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.

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.

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.