single purchase is weighted much heavier than it would be if it was balanced out by a consistent positive credit history. 

This is especially true of student loan debt, which impacts young people across the country, many of whom struggle to find relevant and well-paying employment after graduation. Many 20 and 30 year olds have never been taught how to build their credit, and as a result more than one in four millennials ages 18 to 34 (27%) said that their credit had prevented them from getting a new car, while 26% of those who had applied to get approval for a new loan, and 25% applying for an apartment or house, were also declined. (Omojola & Pesce, 2019, para. 7)

It's no secret that a difficult job market, rapidly growing college costs, and a lack of financial education are all contributing to millennials having difficulties building their credit. While younger demographics seem to struggle the most, that does not mean older people are not also negatively impacted by their credit scores. Similar conditions, especially the lack of clear, actionable financial education, can impact Americans of every age.

Your credit score can have a big impact on your life, both in terms of big purchases and typical daily circumstances. A healthy credit score allows you to get a home loan, get a favorable automotive interest rate, and pay less interest on credit card balances. A poor credit score, on the other hand, can restrict you from getting offered lower monthly payments on purchases, lead to much higher interest rates, and leave you stuck in debt that feels completely inescapable. 

This debt cycle is especially difficult to deal with, but it continues to affect thousands of Americans each year. Recent studies have shown that approximately 20 percent of US residents have a credit score below 599, which is considered to be a bad score. (The Ascent Staff, 2020, para. 3) Even those with moderately higher scores but still below the national average of 700 can face financial difficulties. So many people suffer the effects of a low credit score each year.

Worrying about your credits and remaining in debt for a long period of time is not just a strain on your wallet; it is also a strain on your mental state. Your subconscious keeps thinking about your debt at all hours of the day, which can leave you uncomfortable during the day and tossing and turning in bed at night. Debt stress can seem to follow you wherever you go, making it much more likely for you to experience symptoms of anxiety or depression if the issue goes on for long enough or if the debt is severe. Your credit health can have a real impact on your physical and mental health, which is yet another reason why it is so important to fix.

Unfortunately, many people are unable to fix their credit issues because they simply do not know the way. Many people have no idea how credit scores work, what purchases and payments they reflect, and how everyone from landlords to car dealerships uses them to provide or deny service. If you are not entirely certain what decisions and financial information goes into your credit score, you are certainly not alone, but having a good understanding of what a credit score represents can help you take the first steps to making necessary improvements. With the benefit of a financial education that breaks the complicated terminology down into more easily understood advice, you can learn how to change your credit score for the better and regain control of your finances.

I understand what it is like to always be worrying about money, and I know what it takes to finally break the cycle of debt and bad credit. Growing up, my family was not rich. My single mother worked multiple jobs to provide for my two siblings and me, but there were still many times we struggled to make rent payments. I remember waking up on Christmas morning to no presents and no tree simply because we could not afford it.

I don’t want to preach to you from a position of never having felt what debt and financial hardship is like. I know how hard it can be to get yourself out of that rut, but I know it is possible, and I want to help you do it.

I have been working with money my entire life. Even as a kid I took odd jobs to help my mother with the bills, and in college a low income student grant enabled me to study finance. Since then I have earned my master's degree in financial engineering from Columbia University. During my studies, I interned at a reputable fund management company, and have since gone on to become a partner at the same company. Since then, I have started my own financial consultancy firm, where I counsel dozens of people in improving their own financial health and security. Through articles, workshops, and seminars, I have tried to spread my knowledge to as many people as I can. I hope that The Credit Score Blueprint can provide you with the very best of my advice and tips for improving your credit score and finally getting out of debt.

Financial burdens can be especially heavy. They can seem to pile on day after day, even year after year, with no end in sight. Some people may assume that they will always be in debt and they will never be able to take control of their financial situation, but it doesn’t have to be this way. If you take the time to learn about how your credit score is shaped, what specific factors you would need to change to improve it, and how you can better manage your money to accomplish these changes, you can make changes that once seemed impossible. Escaping the low credit cycle starts with following your new blueprint to a debt-free and stress-free life.

1

Why You Need a Good Credit Score

With the number of people who have poor credit scores, you may be asking yourself, why do I need a good credit score anyway? If so many people can get through life with below average scores, is your credit really that important? It may not seem like it at first, but your credit score can impact more than just whether or not you get approved for that new credit card. It's easy to fall into the trap of just assuming you never need to build your credit score and that failing to maintain it will not impact you if you decide to buy everything in cash and avoid taking out loans, but for many people such an option simply isn’t feasible, and even then there are many things your credit score affects that aren’t solved with this method.

If you try to avoid using credit altogether, the attempt may only get you so far. Many big payments aren’t manageable to make in cash; for example, unless you are fairly wealthy or you have been saving for a long time, you will not be able to buy a house outright. The same is true of many big purchases like new cars, boats, and even higher education. Even relatively lower but still expensive items like laptops, phones, and furniture can be more than what your bank account currently holds, which would require you to pay them off in installments. Should you have enough in savings to make these kinds of big purchases in cash, there are still other benefits that a poor or nonexistent credit score can cause you to miss out on. 

Your credit score can impact the rates of your home and automotive insurance payments, which are often unavoidable even if you buy a house or car outright. Attempts to rent apartments and land new jobs often involve landlords and employers checking