It is often said that the most important possession a person is their reputation and good name. Your credit rating is attached to your name and follows you wherever you go in North America – be it New York, Chicago, Edmonton Alberta or Vancouver Canada. A credit rating is like a mirror- wonderful to look at when clear, but not very helpful of useful is damaged or sullied.



How can you maintain a good credit rating? It all comes down to consistency of paying your bills onetime and not running up debts that you cannot pay off or miss payments.

Many people will say- its only one small payment what does Visa, the car dealership where you financed your new auto or SUV care? After all they have more money than they ever need. Maybe you will get by with one excuse of a forgotten check. But do this a second time and the system will red flag your account, name, address etc. Then you might say – well Christmas is coming up – MasterCard, the bank or the finance company won’t really notice. Wrong again. The system will flag you again. This time as more severe. Amazingly the whole credit system seems to have tentacles that share information – especially about bad creditors and debtors who owe money and are remiss on payments.

You may not think this is all a big deal – especially if you normally pay you bills on time. However now the system has picked up the consistency of your late payment and credit schedule. It’s as if you have a thousand nosy neighbors watching your home and front door for that girlfriend sneaking out late in the evening. Your poor payment history will be spread across the system to who knows where and to how many countless credit and credit reporting agencies.

The humor is that you may never know what is on the other side of the ledger so to speak. If your application for a loan or finance for a second auto is denied seldom will you receive any other notification or information than the denied claim? Information is supposed to be readily available – at least according to industry information – some say propaganda. If the information is that readily available – and readable to any layman what would be the value that companies would pay for ready access to it. You may say that the credit companies say that everyone is entitled to see their file. True – but are you going to tell your boss you need some time off to view your credit history since you are having trouble with your personal finances and having loan requests refused. Talk about a lose lose situation of a loss of your image of personal honor, integrity and .trustfulness on the job site and with your employer. In life most everything comes down to actual logistics. Then again you can request your credit history on the internet through thousands of firms who will provide these services online – for a fee. First of all is the information on your credit history – valid, up to date and accurate. For fun try a couple of free test probes at some of these sites. You are what you are and you ain’t what you aint. Many of these services have a worse reputation than you do so to speak.

No matter what information and credit information you place fill out online the same answers or answer will emerge. In order to receive accurate and relevant personal credit information most reputable sites will request identification and payment by credit card.

As they say lots of luck. Banks, finance and credit card companies will loan to people who need it the least – those with lots of money and excellent credit. If you had no credit problems why would you be searching out the reasons for your credit and finance applications denials? On top of that your credit card, finances and overdraft at the bank or savings and loan is most likely tapped out and overextended already.

In this day and age of computers and rapid communications a couple simple financial mistakes can lead to a real quagmire. It’s best to follow the simple advice of your grandmother - stay within your means. Don’t buy what you cannot afford. It is always best to pay cash.