If you knew nothing or very little about how credit worked....

[Anonymous]

what would you want to know?

I am teaching a class to Realtors in 2 weeks concerning their personal credit (because we are not experts in credit) that 'could' be useful in helping clients because if you know something doesn't sound right you can at least tell the clients to ask a different party.

TIA

Scarlet

[Anonymous]

Scarlet, I've said this before, but I honestly and sincerely believe that this forum should be required reading for anyone taking an economics course, whether it be high school or college.

To narrow it down a whole lot, the menu bar at top of page, should be the first series of things read. From "Credit Education", all the way through "Support".

Of course, you would want to get permission from the myFiCO Admins, before doing that.

Take a look at these 2 downloadable brochures. They are in PDF format.

http://www.myfico.com/Downloads/Brochures.aspx

I love reading the stuff in the "Support" section. And I refer daily to what hauling calls the "dreaded pie chart of death" in the Credit Education section.

Just my opinion.

[SanFranMatt]

I'm not sure if this necessarily answers your question, but one piece of information I wish I knew earlier in life is that it's good to have credit cards (if used wisely).

I've always been budget-conscious, and I was a Finance major in college, but as recently as last year I still didn't know that having open credit cards is beneficial to your credit.  A year ago I got a free copy of my credit report, and noticed that I had three open credit card accounts that I didn't use.  A discover card (don't remember applying), a Circuit City card (found a better deal on that bigscreen tv at costco), and a BOA credit card with my college on it (free t-shirt!).  I called up all three companies and had the cards cancelled, thinking that it was the right thing to do.  In a matter of 20 minutes, I lost $20K in available credit!  I had also cancelled a Mets credit card that was open in '99, while I was a sophomore in college.  Currently, my longest active credit card is from '03....I wish I still had that '99 card active!

I hear people mention how bad the scams are on campuses (sign up for a CC, get a free frisbee!!!), and they tell people not to fall into the trap.  I've learned lately that it would be wise to get that free frisbee though, so that you can establish credit at 18 instead of 22.  (of course, this assumes that people use it wisely....and that's the big issue).

[Boswd]

One of the bigger points to make out to Realtor's is I think they should make their clients aware of the difference between  The Fico scores and Fako scores.     I'm willilng to bet that the majority of people when they go to AnnualCreditreport.com and pay that little extra to view there scores that they have no idea that's not the score almost all lenders use.  

[Anonymous]

Excellent point Boswd. I totally agree

[SanFranMatt]

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Sylviatob wrote:

Take a look at these 2 downloadable brochures. They are in PDF format.

http://www.myfico.com/Downloads/Brochures.aspx

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Excellent!  I check the forums daily, but hadn't seen the brochures yet....this'll be great to show my GF to teach her about credit.

[jackg]

Lady_Scarlet,

I know you asked for 1 but I have 2 and I'll let you decide.

#1) My suggestion is to explain the "Big Picture" about the credit game, CRA's, CR's, FICO Scoring.

#2) Explain the purpose for credit scores, to raise FICO Scoring not to go out to BB and charge every piece of electronics you ever wanted.

Good luck with your program.

[smallfry]

Never pay late. Get a lot of credit and barely use it. Everything else will take care of itself.

[haulingthescoreup]

Explain how damaging it is to carry a large balance on cards, and how simply remedied util is. That would be one of the fastest and easiest ways for buyers to improve their scores, but I read all the time here how a buyer doesn't want to pay down/ off cards, because they want the $$$ for their down payment.

[SmartCookie]

One thing I would definitely want to know about would be the FICO tier ranges and how essentially 1 point could cost or save thousands of $$$.