Helpful hints on maintaining your credit

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Instead of being a co-signer with your child on a car loan, ask the bank if you can guarantee the loan. If you are a co-signer, the bank will report the loan to the credit bureaus as yours, under your Social Security Number (SSN) as well as the SSN of your child. You are just as liable this way, but the loan is reported only on your child’s SSN, not yours. 


If you are going through a divorce or have gone through one, be sure you and
your ex-spouse split up the credit cards. Take the cards you want and have your
ex-spouse expunged from the account. If necessary, get a new card. As part of the divorce proceedings, demand that your ex-spouse do the same. If this is not done and your ex-spouse uses these cards, the balances show up on your credit report. If your ex-spouse forgets to make some payments, this shows up on your credit report. It is very hard to prove these are not yours. You take some of the cards and let your ex-spouse take the others. You should cancel all joint accounts. You are both liable for cards with existing balances because the credit was granted under the assumption that you would both be responsible for debts. You can, however, close the accounts to new purchases.

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Many times when people pay off a car loan early a late payment report shows up later.
It seems as if the bank has two computers, one to track the balances and the other to keep track of payments due. When you pay off the loan, computer 1 does not tell computer 2, so computer 2 still expects a payment from you. When it does not come in it notifies the credit bureau and reports you as late. When you pay off the loan, do so in person and get a dated receipt.


If you own a new or one year old car, even if you paid cash for it, the lender is going to assume that you have a car loan, even if you are a person of substantial wealth. Be prepared to show the title or pink slip to prove outright ownership.


In a “rolling late” you miss a payment, make the next five on time, and then make up the next payment. The creditor may report this as five 30 day "lates", four 60 day "lates", and three 9 day "lates" even though one payment was actually late. The lender may have the right to apply any payment to the oldest outstanding payment, so the report is technically correct. Your lender will be a lot more understanding if you have cancelled checks and monthly statements from the creditor to show what went wrong. 

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