Credit Karma is one of the most useful web sites I’ve come across. It lets you see your current credit scores for free, and when linked to your bank accounts, provides a nice one-page summary of your finances and offers advice for managing your credit.
There was once a time when I had an excellent credit rating but then I got carried away with my credit cards and built up a mountain of debt. In fact, I got a separate credit card just for transferring balances from my other cards to free up some spending room but that just got me deeper in debt. It was a real mess.
Then things got worse when I lost my job and began to fall behind on my payments. That of course brought on the collection calls which only added to the stress. This also affected my credit rating and my ability to get new credit cards. I’ve gotten turned down for several credit cards and it was humiliating.
Years later I’ve gotten most of my debts paid off and it’s getting easier to deal with the debts I have left, but unfortunately, I still have debts left from my careless spending sprees years ago. From all this I have learned that the best way out of credit card debt is not to get in debt in the first place.
I thought my credit score improved as a result of my getting some of my credit cards paid off but as I write this, my rating is still “Poor”. Time will tell if my credit scores will ever return to the excellent levels they once enjoyed.
I’ve added Credit Karma to my bookmarks and will visit it often to monitor my delicate credit situation.
MJBDiver.com 