Comments on: Burning a Hole in your Credit Score

By: RhysM

RhysM — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:36:37 +0000

Can someone answer this? I had a city parking ticket go to collections (lost the letter to pay it before it got to that point)…I paid it right away when the collections called - how will that affect my credit score?

By: Tracy J

Tracy J — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:57:53 +0000

This reminds me of highschool. I used to cringe when my friends whined “I hate math, what are we going to use it for in the REAL world anyways” (!!!) umm…. how about EVERYTHING!!!! From adjusting a recipe to buying groceries to BALANCING YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT! Figuring out your wage (and taxes) Comparative shopping, calculating the tax or the sale price on the purchase before getting to the till, negotiating bills, figuring out payments, budgeting……. the list goes on and on for every day life….. incidentally some of these friends don’t do that great with their finances, just stumbling along on blindly.

Gail, you are asking us to do elementary math… addition, subtraction… not rocket science.

Too bad it is so hard for most to see it’s a simple solution.

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:53:37 +0000

I’m horrible, always have been. I keep an agonizingly accurate mental tally of the funds going in and out of my chequing account, and I spend every cent that’s not otherwise allocated. Bills are always paid, but there was never anything left the day before payday.

That is until I started treating my savings like a bill that needed to be paid. Now on top of paying my credit cards off every month I have a little bit of money whisked out of my primary account into secondary high-interest (no-fee) accounts (ING and Citizens Bank to be specific) every payday.

While my “emergency fund” is in the savings account at my primary institution I divert funds into my RRSP account, “projected acquisitions” account and finally my “fun money” account. As the money is checked off my “mental tally” I spend what I have left (after bills).

I won’t be able to retire tommorow at this rate, but it’s certainly better than before when any sort of emergency required using the credit cards and there were NO savings of any kind.

By: Angela

Angela — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:59:19 +0000

I don’t keep notebook for the purpose you say. However, I do make a point of checking my bank accounts…. yes, all of them, chequing and a few saving accounts…. every day, even on the days I know there should be no transactions taken place. I also have an excel spreadsheet that I’m working on for my expenses. So, I think I’m pretty much on top of how my money comes and goes. But I know where the notebook idea comes from…. Some people do need that.

By: Wanda

Wanda — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:06:19 +0000

I finally figured out that in order to keep a credit score in good standing, I should never have a balance on my credit card even close to my limit and heaven help me when I went over the amount available to me (yes, I could go over my limit by about 10% and it is a VERY BAD thing to do! Also, I would try to keep my credit card limit low and so if I had a $500 limit then in theory, I should not have spent more than approximately $300 to make my score look healthy. It really does pay to read up on credit scores as there may be things you are doing that you think are good for your credit score that really aren’t. However, I still keep my credit limit fairly low and my balance even lower…Gail, I do hear you when you say never carry a balance and I am working on that!

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:03:10 +0000

Gail- I have been keeping miticulous records of all payments going out and what is being spent (even if it’s just $1)! It’s been extremely helpful but I can’t imagine not doing it!

Your last line asks if we have the will? That’s a good question b/c it’s a lot of work but very necessary. My friend was shocked at how my records are kept.