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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Five Things Every Woman Should Know BEFORE Signing Any Credit Application!

Have you ever wondered if banks have a tendency to approve
credit cards and loans for one sex more than the other? If
you are married (or plan to be) I will share with you five
vital keys every married person should know before signing
any credit application.

VITAL KEY #1: According to the Federal Equal Credit
Opportunity Act (FECOA) creditors cannot deny consumers
access to credit because of their sex. However, on average
(in surveys) it's reported that women earn less money than
men. Regardless of what the FECOA states, the relationship
of credit to income is very strong.

In our society if you make less money you will get less
credit, period. The sad fact is that women on their own
have less access to credit. It's for this reason (I
believe) it is imperative that women learn and acquire more
knowledge about credit than men. Knowledge is power; and in
the world of credit that knowledge will often times prove
to be priceless, especially for women.

VITAL KEY #2: If you are a married woman with JOINT credit
(meaning all your credit accounts are jointly held with
your husband) you have NO CREDIT yourself. Many women in
America find this out the hard way every year when they get
divorced and lose all their credit privileges since all
their accounts were jointly held with their spouse. If you
are a woman in this position you can greatly benefit by
beginning to build your own credit in your own name
starting today! The benefits are two fold.

1.) If your spouse has financial difficulties (for any
reason) and is forced to file bankruptcy or their credit
becomes derogatory, you and your spouse will have your
credit in reserve to survive on.

2.) If you ever get divorced down the road (over 50% do
and 76% in the state of California) you will NOT end up in
financial hardship due to no credit and/or derogatory
credit. Instead, you will have your credit to transition
to and (believe me) this can be the difference between
sailing off in the sunset or drowning in a storm.

VITAL KEY #3: If you are currently married (with some
credit or no credit) to a spouse who has excellent credit,
you can leverage their credit to build credit in your own
name much faster than if you had to build it by yourself.
Later, once you have established enough accounts on your
own, you may choose to cancel accounts that were held
jointly with your spouse.

VITAL KEY #4: If you are a single woman with excellent
credit and are getting married you may want to think twice
about adding your new lover to all your credit accounts.
If he messes up or you end up in divorce down the road your
credit will end up taking the beating (regardless of how
many years you diligently spent building it up). For this
reason, I strongly suggest married couples keep their
credit separate. Why?

In most cases spouses have far more to lose than to gain.
Naturally, some credit will have to be joint no matter what
you do. If you purchase a home (which may require both
incomes to qualify) this will appear as a joint account on
the credit report. However, the potential abuse with a
home mortgage is almost non existent as opposed to Credit
Cards.

VITAL KEY #5: Spouses have more to gain by each building
strong individual credit reports rather than joining all
accounts and building one joint report. For obvious
reasons, banks and credit card companies love the "credit
ignorance" of spouses who join all their credit accounts
upon marriage.

Here's why: If you take 500,000 couples with credit before
they got married, those 500,000 couples actually represent
one million credit accounts and liabilities for the banks
and lenders. When those couples got married, those one
million credit liabilities were instantly were cut in half
from one million to only 500,000. For banks this is a very
advantageous situation. For the couples getting married
(if they have financial trouble) the deal is a little raw.
If they have trouble, although they are two people, they
are represented by only one credit report. The bank now
has the right to go after two different people for one
account (regardless of who was financially negligent).

For moment, let's play out the same scenario with a couple
which is financially savvy (note: they're both on the same
"team" but financially savvy). In this scenario, the
couple gets married, but instead of joining account each
builds their individual credit reports. Now this couple
(team) has not one credit report representing them but two.
Metaphorically, if the perfect storm (financially) is to
rise, this is the difference between the couple being in
the ocean with two ships instead of one. If the one ship
starts to sink, the couple can always "jump ship" to the
second.

While some may criticize this thinking it is no different
than buying any kind of insurance. You buy insurance not
because you plan on a problem. You buy insurance because
you are thinking ahead. This type of thinking is no
different. However, if you want to be ahead of the pack
that you need to think ahead of the pack.

I cannot tell you how many times I have talked to loving
married couples in financial trouble who only WISHED they
would have known about these five vital keys before they
got into financial trouble. Take them, study them, apply
them to your life. As I heard one woman put it "In
business and in life I've learned to expect the best but
plan for the worst". I thought her words were brilliant.
However, I have found that when I expect the best... many
times I tend to get it! Take these five vital keys. Study
them. Apply them. Then pass them on to someone else who
can benefit from them.

About the Author:
The "CREDIT SECRETS BIBLE" has been in print since 1994 and
is published by Consumer Publishing Group. For more
information on the "CREDIT SECRETS BIBLE" you may visit:
http://www.squidoo.com/credit-secrets-bible/

John V
http://urlfreeze.com/JCV/CreditMastery/

John C. Vincent/CEO/The Opt.In Magic System
http://The-Way-To-Weight-Loss-blog.blogspot.com
http://The-Hair-Loss-Site.blogspot.com
http://The-Dating-Game-Blog.blogspot.com

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