Credit & Loans
Credit repair companies charge $50 to $150 per month for services you can legally do yourself for free. Here's what's real, what's a scam, and what actually moves a credit score.
Credit repair companies charge $50 to $150 per month for services you can legally do yourself for free. Here's what's real, what's a scam, and what actually moves a credit score.
Loan approvals don't hinge entirely on your credit score. Lenders evaluate five or six variables, and optimizing the ones you control can shift your rate by several percentage points and your approval odds significantly.
Online lenders have upended personal loan pricing by cutting overhead and using alternative credit models. They're not always better than banks, but they're often faster and sometimes significantly cheaper.
Dealer financing is convenient, but that convenience has a price. Understanding how auto loan markup works and when direct lenders beat the dealership can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars on your next car purchase.
A mortgage is the largest financial commitment most people ever make, and the difference between a good deal and an expensive one often comes down to knowing a handful of specific numbers before you walk into a lender's office.
A credit builder loan flips the loan model — you make payments first and receive the money at the end. For people with no credit history, they can be one of the most effective starting tools available.
A personal loan's advertised interest rate rarely tells the full story. Origination fees, prepayment penalties, and autopay discounts can shift the true cost significantly. Here's how to read the real numbers.
Most credit score myths aren't just wrong — they're costly. Acting on bad information leads to real score damage and missed opportunities. Here's what the data actually shows.
Being added as an authorized user to someone else's credit card account can add decades of positive history to your credit report overnight. Here's how it actually works and what to watch out for.
Several significant regulatory changes affecting credit reporting, lending practices, and consumer rights took effect or are being litigated in 2025. Here's a plain-language breakdown of the rules most likely to affect your financial decisions.
Total U.S. consumer debt crossed $18 trillion in 2024 for the first time, while the average FICO score edged down from its 2021 pandemic peak. Here's what the latest data from the Federal Reserve, CFPB, and Experian reveals about where American credit stands.
Americans lost $10 billion to fraud in 2023 — a record — and the schemes being used today are more sophisticated than ever, incorporating AI-generated voices, cloned websites, and fake debt collection. Here's how to recognize and stop the most active scams.