You Have 30 Or More Official Credit Scores

Big Loans

If you’re applying for a big loan — like a mortgage, car loan, or business loan — I recommend MyFico.com and spending $59.85 to buy their Score 3B Report. This is especially important if you’ve had credit problems in the past, have been through a divorce, have a common name, or have had any kind of financial trauma.

With the Score 3B Report, you’ll get your base FICO 8 and FICO 9 credit scores from each of the three credit reporting bureaus, as well as the industry-specific score versions used by auto and bankcard lenders. Mortgage lenders generally use the Experian FICO 2 scoring model, the TransUnion FICO 4 and the Equifax FICO 5 to create a score called the "tri-merge", which you’ll also see on your Score 3B report.

Another good thing about pulling your own scores ahead of time is that you can address errors and surprises. The last thing you want is to be close to signing contracts on a house and have something unexpected surface that could jeopardize your loan.

Credit card rates to creep higher in 2017

Credit cards

Credit card interest rates are expected to rise in 2017. Keep in mind, they were supposed to rise much higher than they did in 2016.

That's because the biggest influencer of credit card rates -- the Fed -- suggested it would hike short-term interest rates four times in 2016. It did so only once. For 2017, it going for three increases.

"The rate on your credit card is going to mimic any moves the Federal Reserve makes in 2017 and beyond," says Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate's senior vice president and chief financial analyst.

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Even if you're skeptical, keep a close eye on what the Fed does. When it resets the federal funds rate, the contractual floating-index rate that card interest rates are based on also will move.

If the Fed sticks with three rate hikes this year, any balance you carry today at 16 percent would increase to 16.75 percent. Make only the minimum monthly payment, and it can cost you hundreds of dollars more in increased interest charges to pay off your debt.

If you anticipate higher rates, now is the time to grab an introductory credit card offer with zero-percent-interest. McBride says those offers -- plentiful today -- will become harder to obtain as interest rates increase.

At the very least, you should examine the fastest way to pay down debt.

Credit reporting agencies

There are three credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.

They maintain files on millions of borrowers. Lenders making credit decisions buy credit reports on their prospects, applicants and customers from the credit reporting agencies.

Lenders and other businesses use the information in your credit report to evaluate your applications for credit, loans, insurance, or renting a home.

Clock Ticking on Obama's Refi Plan - 
Expires 2017

HARP Gives Homeowners One Last Chance for A Mortgage Bailout

If you owe less than $300,000 on your home you probably qualify for HARP. This program was passed by Obama to help the middle class by giving them a once in a lifetime mortgage bailout. The program itself is totally free and doesn 't add any cost to homeowner' s refi' s. Like most government benefits though, this program will expire, but there is still time left for hundreds of thousands of qualified homeowners to take advantage before the programs expires in 2017. 

HARP Is Totally Free And Doesn' t Add Any Cost To Your Refi

HARP is a program with no downside. HARP doesn 't add any cost to your refi because it' s a totally free government program, that helps qualified homeowners get better, more affordable mortgages. The problem is many homeowners think it's too good to be true and haven't taken advantage. Homeowners who have used the program though have eliminated up to 15 years of mortgage payments, have cut their interest rates in half, or have simply lowered their monthly payments and saved up to $4,100/year.

How To Get A HARP Loan

To help homeowners find banks that offer HARP refinances, services such as LowerMyBills are available. LowerMyBills is a completely free service that many homeowners love because it helps them compare multiple lenders at once. It only takes about three minutes to use their easy online form, and their network of online lenders can help you calculate your new house payment and see if you qualify for HARP. It can't hurt to look. You' ll probably be shocked when you see how low your mortgage payment could be.

Why isn't everyone using this refi plan? Here' s why... 

Banks don t want homeowners to know about it because they hate what this program could do to them. HARP helps homeowners refinance at today s historically low rates and switch to 15 year fixed rate mortgages. That helps homeowners save up to $190,000, which means homeowners who use HARP could take as much as $190,000 out of banks pockets and put it back into theirs

Do I have enough savings for a secure retirement?

My husband and I are retired, but aren't sure whether we have enough in savings to see us through retirement. Is there a specific amount we should have? How can we tell how much is enough? --Diane

I think you need to frame this issue a little differently. The amount you should have is pretty much a moot point right now as you've already retired. So the more pertinent question is how much can you withdraw from your nest egg each year to cover your retirement living expenses and still have a reasonable level of assurance that you won't deplete your savings too soon?

Your first step toward answering that query is to determine how much you're actually spending each year, and the best way to do that is to create a retirement budget. You can make a budget with pencil and paper, but I think you're better off using an online budgeting tool likeBlackRock's Retirement Expense Worksheet, which allows you to enter some 50 separate expense items in eight categories, including household and medical costs as well as expenditures for discretionary outlays like travel and entertainment.

nce you have a decent idea of how much you're spending each year, you can move on to seeing how likely it is that your nest egg will be able to support you the rest of your life if you continue your current level of spending. An online tool like T. Rowe Price's retirement income calculator can help you estimate that likelihood.

The calculator employs Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the probability that income from Social Security plus withdrawals from your nest egg will be able to generate enough income for you to maintain your expected spending for the rest of your life.

(The tool's default assumption is that you -- or in your case either you or your husband -- will live to age 95. You can choose a different age, but I consider 95 a reasonable assumption given today's longer lifespans. If you like, you can get a more nuanced take on how long you might need your savings to last based on your age, sex and state of health by revving up the Actuaries Longevity Illustrator tool.)

If after going through this process you find that the chances that the combination of Social Security and draws from your nest egg are uncomfortably low -- I'd say you want your chance of success to be at least 70% to 80% -- then you can re-run the analysis and change a few assumptions to see how much your odds of success improve.

Not surprisingly, you'll find that scaling back your spending will boost your odds of success the most. You may also be tempted to invest more aggressively in hopes of earning a higher rate of return on your savings that, in turn, could support a higher level of withdrawals from your nest egg and more spending.

But be careful. Devoting a higher portion of your savings to stocks can leave your nest egg morevulnerable to market downturns and potentially increase the risk of running through your savings too soon.

And even absent a serious market setback, investing more aggressively may not boost the chances of your money lasting the rest of your life as much as you might think.

Besides, there are other moves you can make that can be more effective than taking on more investing risk. For example, you might check out sites like RetiredBrains.com andRetirementjobs.com for part-time work that can generate more income. If you own a home, you might also consider tapping into the equity by taking out a reverse mortgage or downsizing to smaller, less expensive digs to come away with a chunk of extra cash that can supplement your nest egg.

If you're really worried that you might run through your savings while you've still got a lot of living to do, you could also think about converting a portion of your nest egg to a guaranteed lifetime income stream via an immediate annuity or a longevity annuity.Related: Are you behind on retirement saving?

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that no tool or calculator can actually predict the future. So what you're getting when you go through the analysis I outlined above are estimates, not promises, of how long your nest egg is likely to last given different levels of withdrawals based on forecasts of how the financial markets are expected to perform.

Still, by going through this process and running a few scenarios, you can get a pretty good sense of how your chances of your money running out go up and down given different levels of withdrawals.

If you're not confident about doing such number-crunching on your own -- or you want a more comprehensive assessment of your retirement prospects and how you might improve them -- you can always hire a financial adviser to do the analysis for you.

Finally, this isn't the sort of exercise you can do once and then forget about it. Lots of things can change -- market conditions, your spending needs, the value of your nest egg, to name a few. So you should re-assess your situation every year or so with updated information about your expected spending, how many years of retirement you estimate are still ahead of you, your latest account balances, etc. You can then make adjustments, if necessary, to increase the odds that your savings will last as long as you do.

How your credit report is maintained

TransUnion, Equifax and Experian are the three bureaus that maintain credit reports. They issue credit reports to creditors, insurers and others businesses as permitted under law.

When you apply for any new line of credit – for example, a new credit card - the creditor requests a copy of credit report from one or more of the credit bureaus. The creditor will evaluate your credit report, a credit score, or other information you provide (such as income or debt information) to determine your credit worthiness, as well as your interest rate. If you’re approved, that new card – called a tradeline, will be included in your credit report and updated about every 30 days.

Tens of thousands of credit grantors – retailers, credit card issuers, banks, finance companies, credit unions, etc. – send updates to each of the credit reporting bureaus, usually once a month. These updates include information about how their customers use and pay their accounts.

Accessing your credit report

Your credit report is compiled when you or your lender request it. It contains information that is supplied by lenders, by you and by court records.

In order to obtain your credit report, you must provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. If you’ve moved within the last two years, you should include your previous address. To protect the security of your personal information, you may be asked a series of questions that only you would know, like your monthly mortgage payment.

Since lenders may review your FICO Scores and credit report from any of the three credit bureaus, it’s suggested that you check your credit report from all three and make sure they’re all accurate.