Credit
How Long Late Payments and Collections Stay on Your Report
Late payments and collections stay on credit reports for seven years from the original delinquency date. Paying does not reset the clock under federal law.
8 min read
Topic
Debt Payoff
Pick a payoff order you will actually finish, and see what another month of waiting adds.
23 posts
Debt Payoff
Debt Consolidation: The Honest Version
Consolidation lowers monthly payments but often increases the total interest paid over time. Here are the three legitimate forms, predatory traps to avoid, and the math that matters.
7 min read
Student Loans
Should You Pay Off Student Loans Early?
Federal student loans carry valuable safety nets that private refinancing destroys permanently. Here is how to weigh interest rates against option value and investing returns.
7 min read
Credit
Should You Close an Old Credit Card?
Closing it raises your utilisation the same day and shortens your average account age much later. Usually keep it. Here are the three cases where closing is the right call anyway.
7 min read
Credit
Credit Utilisation and the Statement-Date Trick
Your card reports the statement balance, not the balance after you pay it. Moving the payment two days earlier can turn a reported 61.7% into 6.2% without changing a thing you spend.
6 min read
Editor's pick
CreditGuide
What Actually Moves Your Credit Score
Two of the five factors are worth 65% of the score. The other three get argued about far more than they are worth, and one of them you cannot change at all.
7 min read
Debt Payoff
Balance Transfers: When They Help and When They Hurt
A 0% transfer on $9,000 with a 3% fee saves $1,784.15 if you clear it in the window. Even doing it badly still saves money. There is only one way it actually costs you, and it is not the fee.
7 min read
Debt PayoffGuide
Invest or Pay Off Debt First?
There is a rate above which paying the debt wins and below which investing does, and it sits exactly at the return you expect. Three households, $500 a month, ten years, and three different answers.
8 min read
Debt Payoff
How to Negotiate a Lower Credit Card Rate (With the Script)
It is one phone call, it takes about eleven minutes, and on a $9,000 balance a five-point cut is worth $824.69. Here are the three numbers to have ready and the words to say.
7 min read
Debt Payoff
The Minimum Payment Trap, in Numbers
A $6,000 balance at 24.99% paid at the minimum takes 254 months and costs $11,360.48 in interest, which is nearly twice what you borrowed. The formula is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
7 min read
Editor's pick
Debt PayoffGuide
Avalanche vs Snowball: What Each One Costs You
The avalanche saves more money. The snowball gets finished more often. On four real balances that difference is $552.79 and one month, and here is when $552.79 is worth paying.
10 min read
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