Sabrina’s Money Matters

Money saving tips that you can implement without leaving home, it’s really easy to save money in bigger things like insurance, and see the savings immediately. However seeing small savings add up over time is a little bit harder to imagine.

We all have a neighborhood bulk store in our community - start using it. If you go shopping and buy only the meat your family eats each month alone you’ll probably pay the membership fee off inside of two months or less in the sales taxes you’ll save by paying for a membership to be eligible for these savings. What would be even better is if your employer offers this option as some do, which may make the membership free for you, additionally if it’s a business membership instead of individual, evaluate the additional benefits to this membership and use them if you can.

I have a business membership to Sams’ Club through my employer who pays for it, with this membership I can even shop earlier than everyone else and I avoid extra purchases by avoiding the samples.

And for a tip I think we’ve all heard once - don’t go shopping hungry. Previously, I wrote here that shopping on a list is ideal, however couple shopping on a list with buying in bulk and you have the potential to save loads of money.

Another tip, unplug the electronics you’re not using when not at home, or even when you just aren’t using them, alternatively put them on a surge protector on a switch so you can shut down all that stuff when you leave the room with one simple switch. You can save up to $20 a month on your electric bill with this one step alone. Why? You ask, well think about it, how does the TV know to come on when you push a button on the remote? There’s still a little juice flowing in there!

These savings, we’ll average them at $50 a month, for both combined, at a rate of return at 4% in a savings account (this rate is what you can expect unless you have $5000 to put up from the word “Go”) at 4%, and let’s say you kick the fund off with that $1000 year end PTO Payout that you get, after adding $50 a month for five years you have $4535.94. You’ve made $535.94 off interest alone! As the balance gets bigger and bigger the money you make increases many times over. For example, if you continue this trend of $50 a month for 20 years, you’ll have $20561.31. After 20 years, you’ve made $7000 off your initial plan. After 25, you’ve more than doubled your money.

We all know that as we get older our financial situation gets easier so you could of course add more money to that monthly amount, or after your savings reaches a certain point, you could convert it to a bond, or a mutual fund, or a college savings 529 and start your plan over. But you DO have to start somewhere.

For those two tips alone, you’ve got a healthy start to a fat little nest egg.

Come back tomorrow for more!

This is another post from SMM’s very early days, before any of you guys found me, but I thought this would be helpful after the two previous articles posted, as credit repair is a sort of process if you will.

This is a handy little guide to help you through the process of disputing things on your Experian credit report online. Did you read my insider tip on Monday? This is a golden article for you today….read on:

To Dispute Online with Experian
You’ll need the report number from the paper report you recieved in the mail after following these steps.

Under the “Have a credit report with a report number?” heading in bold, there is a link that says click here to request a dispute online .There are four pieces of information you need to enter:

Your Report Number
Your State
Your Social Security Number
Your Zip Code
(If you’ve just moved within 60 days, enter you’re previous zip code just in case).

Then you’ll check the box that says have agreed to the terms and conditions.
Then check the box that says to certify you are disputing your own information.
Then check the option to understand the criminal mumbo jumbo.
Then click Submit.

Now, a few things you need to know before you finish, you can dispute anything that is inaccurate. ANYTHING. So if the spelling of your name is wrong, or your address on the file is off by a digit, or your phone number is wrong, even if your social security number is a digit off, dispute it. There are some things you may only be able to dispute by mail, but do it. It’s worth it - this controls your life, your credit is pulled when you apply for a job, satellite services, or a credit card, it’s all the same these days.

Next you’ll see a report summary.

You’ll be given a link to write down at the top of the page if you want to return to your credit report where you’ll then select “View Your Report” , for your convenience, all the links you’ll need for this are here.

This is the list of items in the summary of your credit report:

Potentially negative items. Next to that you’ll see “click here” for instructions on how to dispute potentially inaccurate information. (click for instructions)
Accounts in good standing.
Recent requests (inquiries) for your credit history.
Personal Information.
Important message from Experian.

Contact link.
Consumer rights link.

For our disputing purposes today click on: Potentially negative items

Find the particular item you would like to dispute and click on the heading.

You’ll get a summary of that particular file, and an orange button that says “Dispute this item”, click on that.
You’ll see the heading that says “I believe that this item is inaccurate because…”
and a drop down menu box with pre-chosen reasons or you can list a different reason

Options:

-Payment Never Late
-No knowledge of account
-Account Paid in Full
-Account Closed
-Unauthorized charges
-Belongs to ex-spouse
-Balance Incorrect
-Included in bankruptcy
-Belongs to primary account holder
-Corporate Account
-’Associated With’ Name Incorrect
-Other Reason
-Delete your Statement

Below the menu box is a dialogue box where you enter important details pertaining to your dispute. Once you’re finished with that you’ll click “submit your dispute”.

Click “Yes, Submit my dispute”.

Enter your email address if you want to be notified when the dispute is resolved.

Then click “Yes”.

You’ll be back to the page listing “Potentially Negative Items”.

What you disputed will have an exclamation point above it that states beside it “This item is currently being investigated”.

Then repeat as often as you need to if there are other things on your report you want to dispute.

Come back tomorrow for more!

Tips for reading your credit report:

1. Look for any misspellings / inaccuracies of your name, employer or address, past or present

2. Read your credit summary closely, it will tell you what you’ll see in the full report.*

3. Look through your Credit Inquiries, if you see anything you don’t recognize, you can dispute it.

4. Finally, read your Account History, you can also dispute any of this if you don’t recognize it, or if you see inaccuracies in the reported information.

*What you will see in your summary…:

~Real Estate Accounts
~Revolving Accounts (Credit Cards, Department Store Accounts, Equipment Accounts, Etc.)
~Installment Accounts (Loans, Vehicle Loans, Etc.)
~Other Accounts
~Collection Accounts
~Total Accounts

Experian
Trans Union
Equifax