The Blonde Diaries

Normally people try to avoid the after Christmas credit card bills but you really shouldn’t put them to the side or hit auto pay without reading them first.  Unfortunately, the holidays feature tons of people going out and making purchases at retail stores, restaurants, online shopping, etc.  It is very easy for a criminal to sneak in there and steal your identity.  Also since it is now 2012 you should consider obtaining your annual credit report.

I haven’t come across an issue when reviewing my credit reports but my manager just found out about a credit card that a salesman opened in her name.  It was especially maddening when she called the company who issued the card and found out that they only required a name, address, phone number, and date of birth. No social security number or other hard to find identifier was needed.  Just a quick internet search and property tax search had her signed up for a card without her knowledge.

We’re all taught as a young adult the importance of saving money, handling debt responsibility, and how important it is to monitor your finances.  In my manager’s situation she was able to get the account closed but she still had to worry about her credit score.  Luckily she was able to get a free credit score and her score was not negatively impacted by this incident.  It could have been much worse.  Credit scores are very important when it comes to mortgages, car loans, obtaining a major credit card, and avoiding things like utility deposits.  A ding to your score could cost you hundreds or even thousands.  So start the year off right and get that free report along with your score.

I was shopping at the Houston Premium Outlets Saturday afternoon and while I was checking out of a couple of stores I heard the standard, required sales associate statements: Would you like to sign up for the XYZ store credit card? It only takes a few minutes and you’ll receive promotional mailings, rewards, and discounts.

I don’t know about you but as a shopaholic this sounds fabulous.  Rewards, special promotions, and fabulous discounts! Sign me up please.

If you hear yourself agreeing with the above, it is time to step back for a moment and consider what these store cards can do to you.  Here are a few considerations to think about next time you want to sign up for a store card. In general, store cards:

~ often carry higher interest than major credit cards
~ have lower lines of credit
~ lead consumers to spend more with these discounts and reward earning opportunities
~ have reward programs that can only be redeemed for gift cards to that store
~ are a part of your credit score and too many late payments, maxed out cards, and credit inquiries can damage your credit score

So how do you feel about those cards now? It probably isn’t a good idea to sign up for one every time it is offered to you but store cards are not evil.  If managed correctly they can help you build your credit and raise your score.  Right now I have 3 in my wallet.  All three are for stores that I shop at very often and tend to offer frequent discounts and you can earn rewards quickly.  If you have a favorite store or two and would like to grab their card, make sure to obtain your free credit score first. The higher your score, the higher your credit limit will be which, when underutilized can improve that debt to available credit ratio and, thus, raise your credit score.  Also check and see how many hard inquiries are on your report.  If you are trying to make a large purchase, such as a car or house, you’ll want to make sure you keep the hard inquiries to one or two.  It takes 2 years to erase a hard inquiry and with mortgages, you tend to have quite a few hits while shopping around for the best bank and rates. You don’t want to make things worse with nonessential credit cards and the hard inquiries that come with it.

Credit scores and credit reports are one of those things that you don’t think about until you need them.  I have to admit I never gave my score a thought until Mike and I started seriously talking about buying a house. Before I just figured if I was approved for a credit card or a deposit was waived by a utility company then my credit score must be good so why know the exact score or rating.  I mean it is just a number right?

Not so much. I decided before applying for any mortgages that I would check my score.  I went to the free government credit report website and verified everything on my report but I wasn’t able to see the score.  So I decided that in this case, paying for credit monitoring during the process would be worth the small monthly cost.  After reading reviews, I picked the company I felt most comfortable with and signed up for the free trial and received my free credit report complete with my free credit score.  I decided to keep the service past the free trial and still use it today.  I didn’t realize how much having one credit report pulled by a utility or credit card company could lower your score.  I also didn’t realize that the ratio of debt to available credit could impact your score. I have been pretty lucky that I’ve always paid off my cards and limited the ones I’ve applied for but with this unemployment thing sticking around I have built up a little debt so I can keep afloat right now. So monitoring how the debt vs. payoff is impacting my score has been a great tool to keep me sticking with necessaties and not going overboard with items that I do not need.

After checking my report this morning I learned I’m a 771 which is an increase from April because I had a hard inquiry expire! Looking forward to the one that expires in August.

So for the past 5.5 years I’ve lived right next to a Sunbeam factory. I love driving past it and smelling the freshly baked bread. Attached to the factory is a discount bread store, also called the day old bread store in my youth. I’ve never really thought about actually shopping there on a regular basis but I’ve made a comment here or there to Mike about how we should stop by one day.

So right after I lost my job last month and rightfully freaked out, I decided that we should check this store out.  I wasn’t expecting much because I thought it was like other discount places with random stuff that you may or may not want.  I have to say we were surprised once we walked in the door.  There was a huge selection of breads, bagels, buns, snack foods, and, my favorite, moon pies.  The really cool thing is that everything was at least 50% less than what you would pay at your local grocery store and the sell by dates were not in the past but in the future like you would find at the grocery store.  So needless to say, we had a field day and stocked up on quite a few things in the store.  When we were checking out, the store clerk told us we were right under $5. We weren’t sure why that was important until she pointed out the free item you receive for purchasing $5 worth of items in the store.  That week it was 2 boxes of the bluebird brand of cupcakes – the chocolate cake with the cream inside and frosting on top.  We’ve also received free wheat subs for sandwiches, bagel thins, powered donuts to take to work, and hot dog buns.  Not too shabby!

Even if you aren’t on a budget like we are you should still check out your local day old bread store.  There is just no good reason to spend $2.50 on a package of white wheat bread when you can buy it for $1.09 at the bread store.

Mike and I have been meaning to join our individual line cell phone plans into a family plan for months now. We just never seem to remember on weekends to go to the actual Verizon store while we are out and about. Right now we are on the lowest minutes and price plan and we still are not close to using up our monthly minutes. I’m starting to wonder if maybe two prepaid cell phones would be better than 2 cell phones under contract. The only thing I worry about is that we wouldn’t be able to keep our current cell phone numbers. If that is the case then the idea is totally out of consideration but if it is possible then this could be a great budget saver for us. I guess I need to read up a little more and study our phone bill again. Our low minute usage could be due to friends and family minutes but even if those aren’t that high then it still could be worth it. Has anyone looked into this before?