car purchase

Credit Karma: FREE Credit Score, tools, & tips to help you understand your scores!

Abby H.

If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you know I am a big proponent of keeping an eye on your credit score.

I maintain a high credit score and keep my debt-to-income ratio low by using Credit Karma to monitor my scores with all three major credit bureaus.

I can check to see if there is anything on there that doesn’t belong and clear up any issues as soon as I see them.

It’s never too early  (or late) to start monitoring your credit.

Young adults should take a peek at their credit, and Credit Karma offers tips and tricks to help build their credit.  Good Credit is important- it’s the gatekeeper to so many things in life! Good credit gives you better access to better APRs for credit cards, mortgages, car loans, and lines of credit.

Regardless of your age, Credit Karma is here to help you FOR FREE!

  • Compare personalized offers for credit cards, loans and more without hurting your scores.
  • Get alerted when there’s an important change on your reports.
  • Learn what affects your credit scores and what you can do to improve them.
  • See personalized recommendations for ways to use your credit more wisely

Did you know that the recent FTC study found that over 20% of Americans, or 40 million credit reports, have reporting errors that are costing consumers money in credit card interest rates and loans?

Make sure that your credit report does not contain erroneous information that could be impacting your credit score. Keep tabs on your credit report activities and your score by signing up for free credit monitoring and score services like Credit Karma, so that you can easily protect your financial good standing.

 

 

Trips and tricks for saving money on your next car purchase…

Abby H.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe had to replace Mr. C’s 14 year old Pontiac last year.  It was time. Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of friends talking about replacing their older cars that aren’t as fuel efficient or that are starting to need some pretty costly repairs.

We knew the time to replace the old, creaky Pontiac was coming, so to prepare for the new car I did the following step

  • We made a list of cars that met our qualifications: price, specific gas mileage, features (safety & comfort). With a price range in mind, we could make sure that we had enough saved for a down payment.
  • We made sure that we had room in our budget for a car payment. We paid my car off last year (an entire year early!! I rounded up payments each month to the closest $10 and when we had extra money from rebates or bonuses, I sent a few extra hundred dollars to the finance company- those things really do help!).
  • I had been saving money each paycheck for a down payment.  It wasn’t a lot of money each month, but we’ve known for about a year that the Pontiac was on it’s last legs.
  • We filed our tax returns as soon as we were able- We wanted to use the majority of our refund toward the downpayment.
  • We looked online for vehicles that fit our qualifications, we used connections (that would also provide us discounts) through our credit union, insurance carrier, and through sources like UPromise to find vehicles within our price range.
  • We went into the dealerships pre-approved for a loan through our credit union.
  • We knew what was on our credit reports and our scores (Thanks to using CreditSesame), so we knew that we could leverage that if needed to try and get a better APR.
  • I checked with our insurance carrier prior to purchasing the new car to see what the insurance premiums would look like on several cars on our list.  We needed the premiums to stay pretty much the same.

In the end we purchased a 2011 Prius from Toyota of El Cajon. The process was easy, fast (4 hours, but if you’ve bought a car, you know how long it takes), and our sales consultant, Jason Mongold, was awesome. He and his managers helped us find a car that met our criteria and budget, and they gave us a great amount for our trade-in.

Take your time and make sure you review all of your options when buying a car. Whether you buy new or used, from a dealership or private party, do your research!

Carfax Reports– learn all about the car you are about to buy (accidents, title status). Most dealerships that sell pre-owned cars will show you the CarFax report before you purchase.

KBB.com– Find out the value of your trade-in, and the value of the car you are about to purchase.

Little Man sitting in Daddy's Pontiac one last time!
Little Man sitting in Daddy’s Pontiac one last time!

What are your tips and tricks for purchasing a car?