Q: My husband and I are shopping for the best mortgage rate to buy a house. We went to a local bank and fill several applications online, with Quicken Loans, Wells Fargo, Chase and few credit unions we belong to - all within may be 10 days. Now we are told that our FICO scores would drop. Does credit check lower your credit score? I want to check with two other lenders but my husband is firmly against it.

A: He is right. Credit check does lower FICO credit score if it represents a hard inquiry or hard pull, which judging by your question is exactly what you are getting. Does hard credit check always lower credit scores? It does almost universally but by how much, depends on several factors, like length and depth of your credit history, how many times credit check is performed in a span of a week or two, etc.

For example, one or two hard pulls made within a month won't lower FICO score of someone with 2 or 3 credit lines that go back at least 12 months. However 10 hard credit checks made in a week can significantly drop credit score of someone with well established credit history. I would advise you to stop right now and just buy that house. If you don't buy anything and want to continue, better wait for at least a month. If you want to dispute some of the inquiries down the road, check hard inquiry dispute letter.

I have received more pre approved offers for Visa Black Card which is issued by Barclays Bank Delaware, than I care to remember. Seriously, I am not bragging, whenever they arrive in mail, I shred them. But after hearing some of my well off friends talking glowingly about it, I decided to finally check and see what all the fuss is about. So when another offer came yesterday, I opened it and now, I am going to give a detailed review of Visa Black Card benefits, fees and etc. It came in fancy black envelope with gold letters. Inside I found even fancier invitation, Terms and Conditions and return envelope, on beige paper together with rather pompous application. Invitation stated that the exclusive Visa Black Card membership is limited to only 1% of U.S. residents ... I didn't realize I have made that far. Well so far so good.

Unlike your average credit card, Visa Black is made with carbon and charges a hefty annual membership fee, that is of $495 for account holder and additional $195 for each authorized user. Not bad, and we thought that recently enacted credit card reform would take care of excessive fees. On more serious side, this credit card if for those lazy types who fly a lot, spend at least $50,000 a year and want concierge to get everything done, from all sorts of reservations to all kinds of recommendations, to travel assistance, to what have you.

One of the key benefits of Visa Black Card is its Exclusive Rewards. You basically get 1% cash back on all purchases or superior mileage redemption on any airline with no blackouts or restrictions. Then VIP Airport Lounge Access lets you inside of some 600 airport lounges worldwide. And you are promised some fancy gifts from the world's top brands, at no charge.

The Visa Black Card also offers 24/7 legal, medical, and financial emergency travel services, and up to $250,000 travel accident insurance. If your baggage is delayed while traveling, the Visa Black Card will credit you $100 a day for 3 days. Finally, you can return any purchase you make with the Visa Black Card, and get reimbursed up to $500 before 90 days have passed since the date of purchase.

Now to the fees. Unless you live in Iowa, where Late and Returned Payment Fees are 15 each, you pay $39.95 for these violations. The Annual Percentage Rate is variable 13.24% and minimum credit limit is only $5,000. Cash Advances charged on Visa Black Card, carry currently 21.99% in addition to either $10 or 3% of the amount of each cash advance whichever is greater.

There is a 3% fee on each foreign transaction as well as $10 or 4% fee on each balance transfer. Finally, Visa Black Card default APR which is here quite appropriately called Penalty APR of up to 30.24% will apply to your account if you
- make a late payment
- go over credit limit
- you payment is returned
- do any of the above on another account you have with Barclays

So here it is, now that I am done reviewing, this particular Visa Black Card offer goes to the shredder just like the others did.

How to reduce taxes legally becomes the most popular topic for many, starting right after new year. This year Vancouver Games did take some of your attention away. Now that Olympics are over, you need to shape up. Frankly, you should worry about your tax reduction year around. Well, worry may be too strong of a word and too much of it can be detrimental to your health. Planning and looking for legal ways how to lower your taxes is the better way to put it.

There are many, may be too many tax reduction strategies out there, and some of them sound quite confusing. But by far the best long term strategy to reduce your taxes legally is to take a systematic approach, review all feasible ways that can help you lower taxes and implement the ones which will maximize you deductions. Here we are going to touch three, may be four most valuable ways and leave the rest and deeper details for later as there are so much to talk about. But you have to understand that having your small business is the key to any significant tax reduction and ultimately, the road to riches. And yes, read the disclaimer in the end of this post.

On the other hand, laws for small and home based business offer a whole plethora of additional tax deductions. As a small business owner with proper documentation you can legally reduce taxes by writing off more of your house, hire and write off your spouse, business vacations, cars, business meals and more, all in addition to the tax deduction a worker has. The savings because of these additional tax deductions can be so huge, it is simply hard to understand why everyone does not have a home based business, incorporated or not. We are going to talk about more reasons, types of businesses and corporations in upcoming posts. I am still warming up.

How to reduce taxes legally deducting fun expenses

I know that this section will be quite popular with my readers, so from the start I must warn that you must take every precaution to document your fun activities and ensure their tax deductibility, so when the mighty IRS comes after your with an audit, and sooner or later it will, you can prove that this tax reduction strategy was rightfully used. This write off works for self-employed or small business tax payers as well as for regular W-2 employees whose job requires to entertain perspective hires or subordinates. Again we will look at depth at this way to reduce your taxes, but to give you an idea, a recruiter who wants to convince a hot shot Java programmer to join his company over a nice lunch or even dinner in Morton's, should be able to write off at least 50% from the bill. You can also invite that top salesman whom your firm is trying to lure from its competitor to play few rounds of golf and deduct quite a bit as well, albeit you may have to convince the IRS that playing golf is conducive to a business discussion which is what it requires. We will talk about details, receipts you need to keep, amounts and other very important things in further articles.

Your vacation is ripe for tax deduction
That is, if you can prove your vacation was a business trip. Hahaha, but it is not a laughing matter, what you want to do is to combine business with pleasure. Within the limits of course. If you are not sure or consider this strategy to be rather convoluted, it is better to leave it alone. I am going to give one main point right here - sleep is important.

You see, by definition of the IRS, to be on business travel, you must travel from home, overnight, or for a period of time that is long enough to require sleep. So if live in Los Angeles and fly to Phoenix in the morning, only to come back in the evening, you would not be traveling on business, according to the IRS. The only expense you may write off is the transportation costs of getting to the city. Basically, your best defence against auditors it to sleep in hotel.

In brief, and we will explain the details some day, believe me, you can do the following things,
- hire your spouse and go on business conventions and seminars together
- use business car for family travel
- cover 300 miles a day toward your business destination
- take business related courses on U.S. cruise ships
- care take your rental property
- visit colleagues to improve you skills and exchange ideas
- take out of town continuous education classes
- go for job interviews all over the U.S.
There are many more incredibly cool and perfectly legal ways and strategies that will reduce your taxes drastically. I have to reiterate again we will look very deeply in those.

Reduce taxes using your car for business
This is by far the IRS favorite. To audit, that is. Being such a big-ticket item, your vehicle is simply tempting you to cut few corners here and there, and to abuse this tax reduction to the point where the IRS will pounce with all its might. Yet, used with knowledge and carefully with proper paperwork support, writing off the car is one of the strongest strategies that helps you reduce taxes legally and by quite a lot.

The knowledge is the key. There are so many very legal tricks I have found after exhaustive research, that after discussing those with my accountant whom I consider very knowledgeable and experienced, I decided to dig even deeper. So this topic deserves a separate post and a very large one. Which I am going to put up and hopefully soon. For starters, I am going to have few good pointers right here, so you can research on your own, without waiting on me. After all, you have all year to prepare for 2010 income tax, since most of the information here are for business owners and business taxes are due by March 15. Unless you can get an extension.
- buying business vehicle is almost universally better than leasing it
- use more than one car for business to reduce taxes even more
- certain vehicles will reduce your taxes by far more than others
- most tax payers have no clue about all allowable car related write offs
- why you are never to donate business vehicle
- how to maximize business mileage and teach your CPA about it
I think it is enough for now. Because income taxes, your money, the IRS and everything related to them are rather sensitive topics with many long reaching implications, I am going to put this disclaimer. I have put similar before, but nevertheless ...
I am neither an accountant nor a financial planner. I have no formal financial education, but I remember a very smart engineer I worked with long time ago. When someone asked him a question or two, he would answer politely. Then he would grow inpatient and snap "read the book, that what I do". He told me that more than few times and I finally decided he was right. So I started reading and never stopped. Sort of like Forest Gump, only he was running, and it took him quite far in that movie. So what I am disclaiming here is that take the information written on my great site for what it is, always do your due diligence and consult a qualified accountant. Do not blame Bad Credit Advisor for your own mistakes.

Look for upcoming informational posts with more details and strategies that will certainly show you more ways, how to reduce taxes legally.

Q: I got a negative credit card record on all three credit reports that does not belong to me. Sent a dispute letter to the credit bureaus, so they would remove it. Got response from Experian after 3 weeks that they investigated and removed it, but anything has yet to come from TransUnion and Equifax. 42 days have passed since I sent that letter. I need a follow up dispute letter, I found several but do not like them. Can you write up a sample?

A: How many ways can you write a letter on how to follow up with credit bureaus after initial dispute letter goes unanswered for more than 30 days? Why are you waiting for almost 2 weeks? Below is the follow up dispute letter that you should send to TransUnion and Equifax credit bureaus but do it quick, stop wasting time.

Thanks,
Your Signature
Your Name

Our gold investment forecast stays on course. We recommend you to just buy gold in anticipation of much higher prices. Where these predictions are coming from? Well, such a recommendation is based on a few things, rather ominous I shall add. We will start from pure technical perspective, and I think I have said that here before, it took me a while to realize that charts just basically reflect market mood or sentiment. Putting it in even simpler terms, a chart reflects the number of buyers and number of sellers which fluently translates in demand and supply. When the sellers outnumber buyers, a given stock or a commodity price goes down. Same thing have been happening with real estate. When money and loans were easy and everyone thought housing, not the gold was the best investment, number of home buyers was way higher than numbers of new homes and willing sellers. Then the pendulum swung rather painfully, buyers have disappeared and you know the rest - we are where we are. Before you start laughing at my gold investment forecast and bold predictions of higher prices to come, I urge you to revisit the forecast story I wrote in January 2007, called The housing bubble - why I think real estate bubble is here and going to get uglier. The facts that I am not among Yahoo! financial experts most of whom I ridicule periodically, and I do not write silly books that many of you apparently buy, read and follow, do not deny my common sense approach combined with a little deeper knowledge of history and ongoing events than those of an average Joe. So I can see the picture clearly. You my friends should see the chart below, which I borrowed from Kitco and drew those ugly lines to show the ever higher highs and ever higher lows. And all the chartists out there and those who like bad mouthing gold and gold bugs who occasionally I admit do sound a bit irrational, save your rightful indignation over my rudimentary charting skills and better explain how the gold is in down trend.

The fact is gold represent real money, not paper currencies in the world where every developed country has more debt than assets. If you think Europe have problems with economies of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain known as PIGS, consider what California, Michigan and Florida trouble means for U.S. In such an environment, gold becomes the asset every one wants and needs. The 10 year chart below shows red Dow Jones Average relative to blue CBOE Gold Index, which is an equal-dollar weighted index composed of 10 companies involved primarily in gold mining and production, rebalanced after the close of business on expiration Friday on the March quarterly cycle. You can clearly see which investment real money have been going into. The Dow is flat over 10 years while CBOE is up nearly 500% in the same period of time. And if you compare the Dow Jones to the real thing, the Gold Price Index which I was too lazy to overlap with the Dow, the picture becomes even more obvious.

For those of you still looking for gold investment forecast and price predictions, understand that by some estimates which I find quite credible, the money supply rose by 70% in 2008 alone. Starting with Volcker and Greenspan in the 1980s and 90s, and continuing with Bernanke today, we have massive influx of money and increasing prices. And prices are going to skyrocket leading to inflation levels never seen before. The other major point is $1,000 USD resistance level that was successfully broken and rebroken in August / September, now serves as a support, and quite substantial.

China sold $34 billions worth of US government bonds in December, possibly showing it has lost confidence in American economic policy. All the talk that China and other major U.S. debt holders have no alternative to the dollar are simply full of it. The simple fact is that no one knows. While it is true that China needs U.S. consumer to spend buying it cheap stuff, the reality is that more and more Chinese themselves are quite capable of spending money and their number is growing. And even sillier mantra 'what else China is going to do with all the money' has no merit. China has been quite busy buying physical resources including energy and fertilizer, stakes in foreign companies that control their countries oil, natural gas, uranium, coal and metals as well as farm land and yes, the gold. We shall see who is to buy the remaining 190 tons of gold IMF is about to sell, but many are betting on Chinese to step in.

The Euro debacle is pushing dollar higher. The US Dollar Index Future sits today at 80.43. Yet gold is quite content with that. Being the best out of the worst currencies apparently is not that good. The geopolitical situation is also quite beneficial for my predictions. Much higher gold prices are in store if either, Iran announces tomorrow that it got the bomb, or we wake up to the news that Israel attacked it. So here you go, you got several things going for gold. None of them are actually good if you think of it, but even few would make gold investment a slam dunk, never mind all.

Here are two other real estate forecast related stories I wrote in 2007 and 2008, that have proved quite accurate,
Two years into the housing slump and still in a state of denial
The Real Estate, what lies ahead - 2007 and beyond

Then there are Discover Card fees and interest rates. With the Credit Card Act of 2009 finally kicking in, credit card issuers must use other ways to make money and who can blame them. The standard APR on Discover More Card is between 11.99% and 18.99%. Variable Cash Advance interest rate is cool 23.99%. Default rate on purchases ranges from 16.99% to 23.99%. On cash advance, however, default rate goes as high as 28.99%.

Enough of that unpleasant stuff, let's continue with Discover Card rewards. Discover More currently offers several reward choices. First and probably the most popular is 5% Cash Back Bonus which can be earned on travel, gas, groceries, restaurants and other categories that change by quarter. Here is the schedule,

Jan through Mar 2010 - Travel, capped at $800
Apr through Jun 2010 - Home and Fashion
Jul through Sep 2010 - Gas, Hotels and Movies
Oct through Dec 2010 - Restaurants and Fashion

Secondly, you can get anywhere from 5% to 20% back at shopdiscover.com. The site offers you to shop among 150+ online retailers including Best Buy, HP, Kohl's, Mattel, OfficeMax, Crate & Barrel and so on. You can find some good deals while earning your cash back Discover Card bonus.

Third, you can get up to 1% Cash Back bonus by just using your card. The amount is unlimited and you are getting automatic 1% back on everything you buy. This is one of the most popular Discover Card rewards

Fourth, you can redeem your rewards for gift cards or instant eCertificates from over 100 brand name Discover Partners.

So here we are, I have spent 40 minutes, describing most if not all the woes regarding Discover Card rewards, fees, interest rates, instead of showing you more on how to lower your taxes, explaining what needs to be done to increase credit score by 100 points or educating you about cheap cash advance loans / fees. That is not good, because we need to stay focused on the key things, but then again, once-in-a-while diversion will hopefully help us concentrate down the road.

More on Discover Card,
Debt settlement is successful but Discover keeps status on credit report
Zero percent interest Discover credit card pays for high interest mortgage

First this disclaimer. I have wanted to write about income taxes for a long time, but never had any to spare. Finally, after talking to a few friends, relatives and ex coworkers, I decided that I must find some. I have no formal accounting training, but as I mentioned in Knowledgeable accountant often means huge savings, I had prepared my own taxes for some 8 years. So I know few things and then some, but treat whatever I say with caution and always consult qualified tax professional. In layman terms, if IRS comes after you, do not blame it on me. Now, we will get to the point, I am starting How To Lower Your Taxes category.

Do you know that the amount we pay in taxes exceeds everything else we pay for? If you are looking to lower your expenses, the question how to lower your taxes should be on the very top of your list. Lowering taxes on its own will not make you rich as some people want you believe, but will definitely make your life much better. If you manage to wisely invest you savings, they may help you build wealth. The main thing is that you, together with millions of other tax payers, are likely grossly overpaying your taxes and do not even suspect it. Does not matter if you prepare taxes yourself, use CPA or go with a major tax/accounting firm. The few things you can learn here, will hopefully help you save thousands of dollars every year. Most importantly, it will likely make you feel good about yourself.

When it comes to tax reduction, there are many things that surprisingly too few tax payers are aware of. From incorporating yourself, to writing off your fun activities and vacations, to using car for tax deductions, to setting up the right type of corporation, to the little known and rarely used real estate deductions - most if not all will be covered in BCA How To Lower Your Taxes category.

That is my credit score which I can get from Alliant Credit Union on quarterly basis. As you can see I managed to increase credit score by 100 points ... almost. The actual number is 70 but this is not the main point. The main story here is to show you how utilization rate, which is the ratio between revolving balance and revolving credit limit, affects your credit scores. With all the rest of my personal credit staying for the most part the same, I have managed to increase my credit score quite significantly. Not by 100 points but still, considering that by simply paying down Capital One credit card and thus lowering utilization rate, I gained 70 points is quite remarkable. June to December is just 6 months.

Here I am going to provide actual numbers that correspond to the dates when I got my credit scores updated as seen on the image - June, September and December 2009. I also must note, that in March 2009, my Experian score was 715. At that point I had only mortgage, line of credit with $0 balance and just opened the Capital One Platinum MasterCard with $20,000 limit.

If you read my blog regularly, you know I have used those "no fees, 0% interest rate" credit card transfers. So I transferred $15,000 on this Platinum MasterCard in April. What happened next was pretty much exactly as described in Does balance transfer affect credit score? - Yes, it can hurt your credit score. Sorry for such a long name, but my utilization rate went from 0% to 75%, which is $15,000 I transferred divided by $20,000. I could care less at that point, because I was not looking for any type of a loan. But if you are or about to, you may have to scramble hard to increase credit score 100 points or so, and fail as long as your balance-to-credit-limit ratio is too high.

As you can see, in June 2009, my score was 685, down 30 points. I brought my balance to $14,000 so the utilization rate was 70%. Again everything else stayed the same. Then by September, I lowered balance to $12,000 bringing the rate to 60%. And the credit score increase was 46 points.

In December, my outstanding balance was only $6,000, which resulted in only 30% utilization rate, $6,000 divided by $20,000. The credit score stood at 755, another 24 point increase. By this point however, I had taken some money from my home equity line of credit (HELOC), going from utilization rate of 27% in October to 58% in November. So while decreasing the rate on my credit card, I was increasing it on HELOC. Interestingly enough, the combined utilization rate, including credit card and HELOC balances and credit limits, was equal to 52%.

It is very interesting to observe and share such a situation when you are fully aware of what has been going on. I am keeping my Capital MasterCard open with $0 balance, but I maxed out the HELOC. Thus I have 0% util. rate on the card, 100% util. rate on home equity line and 80% total utilization rate, since the credit limits are different. Something tells me, that my March 2010 credit score will be lower, and quite a bit so. I will try to keep you posted. Hopefully it was somewhat educational for those of you who are trying to increase credit score 100 points or whatever number you have in mind.

Offered by New Millennium Bank, the Black Diamond MasterCard Card is ideal for the United States resident with a valid social security number who wants to build credit. You must be of legal age in the state of your residence and have at least $300 for initial security deposit. This prepaid credit card guarantees approval regardless of your credit history. New Millennium Bank won't even check your credit but does report monthly to Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. You can deposit as much as $5,000 and your credit limit equals to the full amount of the deposit. Not only will you rebuild credit history, your security deposit can earn 6.0% interest for the first 3 months, then 2.0% interest for the next 9 months, giving you a 3.0% annual percentage yield (APY). Afterwards, your account earns 2.0% APY and these rates are subject to change. What's more you can get two prepaid credit cards which will give you two separate credit accounts reported monthly so you can rebuild credit faster.

The bad news come in the way of fees and current APRs. To obtain this card, you would have to pay upfront set up fee of $99.95, and there is also annual fee of $59. Black Diamond MasterCard Card also has 19.50% Annual Percentage and Default Rates. Late and Over the Limit fees are capped at reasonable $20 while cash advance fee is 2%. You can apply here.

The New Millennium Bank Platinum prepaid credit card has the same qualifying requirements, charges the same fees as Black Diamond MasterCard card, but offers quite a few additional benefits similar to regular credit cards including,
- emergency cash transfers
- free accident insurance of $150,000
- free auto rental insurance
- free extended warranty protection
You will be also eligible to redeem a Free Companion Airfare, which you can use to travel with a travel companion to most major US cities when purchased with one adult round trip airfare. The NMB entices you to get two credit cards right away, so with maximum $5,000 deposit for each, you will get two credit records on your report, two new lines of credit reported monthly to all three credit agencies and most importantly, you can charge both credit card for lesser amounts, thus holding your utilisation rate low which would speed up your self credit repair even faster. Excellent prepaid credit cards for those who have cash to spare and desire to build or rebuild credit history. Apply here.

This is Platinum Zero secured Visa credit card with very lucrative 0% APY on purchases. Yes, a no interest prepaid credit card that helps you rebuild credit as long as you pay on time. Issued by Applied Bank, it comes with annual fee of $119.40 paid in monthly installments of $9.95, and a fixed APR of 9.99%. Other key benefits include online account access, fraud protection and acceptance everywhere Visa is accepted. All you have to do is verify your age, residency and deposit anywhere fro $500 to $5,000 USD for a security deposit. No credit check, no income verification, no application fee. Cash advance fee is 5%, default APR is still the same 9.99%, late and over-the-limit fees are $35 each. Go here to get what is one of the best prepaid credit cards out there.

Prepaid credit cards from Orchard Bank are in demand by the people who want to rebuild credit histories. You can also get Platinum, Gold, or Classic card. The bank offers just one simple application form you must fill, then it reviews it and matches you with the credit card based upon your credit profile. Either one, not necessarily prepaid or secured card, will help you build or rebuild credit history. You can use Orchard cards everywhere MasterCard cards are accepted, make reservations and online purchases as well as track your always up-to-date account information online. What is more, you can set up alerts to receive emails or text messages several days before payment is due. The secured or prepaid credit card comes with a variable purchase APR of 7.9%, zero setup and processing fees, and an annual fee of $35 waived for your first year. Default APR is 29.49%, cash advance fee is 5%.

Issued by First PREMIER Bank, prepaid Centennial MasterCard or Visa credit card is accepted everywhere and is often is one of the last resorts for consumers with bad credit. You will get monthly reporting to TransUnion, Experian and Equifax, 24 x 7 account access by phone and have an opportunity to rebuild and your credit history, but at costs that are higher than those of other comparable prepaid credit cards. The fees are as follows,
- one time $95 processing fee
- one time $75 first year annual fee
- subsequent $75 annual fees billed monthly at $6.25
- late payment fees of $29 for balances up to $500.00, or $35.00 for balances greater than $500.00.
- $29 return item charge so think hard before buying

Cash Advance fee is waived cash advances taken in the first 12 months your credit card account is open. Afterwards, either $5.00 or 3% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is greater but no more than $10 maximum. Annual Percentage Rate for cash advances and purchases is 23.9%. You do have at least 25-day grace period after the close of each billing cycle. Apply here.

Will Obama confiscate your gold in 2010? In 1933, US government led by Franklin D. Roosevelt made private gold ownership illegal, so why not do it again. After all, you hear gold confiscation radio commercials everyday, something along the lines - Under current federal law, gold bullion can be confiscated by the federal government in times of national crisis. As collectibles, pre-1933 gold coins, rare coins and foreign coins do not fall within the provisions permitting confiscation, call us today at ... .

Gold coins that are exempt from confiscation? There is no such a thing as non confiscatable gold bullion, period. Government can confiscate anything it wants. Just like it confiscated GM and Chrysler together with dealerships. The pre 1933 gold coins that are supposedly exempt from confiscation are the exact coins that were confiscated in 1933. The coins sold today are the ones the public retained illegally, against Roosevelt decree, just like today many will undoubtedly keep their gold, if Obama decides to try his own little gold confiscation game.

The old U.S. gold coins most often promoted as the safest from confiscation, are the $20 1850-1907 Liberties and the $20 1907-1933 Saint Gaudens, also known as Double Eagles. While I personally do not care for Liberty coins, I consider Saint Gaudens a very beautiful coin, but not at the premium that is charged today. Regardless, every gold coin can be confiscated. Also keep in mind that between 1850 and 1907, U.S. mints turned out over 100 million $20 Liberties, and between 1908 and 1933, they made close to 65 million $20 Saint Gaudens. Certainly millions were hidden everywhere - from people backyards to European bank safe vaults. That hardly makes these coins rare or collectible.

The other two things you must know are, president Ford repealed the Executive Order that Roosevelt used to grab gold in 1933 because US Congress restored your right to own gold, and in 1977 Congress removed the president authority to regulate gold transactions during a period of national emergency other than war. We have been technically at war for about 9 years under Bush and Obama, so who knows and frankly, who cares. Buy freshly minted American Eagles and Canadian Maple Leaves, and stop fretting about gold confiscation. Just be prepared to hide them.

Q: I am afraid I just missed credit card payment by one day, may be two, on Capital One. Will that hurt my credit score? The due date was February 10th and I mailed it on the 8th, was on vacation. I called today and they have not received it. The customer rep was a total jerk, telling me that if you missed credit card payment even by day, they will charge $39 dollar late fee and my yearly interest rate will increase by 2.5% percent which should not bother me much because I pay my bill in full monthly. He also said that a missed credit card payment by even one day can hurt credit score. Is that true? I have been with Capital One for close to 3 years, never late. This rudeness and even slightest lack of understanding tick me off, I have $16,000 credit limit which I barely use, so should I just close this card? I have another credit card with Prudential.

A: Before you close it, check your disclosures - what is considered as missed or late payment. Do they have to receive the payment by due date, or the payment must be post marked by it. Chances are Capital One should have had your missed payment by due date, but check it nevertheless. It is highly unusual for a credit card issuer to be so unforgiven. First of all, any missed payment less than 30 day late does not hurt the credit score whatsoever as it is not reported to the credit bureaus. Capital One or any other lender/issuer can increase your rate and slap the late fee, but that is it. Call them and explain the situation. Chances are that rep simply had a bad day or is new on his job, or is a jerk. Regardless, if they insist, try to blame it on post office delay combined with your untimely vacation, point at your stellar history with them, etc. You only worry is to fight off late fee and rate increase, even though you are not worried about the latter.

You should try to keep this card open, precisely because it helps your credit score. You have high credit limit and pay off the little you charge on it, monthly. That means, the credit card utilization rate which is the ratio between the balance and the limit is very low. This helps your credit score quite a bit, especially if you keep that rate constantly low for a prolonged period of time. So closing this Capital One card will likely do more harm than keeping it open with a missed credit card payment that is late by a day or two.

If you are late on your payment by more than 15 days but less than 30, a late charge of 5% of the payment will be assessed if provided for in the mortgage note, and every mortgage note I have seen had such a provision. So if you make a late February mortgage payment of $1,000 on March 18, you will get a $50 late charge. Nothing shows on your credit report and your credit score does not suffer.

The 60 day late mortgage payment makes credit scores suffer further. You can expect 75 to 145 point drop. With ongoing foreclosure swamp, you may get a phone call from your lender to see if they can do anything to help with your mortgage, but chances are you won't.

The 90 day late mortgage payment is where your lender will likely initiate foreclosure proceedings by sending you a notice of default. Your credit score will get very bad, dropping by up to 185 points, but that will be the last thing on your mind. At this point you will have to decide what to do with your house.

One question that readers ask is what's worse - a late mortgage payment or a late credit card payment. In terms of lost points, a 30 day late on installment loan which mortgage is, normally affects you somewhat more than a 30 day late on revolving loan, which is what credit card is. Few years ago, when everyone tried to buy a house or refinance to get yet more cash out, being late on the mortgage was bad, while lenders would often close their eyes on a late credit card payment. The things have changed drastically however, and now it is a matter of survival for many. Today, with widespread mortgage delinquencies, short sales and foreclosures, you can live in your house for months and months with all the late mortgage payments you want, but a single late payment on a credit card may result in sky-high rate or even loss of it. Moreover, other credit card issuers can follow and raise rates or simply close your accounts. So if you depend heavily on credit cards to finance everyday basics and carry large balances, the last thing you want is to be late on a credit card payment.

Related posts,
Negotiate credit card settlement, how to settle credit card debt on your own and for less than you owe
Late payment letter of explanation sample
Remove late payments from credit report?

You can negotiate credit card settlement with literally any lender and settle for a lot less that you owe. Does not matter which bank or credit card issuer you are dealing with, Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, American Express or some no-name collection agency that drives you crazy - you need to engage them, negotiate and settle. Conduct debt negotiation on your own. If you get someone else involved as go-between, your credit card settlement will be more costly and you also end up paying high fees. It is very unlikely that any intermediary you hire would have your best interests in heart. First and foremost, they would worry about their cut. You may even get into much worst financial shape than before. So how to settle credit card debt on your own and for less than you owe? Debt negotiation and subsequent settlement require persistence and thick skin. Dealing with banks or card issuers like Bank of America or Capital One is generally a bit easier than with any collection agency, simply because the former behave in a more civil manner and do not use cheap threats and rude loud language. Still to negotiate credit card settlement with them will certainly require guts and determination.

If you are seriously struggling and/or could care less about your credit history and scores for quite sometime in a future, then you should probably stop paying and then try to settle for a lot less than you owe. If however, you still want to have some resemblance of the good credit after you are done and have money to pay some of your debt, it is prudent to call, state your hardship a offer a credit card settlement. You can always stop your payments later if being nice does not produce a desired outcome, and start more serious debt negotiation.

Know what to negotiate
Often, if only few certain things like late or over-the-limit fees, balance transfer fees, sky-high interest rates go away, you may just make it. Some issuers and banks will be more willing to negotiate those unpleasant items than others. Ask your credit card issuer if that is something they would do. Again American Express may be easier on late fees while Bank of America and Chase may lower your interest by one or two percentage points.

If your annual interest rate is higher than 12%, request a lower rate. Do it while you are still making payments on time. When you negotiating such a credit card settlement, always ask to lower your current rate by 5% or 6%. You may settle for 2% or 3% cut in the end. Always be ready to back up your request by a not so veiled threat of looming delinquency if bank does not want to negotiate or its counteroffer is not good enough. Yet be reasonable.

Settling credit card debt - dealing with threats
At some point, you will likely be threatened to be referred to a collection agency and even by a lawsuit, wage garnishment and all those nasty things that every US consumer has been having nightmares lately. You need to be calm and steady, and politely let your creditor know that frankly, if this is how they want to negotiate credit card settlement when you are seriously trying to do it in good faith, then you simply do not care. Tell them that Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is always an option and besides, filing a lawsuit against you is not worth their time and money.

Negotiate credit card settlement - making an offer
When making an initial debt settlement offer, you can be as unreasonable as you want. Again, if you have not missed a payment or missed just one or two and by no more than 30 days, you can try to set up an affordable payment plan. But if you miss several monthly payments and already have 60- or 90-day Lates on your credit report, offer them as little as 5 cents on a dollar. Basically set a ceiling you do not want to go over and stick to it. Chances are your credit card lender will accept it, eventually.

Should you offer to pay a lump sum settlement of, let say, 25% to 40% of the outstanding debt balance? I would rather have settle for some monthly payment plan and here are two reasons why. By offering to pay a lump sum, even substantially smaller than you owe, indicates that you have money. Depending on how much your offer is, the creditor may be tempted to go after your savings. If you offer a monthly payment plan, the danger of such a knee jerk reaction becomes much less. The second reason is quite simple, you may need your cash for something else.

Negotiate credit card settlement - a few odds and ends
Once you settle credit card debt on your own and for less than you owe, hopefully for a lot less, get everything in writing. When negotiating, do not rush into agreement if your credit history already is a mess. If you qualify, the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is still there, and while your are procrastinating, your credit cars debt gets older and harder to collect, and the creditors have more reasons to simply charge it off.

Before sending your lump payment by certified mail with return receipt, request a conditional debt satisfaction letter, stating that the entire credit card debt will be wiped out clean when the creditor gets whatever the sum you settle for. Such a letter will bullet prove any subsequent problems that may arise if you creditor decides to sell the remaining balance to a collection agency or a few. And know your state statutes, for both debt and judgement.

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Date {MM/DD/YYYY}

I received your letter notifying me on the 30-day late payment on the above account, dated by {MM/DD/YYYY}. I cosigned for Mr. XXXXX and I am perfectly aware of my responsibility and liability as a cosigner. However, I was not aware about this problem until receiving your letter and I am concerned that my credit report will reflect late payments and my scores will suffer.Alternative version. I have applied for a mortgage and discovered that the account in question has the 60-day late payment which negatively affects my credit scores. I was neither informed by you nor the person I cosigned for, which of course does not excuse my responsibility as cosigner.

I am willing to bring this account current and proactively monitor Mr. XXXXX making timely payments from now on. Moreover, I will take over the payments if necessary as my cosigner obligations require. In return, I am asking you to remove this 30-day late payment and refrain from referring others shall they occur before we come to the agreement.

Thank you
Your signature
Your printed name

So much for the late payment letter of explanation. As you can see from this sample, it is actually quite simple to write one in some cases, and if you or a someone you took liability for is guilty, the trick is to find a reason to plead for, and hope for a favourable response from the lender. Here are the links related to cosigning,
Cosigning Loan
Cosigning a loan - things to consider before cosigning
Cosigning a student loan - a sure way to ask for troubles!
Is cosigning car loan different from cosigning other loans?
Co signing a mortgage
Erasing or disputing cosigned student loan won't work

Q: I need to know how to remove two late payments from my credit report. Can you remove late payments to begin with? Or at least dispute them? I found a nice townhouse and applied for the mortgage, but Chase loan officer explained I have a 30 day late credit card payment from some 18 months ago and a very recent 60 day late on car loan that not even mine. I cosigned for my sister just over a year ago, she was paying fine, then she lost her job and now this. My TransUnion score is 611, Equifax is 637 and Experian is 629. I can put 20% down if I have to. Chase said they would do a loan, but the rate will be around 6.75%. I went to Bank of America and they quoted me 6.5%. If I only can remove these late payments.

A: You can only remove late payments from your credit report if you have some proof that they have made it there by mistake. In your case, you are stuck with them. You can try to dispute the 60 day late payment on your car loan and may be manage to remove it. Well, dispute actually is incorrect word. You can write a letter to the lender and explain the situation. Tell them that your sister did not inform you about it, and you learned about it only because you applied for the mortgage. Is the loan seriously past due? Of course, it is silly of me even to ask. You may even have another late payment coming. Offer them such a deal - you bring the loan up to date and basically take over the payments, and in return they remove late payments and change status to Paid As Agreed. I will try to post a letter that you can use soon enough. Judging by your current scores, your credit before these delinquencies was quite good, and that may help.

Why late payments have such strong influence on credit scores? Because FICO algorithm counts negative information such as late payments, bankruptcies, collections and judgments toward 35% of its scoring criteria and other non FICO algorithms consider those quite heavily as well. That is why so many for-profit counselors are out there trying to convince you to pay them in order to remove lates from your credit report. They, of course, know well enough that they just give you empty promises for some very real cash. The only thing that can successfully remove late payments is time. 7 years to be exact, from the month in which the late payment was due.