First and foremost, the answer to this question is an affirmative 'No', but let's get to why we're answering this question in the first place.
Credit myths
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written on May 15, 2013 by Jason Bushey
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written on Oct 08, 2012 by Joshua Heckathorn
Have you ever heard about how you can unlock your car by having someone transmit a signal from a spare remote key via your cell phone? Pretty cool, huh? Well, it doesn't work. Keyless remotes and cell phones operate on completely different frequencies, so don't plan on this trick ever saving the day the next time you lock your keys in the trunk. Regardless, I've heard this urban myth so many times over the past few months that I even started to believe it might work. That is, until I saw it busted with my own eyes on perhaps the greatest show known to mankind—Mythbusters. Seriously, I can'...
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written on Oct 05, 2012 by Joshua Heckathorn
I’ve been hearing a lot about credit scoring myths these days in our Credit Talk forum. You've probably heard many of the ones I'm thinking of too: "quick and easy ways" to magically add points to your credit scores in a short period of time. Usually they're the same ones that have been circulating around for years, like these two favorites:
- Close any credit card accounts you don’t use, increase your income, and your credit score will increase too!
- Just use cash to pay for everything and your credit will...
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written on Jul 09, 2012 by Joshua Heckathorn
YES! Unpaid medical debts can most definitely hurt your credit scores. Paying your medical bills on time and in full, however, will do nothing to improve them. Doesn't sound fair to the consumer now, does it? Well, it isn't, and lawmakers have even looked at legislation in the past which was written with the intention to wipe consumers' credit reports clean of "paid" medical debts that were delinquent at one point in time. The bill unfortunately never passed the House, so the issue remains unresolved...
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written on Jul 02, 2012 by Joshua Heckathorn
Every so often an old credit myth I haven't heard in awhile will pop up again during a conversation with some friends. This past weekend it happened during a chat with a colleague about unemployment and its effect, or lack thereof, on FICO scores. Contrary to what many people think, you can be unemployed for a long period of time and still maintain excellent credit scores. The truth is the FICO credit-scoring model doesn't consider your employment history in any way, shape, or form. Like the level of your...
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written on Apr 09, 2012 by Joshua Heckathorn
FICO scores consider a lot of different personal information found in your credit reports, but employment history isn't one of them. In fact, according to FICO, "your salary, occupation, title, employer, date employed and employment history" are never considered by its credit-scoring model. It seems logical, right? Your employment history, income and job title don't necessarily indicate what type of...
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written on Mar 23, 2012 by Joshua Heckathorn
There's a lot of confusion among consumers about whether writing ‘See ID” on the back of a credit card is a smart move. I can certainly understand why, since there's a great deal of conflicting information available on the web. While it’s tough to prove this practice will actually prevent identity theft, I personally find it hard to believe it hurts. However, as far as Visa and ... -
written on Nov 07, 2011 by jeffg
We're all aware of the importance of having great credit scores, but sometimes figuring out how to get that stellar credit score is like cracking the code to the secret sauce at your favorite burger joint. The result is that over the years, dozens of credit scoring myths and misunderstandings have popped up as people have attempted to get their financial lives in order. Here are my top five in descending order.
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written on Sep 23, 2011 by Joshua Heckathorn
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption=" "]
Photo by Alan Cleaver[/caption]It's a common misconception that entering a credit counseling program will ruin your...
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written on Sep 13, 2011 by wwiley105
It’s a question we hear all the time from credit card users, especially in the younger demographic: “So what if I have bad credit? I don’t have anything I need to go into debt for anyway.” This is a very risky line of thinking. While young consumers (particularly students) may not be thinking about their credit at this stage in their life, they’re just around the corner from having it be an all-encompassing aspect of their adult lives.
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