Making the Score—How to Influence Your Credit Integrity

Credit scores range from 850 to 300. The higher the number, the better interest rate you can command in all of your financed transactions. Credit scores ranging from 850 to 720 reflect exceptional money mastery skills. Credit scores ranging from 719 to 680 purport good money skill sets. Credit scores ranging from 679 to 600 peg you as a moderate financial risk, but still very much acceptable. Credit scores below 600 to mid 500s marks you as a higher-than-average risk in today’s financial world. Any scores less than 550, slates your creditworthiness as very questionable and a candidate for sub-prime lending.

Credit scores are also dynamic because they can change upwards or downwards at any moment, 24 hours a day. The reason being is that existing and new creditors update or add information to your credit file at anytime. For existing creditors, some report daily while others report weekly or monthly. Regardless of their reporting cycle, your credit scores never rest—new credit, old credit, over-the-limit activity all impacts your credit integrity.

Let’s Break It Down—It Cost More Than An Hour’s Wage

Have you ever thought about the cost of anything compared to your hourly wage; i.e. a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk or gasoline, or a pound of butter? They all can still be purchased with less than one hour of wage.

However, what about convenience fees and penalty fees? When you compare those to your hourly wage, you will probably think twice about continuing to pay them. For example, it can cost anywhere from $3.95 to over $15 to pay a bill by phone or by wire. In such situations, an overdraft, over-the-limit or late fees of $38 more or less might have been assessed.