#It hit me earlier that I can easily think of 7 major properties that have fallen into this pit and it's frustrating as fuck

[illegiblewords]

I think a lot of people have forgotten how storytelling works these days--especially corporations.

At the most basic level, all stories are about communicating ideas between people. You measure quality according to how effectively the story is able to communicate what it is aiming to communicate.

I would argue that there are three primary subcategories of storytelling in the world today. These are wish-fulfillment, empathy-based, and intellectual exercise. The categories are not synonymous with genre and there can be some bleed over between them. The reason for the existence of these categories is to organize what the primary purpose of the work is in terms of communication.

Wish-fulfillment involves having a protagonist who is left largely blank so that the audience can project themselves into the story and fulfill a fantasy. You measure effectiveness for this according to whether the fantasy is shared by a large number of people and whether the way the story is told successfully allows a large number of people to engage with that fantasy. Power fantasy, romance fantasy, and revenge fantasy are subtypes of this approach.

Empathy-based storytelling involves relating to the characters like they are other people and forming connections and opinions in ways that mirror the experiences we have as humans. Investment has to be built up across the cast. They (along with the world itself) need to come across as credible and immersive within their own internal logic. This is ostensibly the most common form of storytelling today.

Intellectual exercise involves pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of human thought, societal organization, art, etc. It isn't strictly about the emotional experience so much as exploring concepts and using the story as a vehicle to do that. Certain proposed utopias and dystopias would fall into this category, but so would things like 'The Burrow' by Franz Kafka where the point is to see whether it is possible to tell the story of a mind in isolation. Whether it's macro-characterization (societies) or individual, there's more philosophy involved about human nature.

Propaganda is an attempt to control the ideas of the audience and manipulate them into moral conformity. Everything within the narrative serves that purpose as its primary objective. You could argue that this shares commonality with works like Aesop's Fables where the moral is openly declared at the end. I would argue that part of the difference is that Aesop's Fables still remember to treat the characters like people, even when they are flawed. I do not consider propaganda's attempts to control audiences legitimate storytelling. The audience is expected to listen and obey, not to reflect or participate on their own terms. To exclude the audience from the communicative process as an equal participant and treat them as a blank receptacle instead is to fail fundamentally at the exchange necessary to storytelling imo.

If a corporation is primarily looking at stories as either propaganda or as a vehicle to make money, they are bound to self-sabotage. It's understandable that corporations will want to make money off of the stories they produce, and it's understandable that people will care about the subtext of their stories--but these absolutely cannot be the primary focus. You need to understand what the story you are telling aims to communicate in terms of the approaches mentioned and then you need to evaluate your techniques to determine whether they are in service to that or not.

If your story hinges on empathy, then building relationships and investment in the characters/world is invaluable. Familiarity is a plus and will create loyalty with your audience if you do it well. It is possible to introduce new elements, but that can be difficult and needs to co-exist with what is established in ways that elevate across the board. You do not throw away your established setting and cast like they're disposable in favor of something new and shiny. New and shiny does not guarantee quality or lasting investment. It can be very, very cheap.

If you repeatedly reissue #1 stories claiming they are new and accessible entry points only for them to fail at what they claim while crapping all over established elements/audiences, people will become jaded and stop falling for it. The trust in your brand will degrade and people will stop showing up. You will have an uphill battle to convince anyone what you are producing is worth their time, money, and attention.

If you are trying to switch into wish-fulfillment or intellectual exercise off of empathy within a franchise, 1) know you will risk alienating established fans in the pursuit of new ones 2) you better do a damn good job in the switch because if you don't no new people will show up either.

When stories are designed by corporations to make money as their main priority, they are told with a mentality of 'what shortcuts can we take/where can we put in less work and still make a profit'. It's a con. The first things the companies tend to drop are the most important aspects, these being effective narrative structure for the work in-question and rewarding established investment. If you can do something cheap and new while exploiting already built trust, they want to do that because it's easier than tracking and incorporating previous stories well. Corporations think they can get away with it by using existing audiences who they don't bother to sustain. It alienates those established audiences and likely won't be able to keep new people since (in trying to avoid work) there is less substance to build investment in. Frankly, companies would do better to make sure the story is airtight and spend less elsewhere if it comes to that. People will forgive iffy graphics if you use them effectively but a very pretty shit is still shit.

When propaganda is the main goal, people recognize what's happening. Trying to shame audiences for rejecting the propaganda will not change their minds and actively undermines the cause you are professing to advocate. You can't force people to agree with or like what you're saying. Sometimes you can persuade them but you need to do a really good job and they need to be open to it. If a person is going to a story because they want a story, whether it is wish-fulfillment or empathy-based or intellectual exercise, and they get preached at instead--that is going to create resentment. They did not receive what they came for and what you made a pretense of offering. If money is involved that makes it worse. It doesn't even matter if your audience agrees with your ideas at that point, you betrayed their good faith and what you did comes at the expense of what they came for. If they wanted wish-fulfillment they didn't get that, if they wanted to connect with characters like people you dehumanized the characters, if they wanted to explore ideas and possibilities you refused to touch some of them because it didn't serve your personal desire for control. Propaganda comes at the expense of humanity and story both.

The way storytelling gets taught these days often involves superficial, arbitrary rules and obeying authority figures rather than actually looking at how the process works mechanically. Preference cannot be a factor in measuring quality because preference shifts person to person and moment to moment. I've noticed that while a lot of companies are either pushing propaganda or trying to con audiences with popular franchises, there are others that seem to genuinely not know how things work on a structural level. This might mean character arcs, cast balancing, micro versus macro characterization, and in particular how to tell stories that don't hinge on novelty.

The romances media provides are all about the chase and end when 'will they or won't they' gets answered. The individual dynamics between the characters as people are completely overlooked. This makes the romance more generic while also ensuring there is nowhere to go narratively speaking because the components of the ship are dehumanized.

If you draw all of your value from 'will these characters successfully save the world' where victory is a foregone conclusion, not only will you be left scrambling for follow-ups once the world is saved--tension within the original story will be weaker than it otherwise might have been. It's a much better question to ask 'who will these characters become while faced with the challenge of saving the world, and if they reach ever-after--then what?' because the audience can't actually know those things without engaging. 'How will these characters shape each other as they grow?'

Familiarity is valuable in storytelling. Fanfic and fanart both know this. Original media needs to figure it out and stop trying to exploit the promise/investment of familiarity while cheating audiences out of the actual experience of familiarity.

[the-kiwi-is-not-a-pewee]

Every Single Grievance I have with Fable 3

I don’t hate Fable 3.

I swear I don’t, especially after a second playthrough that helped me get over the jarring change of mechanics from Fable 2. Heck, I don’t even think it’s a bad game. But I have a lot of problems with it.

Like, quite a few. And I did say I was never gonna stop ragging on it, so this list of grievances is the result. It’s not comprehensive, it’s going off of pure memory so YES I will get details wrong but this wasn’t made with perfect accuracy in mind.

It’s a lot of minor things and if anyone can explain why some of these things are like this, please tell me.

Enjoy my complaining.

1. Where the Fuck Am I?

Sanctuary map oh Sanctuary map, where the fuck am I???

I actually have a couple problems with the Sanctuary map, one of which being that it is a terrible map. Oh, it does decently well in places that don’t have many multi-level areas like Brightwall, but in places like Mistpeak? Where the terrain can range from very high to low? 

Navigating with the map is an absolute nightmare.

And I say this after trying to find the Mistpeak Demon Door using just the Sanctuary map. The result of that adventure was me looking up a YouTube video instead.

Nothing is where you think it is, areas are hard to pinpoint in relation to each other because you either can’t see them or there are other obstacles in the way. And the map doesn’t show you where YOU are so you have to either rely on the golden trail or do guesswork.

Not that the golden trail is reliable because the thing fizzles like a candle in the wind and it can’t lead you to locations that are not quests or fast-travel locations.

And... oh boy. Fast travel.

How the fuck does this game determine where you end up when you fast-travel to a location? Fast-travelling to Brightwall especially is a gamble, you either end up all the way outside the gates where you enter from Mistpeak Valley or you end up in the square. Why is it not always the square? Why can you end up outside the village? There’s nothing interesting there that would warrant it.

2. Dying in Slow-Motion

This isn’t about the hidden health bar. I’ll get to that later. This is about the gratuitous amount of slow-motion shots you get while fighting.

It’s... frankly a little absurd, like someone really REALLY liked that mechanic in Fable 2 and decided to crank it up to 11.

I get it, some nice slow-motion so we, the players, can appreciate the flourishes. But sometimes I don’t even hit anything so I’ve just wasted a few seconds watching my character miss, and sometimes if you’re swarmed you get a lovely slow-mo shot of your character about to get bodied.

It’s not as annoying as some other things, but I have to ask. Why??

3. Skill Tree Nuance

Fable 3 absolutely stripped any nuance of upgrading the Heroic disciplines. Fable and Fable 2 at least had you choose what ASPECT of each of the disciplines you wanted to level up, so you had to at least make a decision of what you valued most of each one. Was Accuracy more important to you because of the type of gun you were using or perhaps you liked shooting things more? Did you prefer a bigger health bar at this point in time over hitting harder? Did you want the greater power of Shock over the ability to hit more targets with Inferno? (These examples are all from Fable 2 because I’m not familiar enough with Fable to pull from that.)

In Fable 3 your hardest decision leveling up in skills is merely deciding if you like melee, shooting, or magic better. With a side of selecting what spells you want.

Nice.

And no, having the Guild Seals act as your experience and unlockables currency does not make the choice much more complex. You’re still choosing to upgrade the entire skill and not upgrade choice aspects of it.

4. Why is My Health Bar the Entire Screen

Listen. I meant it when I said I don’t hate Fable 3, and a big reason is because I can play around most of the stuff that is annoying or unfamiliar to me.

Except.

The.

Health.

Bar.

For those who don’t know, Fable 3 does not have a health bar. Or, rather, it does, but you, the player, are not privy to it. Instead, the entire screen turns gray and the edges turn red like it’s a fucking FPS shooter. Fable 3 is not an FPS shooter. Fable as a SERIES is not an FPS shooter.

It is not the type of game where you should have to guess EXACTLY how low your health is, because while the screen change gives you an approximation, it’s absolute garbage for making a quick estimate of how many hits you can take before you’re knocked out.

You also can’t even increase the health bar on the Road to Rule. At least, not as far as I’m aware because I CAN’T FUCKING SEE IT. Speaking of the Road to Rule...

5. Road to Rule is Not Terrible, But Half of it is Unnecessary

I get that the Road to Rule is supposed to be a replacement for the menu level-up systems in the other two games but the thing is, since leveling up was dumbed down the Road to Rule doesn’t have much going for it aside from being Theresa’s pocket dimension where she can talk to the Hero of Brightwall. But even then it’s unnecessary because, as seen in the last part of the game when she shows up for the last time, she can apparently stop time itself.

The thing is, half the shit in the Road Rule makes no sense to be locked behind progression. Sure, dyes maybe I can get (even though they’re superficial), but expression packs? I need to progress to even gain the ability to make friends with someone? I have to wait and shell out Guild Seals just to buy property?

Why? Because of the second half of the game? 

Wasn’t the point of that being the gold amount was set so ridiculously high you still have to put in time or job grinding so regardless you have to invest something? Being able to buy property earlier in the game isn’t going to impact it that much, which just makes it being barred in the Road to Rule very... unnecessary. Like the job level ups being in the Road to Rule instead of leveling up in the job itself and thus breaking any impression that your character was getting better at the task by doing it instead of just suddenly shooting up in skill.

6. Why is the Guild Seal so Fucking Huge and Logan’s “Enough!”

Nothing major here, just like... why is the guild seal so huge? It requires like 2 hands to pick up. Sparrow traveled with that thing for like, gods know how many years as well as the Heroes from ages past. Why is the damn thing so big, it’d be so inconvenient to carry.

Also in the cutscene where Walter confronts Logan and the Hero of Brightwall tries to stop him, there’s this moment where Walter tries to protest and Logan goes “Enough!”. But the thing is, he says it in the same tone you’d take if you were cutting someone off, and Walter stops speaking before Logan says it. It’s just a little awkward.

7. Side Cast

I really actually have only one issue with the side cast. Other than that, I think Fable 3 has a very well-developed side cast. Walter is really cool, Jasper is amusing, and Page and Ben are enjoyable and mark their personalities out starkly. I could go on, but you get the idea. I feel like I know these characters as people, much better than I do in Fable 2.

But the thing is, while that is true, some relationships are straight-up neglected. For example: any sort of dynamic between the Hero of Brightwall and Logan and the relationship between the Hero and their dog. Fable and Fable 2 at least gave their characters if not equal time, at least SOME time. The dog gets a few cute tidbits and honestly I didn’t expect a retread of the connection from Fable 2, but half the time I forget the dog is even there. The relationship between the dog and Hero does not impact anything unless you count Traitor’s Keep, but we’re not since it’s DLC. Nothing impactful is really connected to the dog.

Logan. Oh, Logan. You got did so dirty by this game. Fable 3 had the opportunity to do something with the player choosing to spare Logan, but it goes nowhere. It doesn’t offset your new money goal or increase it if you choose to execute Logan because of his soldiers leaving or staying depending on the choice, the Hero and Logan basically never talk in the second half of the game, heck, you don’t even see him again until he’s all “Imma just go” at the end. I’m not asking for a lot here, just something. I get that forcing your sibling to choose between the life of their childhood friend/lover and the lives of protesters will damage any semblance of a sibling bond they would have, but it would’ve been a wonderful opportunity to delve even deeper into why Logan made the choices he did and how they affected him. Does he feel remorse for what he did now that he’s off the throne? Would he do it all again? We’ll never know, because he vanishes off the face of Albion until the end where he says he’s leaving.

8. Some Plot Holes and Other Plot Issues

As much as I like Logan and believe he’s easily the most complex major antagonist the Fable series has had, uh... as much of the Fable community has pointed out, his secrecy makes no sense. At first I thought maybe he kept quiet because he thought no one would believe him when he said the Darkness was coming and Walter and the Hero of Brightwall only believed him because they experienced it for themselves. And that’d be a perfectly plausible explanation.

If the entirety of Aurora couldn’t back up his statement.

Seriously, it wouldn’t be just Logan’s word, he has the remnants of an entire nation to back him up. He already made a promise to Kalin and she’s been portrayed as a perfectly reasonable leader, I can’t see why she’d not help Logan convince Albion of the danger. It’d be in her best interests as well because it would increase the likelihood that Aurora would get aid from Albion.

Logan also doesn’t look great or even effective as a leader. Theresa tells you that he can’t defeat the darkness because... reasons, and I actually believe her. Because this guy has apparently been taking what was essentially the evil path to getting gold and only raised... 400,000 gold in 4 years. And you can piss that all away in one of your first choices as ruler. That’s like... really pathetic and unbelievable, because the evil choices are supposed to give more gold. That’s the whole reason why Logan decided heinous actions were okay in the first place! 400,000 gold doesn’t convince me of that!

Also, the second half of the game really suffers because of the Good/Bad duality choice system. It gives you little room for compromise. Why can’t I tell Samuel to wait one more fricken year before Brightwall Academy is reopened? Why does the orphanage have to be torn down to make room for a brothel, was there no other buildings or empty space?

See what I mean here?

9. Gamebreaking Glitch I Encountered And Am Still Salty About

Apparently, there’s a gamebreaking glitch in Fable 3 where you load the game up... and you never leave the loading screen. Yeah. That’s a thing. And I know, because I got it. The only way you can re-enter the game is by deleting your save file, because Fable 3 is so allergic to menus that you can’t even switch Heroes in the Sanctuary since that requires you to enter the game first. Yes, I am still salty about this.

10. This Is Just Here Because I Don’t Like The Number 9

Elise/Elliot don’t have a lot of emotional impact on me. You don’t really spend a lot of time with them like you do with Rose or even see them killed in front of you like with Rose OR Scarlet Robe. Like, you meet them in the garden then you get pulled away for a swordfighting tutorial lesson and then there’s a cutscene and you make a choice and they’re either dead or not. Aside from their unique presence in the kidnapped quest, they’re kinda just... there, especially if you choose to save them.

11. I Forgot This When I was Originally Writing the Post

Interacting with NPCs outside of the story-relevant ones in Fable 3 is... awkward. You are forced to interact with them one-on-one and do quests just to get them to like you. And I get the quest part, for it to force some personalized connection between the two of you, but the quests are all the same! Fetch this, deliver that, dig up this. You don’t even get to choose what expression you can do to them because the game only lets you see three options at a time.

Fable 2′s NPCs were not exactly deep and complex either, but they had personality! They had likes and dislikes and favorite places and shit. AND you could choose exactly what expression to do. Stores are not great either, the wares are so limited and unreliable its difficult to find anything specific.

Some Good Points About Fable 3 Because This was Too Much Negativity

Walter, as a final boss, is foreshadowed and built up much better than the Great Shard in Fable 2. While I do love the Perfect World section of Fable 2, it works better narratively than it does gameplay-wise. Lucien is built up to be Sparrow’s ultimate confrontation and he just... falls and dies after you suck the power out of him. Not exactly riveting.

The Hero of Brightwall follows the trend of having a semblance of personality and not being an entirely blank slate mouthpiece for the player. Fable’s Heroes have always been slightly more than just player avatars, to me at least. There are these little moments where they act like their own person. Like the Hero of Oakvale having a PTSD flashback of his village being burned down, or Hammer commenting on how quiet Sparrow is, or the Hero of Brightwall being a bit cheeky at times like giving Saker a playful punch before pulling him to his feet or saying “This is the last party I’m taking you to” (or something of the like) to Page at Reaver’s mansion. I dunno, it’s just this tiny detail I always liked about Fable.

THE FASHION IS SO MUCH BETTER IN FABLE 3. Gods I don’t know why I get so hung up on this but every dress and most of the shoes in Fable 2 look TERRIBLE. Fable 2 just doesn’t have a lot of appealing clothing options for me, thus why I dress mostly the same in a lot of my playthroughs of Fable 2. But Fable 3 has much nicer looking clothing. I only lament that I can’t snag something like Page’s masquerade dress, that thing was gorgeous.

I spent way too much time on this.

[kirkegaardmcdonough0-blog]

How My Apple Check out's Center Fee Tracking Spared My Lifestyle

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Perhaps it is actually considering that while I was actually participating in Life is actually Peculiar I kept thinking to on my own I might do better than this" - despite being no specialist myself - and that made me imagine being the individual that did it (a point that is actually certainly not entirely unthinkable, or definitely would not be if I possessed a bit from talent and any life incentive whatsoever). I will definitely be actually purchasing imagination lifestyle but for me the type of creature intercrossing might be actually better. I will definitely must observe for myself. Therefore, a lvl FIFTY hero with FIFTY cutters will certainly acquire the very same development fee as a 39 blades spec lvl 50 champ and also a 25 cutters lvl FIFTY warden, just as long as they are actually all utilizing the same style versus the exact same mob. 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Lifestyle is Strange is pretty great however this has one significant defect that saturates the whole incident and downgrades that off merely excellent" to uncomfortable to experience": the creating is actually inadequate. The side from the QODE Ultimate Pro by Property button has actually embedded magnets for propping it up in either of the 2 seeing positions. They state they'll likewise keep working to enhance the premium of Prisma designs as well as settlement-- alongside the biggie: sweating on their brand-new social platform-- proclaiming lots even more points to come there certainly.. Charlotte can easily execute get in touch with versions that simulate the bumping and also hard-stops from the object being actually shaken back into spot, although you can easily find in real life that the robot is actually unobstructed. Anxiety encircles your planet along with a dark cloud of haze that packs your lifestyle along with question and also anguish. In one more 2001 study, researchers talked to 74 adults regarding their life story. Our team are actually skewed to get in touch with bullshit on it, because there is actually no true evidence and a number of the items on there sound very far-fetched, but our team assume that their bullshit could be, if absolutely nothing else, motivated by a grain from honest truth. If the person was recharged they might at that point sound the alarm and let individuals understand to disentomb the grave- so certainly, a safety measure against being actually buried to life! As an example, I recognize that a person effectively recognized distributor to SOFC producers, NexTech, said today it has a developed a ceramic covering (MCO) that could be used with inexpensive steel interconnects that have been examined along with a service life from 40,000 hrs at 750Â ° C. Lifestyle is Strange is just about RPG like, in that as you explore you believe that you are actually stumbling across edge missions. I got the activity about half a day earlier compared to this hit the shop (thank you Gamevil!) and also it has actually just paralysed my life. Newcomers could locate bits and also items of the tale lovely, yet little from it is going to possess the same effect as this will for those which spent 7 seasons in Stars Cavity. It is actually crystal clear that Apple has discharged the final two variations of OS X along with severe rooting code concerns that visibly minimize electric battery life. The core aspect, however, is actually one can not in fact forecast (e.g. climate) or perhaps outcome (e.g. a summed up document) just about anything with complete certainty-- you are actually merely weighing encompassing details based upon prior expertises, in today and in relation to a facility, wishing that the sun has climbed considering that a ray of light could be found happening via the clouds. Presumptions: When you're clear about your targets, worths, as well as top priorities, you'll make decisions regarding job, parenting, community engagement, plus all other life domain names that are straightened with those market values, priorities, and also objectives. Strike Airfoil: Raptor Rising, $2.99 Listed below's a large complimentary update, in Cheerful Crescent Moon Games type. Knowing our attachment style is useful, since this could assist our team to realize ways our experts may be creating a compelling from our past. You need to stop enjoying individuals who are in extremely different life instances as well as life stages than you inform you that you're just not doing or even being enough. The 1962-63 version of The Jetsons was actually thus leaking along with Googie that you might suggest Hanna-Barbera didn't definitely overemphasize the style-- they stole that. http://lumeadefemei.info/ at its own most cartoonish as well as showy is actually just about beyond apology. As I discussed earlier, LifeProof has actually been actually experiencing unexpected growth.

[golfnomad]

Norcal in September, Day 4: The Final Push

After 63 holes on Monday, I was back at it again on Tuesday with another 63 holes. The real grueling part was knowing I still had a 7-hour-or-so drive home that night! I was hoping to hit the road a bit earlier than I did, but a special circumstance came up that caused an unexpected  3-hour detour. More on that later.

Not counting the final round I squeezed in, Tuesday was focused around the city of Roseville, which is just northeast of Sacramento. With all the courses in Roseville, Lincoln, Rocklin and then Auburn a bit further east, this is an area that is certainly loaded with golf. I’ve been doing pretty good in recent years to make a big dent in this part of the greater Sacramento region.

First, came the early morning round...

Morgan Creek Golf Club • Roseville, CA • 9/19/17

My friend and I had an early tee time and were aiming to be the first off at the crack of dawn—or maybe even a few minutes before there was enough light to see much. An older couple beat us to the first tee in the dark. The pro shop guy assured us that they were regulars who were super-fast. “Nobody ever catches them,” he says.

Those words only served as a challenge to us, as we pride ourselves on playing quickly and we had another tee time to get to across town. We let them go ahead and even gave a slight head-start as I wanted at least a tiny bit of daylight to work with for pictures. Admittedly, they were very quick players and they jumped out to a good lead. By the time we got to the back nine, however, we caught up to them and started to push. They relented and finally let us play through with a handful of holes left to go.

The rack price for a weekday morning round was $50, which seemed rather steep and was definitely overpriced for this course at the moment. I’ll talk about conditions in a bit, but they were fairly disappointing. It’s too bad because the course layout turned out to be one of my favorites on this entire trip.

Morgan Creek used to be a private club and it’s only in recent years that it went fully public. You can tell the economy and the drought definitely took a toll on this place, which is unfortunate.

Morgan Creek was designed by Kyle Phillips, who is a modern course architect who recently came to my attention when I played the famed California Golf Club of San Francisco a couple months back. He led the most recent renovation of that great course. And as I did more research I found that almost all of his United States projects were renovations at high-end clubs such as Wilshire, Del Paso, Incline Village and Menlo CC. Otherwise, the majority of his courses are overseas.

However, Morgan Creek is currently the only course in the U.S. that Phillips designed from the ground up. With that knowledge, I was certainly interested in playing it despite it being a course that really doesn’t garner a lot of attention. 

Well, I sure hope Mr. Phillips is able to develop more new courses in California and that his proposed Alameda Point project (which sounds like a brand new resort course in conjunction with a major renovation of the Chuck Corica complex in the East Bay) gets further off the ground. As a course layout, Morgan Creek is a gem.

With the fairway and rough conditions being less-than-desirable, we kind of had to use our imagination a bit to visualize what this course must have looked like in its heyday (and hopefully can look like again). Phillips apparently worked for Robert Trent Jones II Design and you can definitely sense some RTJ (Junior and Senior) influence along with maybe a little Dye thrown in. 

Morgan Creek plays through a nice natural area along a creek. There are plenty of old oak trees in play, so the setting has a good feel and there aren’t many houses infringing on the course despite it being in the middle of a gated residential community. There really aren’t any significant changes in elevation here, but a lot of earth was moved to shape the course. Most fairways are lined with different mounds, steps and shelves to create a visually interesting contour. The greens are mostly elevated and also surrounded by a lot of similar undulation and some deep bunkers to add some intimidation. Beyond the creek that can come into play on many holes, there are other large man-made water hazards to contend with throughout the course.

Some could argue the course has a bit of a “manufactured” look in places, which is often the knock against RTJ Jr. and Dye. I felt like it added a lot of character at Morgan Creek and only enhanced the nice natural setting. I don’t know if my pictures will really show these contours due the spotty conditions and also the lack of light for much of the front nine as we played so early.

To me, the highlight holes were 10, 11 and 18, which all have a similar vibe. The 10th is a solid par-5 with a water hazard running the length of the hole on the left. Just off the fairway to the left is a steep slope down to the water, so you’re quite lucky if you hit over there and the ball stays up. 

The 11th plays straight back along that same water hazard. It is a long and demanding par-4. The 18th is a very strong finisher that doglegs left around a water hazard. The par-3s that stick out are easily the 7th and 16th, which both play over water hazards and have well-protected greens.

As mentioned, the conditions left a lot to be desired and we also battled with maintenance on the greens throughout our round. The tee boxes were flat enough to get a tee in the ground, but the ground was firm and the grass was patchy at best on most blue tees. The fairways were patchy and inconsistent. There were some muddy wet spots, some really firm hardpan sections, some shaggy areas, and some thin spots. It looked decent from afar as you’ll see in pictures, but not so nice up close in most areas. The rough was more of the same, just any grass was longer. I will say the back nine was probably in slightly better shape than the front for whatever reason. They did have really nice soft bunker sand, so that was a highlight. 

The greens were pretty good as well, other than the amount of grass clippings left on top from the mower. We played around the guys with blowers clearing them off, so we only got a few holes that weren't covered with clippings. Otherwise, the greens were receptive and rolling well at medium/fast speeds, and I am sure they were much nicer for later players once the wet grass clippings were cleared off. 

I’m mixed on whether I should recommend Morgan Creek to my fellow traveling golfers. It is a design worth checking out. I don’t know if we just caught the course in a bad time of year or if it is on a consistent downward trajectory in terms of conditioning. I have to say almost everywhere else we played was in very nice shape, so that doesn’t bode well for Morgan Creek. 

Some pictures from Morgan Creek Golf Club (9/19/17):

Next, we had a little unfinished business to take care off across town...

Diamond Oaks Golf Course • Roseville, CA • 9/19/17

We had initially tried to play here in July, but got screwed by a “phantom” early morning tee time that we had booked but didn’t really exist. We had a Costco voucher for 2 players that we wanted to utilize. They were unable to get us out that morning and the guy in the pro shop was not the most pleasant character.

They were much nicer this time around and we moved up to an 8:58 tee time after finishing so quickly at Morgan Creek. It was fairly busy at Diamond Oaks, though. We just played as a twosome behind some other groups and really didn’t have anywhere to jump ahead. However, we had nobody pushing behind us either. So we would just take 15-20 minute breaks every couple holes, watch TV on our phones and then play 1-2 holes at a time without having to wait in between shots. The overall pace really wasn’t that bad as we finished in about 4 hours, 20 minutes.

Diamond Oaks is one of this area’s older municipal courses with a pretty traditional design by Ted Robinson. The layout turned out to be more interesting than I expected though. It has some slight changes in elevation and it uses the natural terrain pretty well with plenty of trees in play. 

My favorite holes were the 4th, 6th and 12th. The 4th is a nice short-ish par-4 set in the back corner of the property. It is a dogleg right with an uphill approach. The 6th is a fun par-5 that I wish I had more local knowledge of before playing as I royally screwed up my second shot over the ravine. Otherwise, it is a split fairway design that will make you think on each shot. 

The 12th is kind of the signature par-3 over water, which you might expect on a Robinson course. No waterfalls or wood planking, though.

Diamond Oaks was in solid condition. Again, for a course of this caliber, nothing much to complain about. The tee boxes were fine. The fairways and rough were a mix of bermuda and kikuyu (more kikuyu, though), but fairly well maintained with mostly good coverage. You just had to pay attention to the lies before swinging. The bunkers were on the thin side. I found them just adequate enough while my playing partner found them to be way too firm. As was the theme for this trip, the greens here were excellent. They were receptive and rolling smooth at medium/fast speeds. 

It’s easy to see why Diamond Oaks gets so much local play. It is a solid layout with above average conditioning for a muni, and good deals are very easy to find. It’s not a must-play for the traveling golfer visiting the Sacramento area, but it’s good enough to enjoy a regular round.

Some pictures from Diamond Oaks Golf Course (9/19/17):

What was supposed to be my final round for the trip was kind of the main reason for this particular visit to the Sacramento area...

Sierra View Country Club • Roseville, CA • 9/19/17

My friend has an NCGA membership and signed me up as a guest for this outing, which was supposed to be on Monday and the reason why we had the travel dates for this trip all locked in. However, there was a scheduling conflict and they had to cancel the outing somewhat last minute. Instead, the club just opened it up to all attendees to schedule individual tee times on other days. It was cool they did that rather than cancel it altogether.

It worked out well because it gave us a lot more flexibility. We loosely set up a 2:09 tee time. The registration price for guests was only $60 and it also included a free lunch. We had time to relax and eat in the clubhouse before heading to the first tee. 

It wasn’t super busy out, but there were enough people on the course to slow things down. And unfortunately, a lot of people jumped on the 10th tee ahead of us as we were making the turn. They were either people only playing the back nine or they had taken long breaks in between nines. After this, we had to get a little creative. We played 15-18 and then circled back to play 10-14. It was a good move and definitely saved us some time.

Sierra View is another somewhat older course that was originally designed by Jack Fleming, who is best known for his work on San Francisco’s municipal course collection. It definitely has a traditional vibe and a nice presentation.

The course is rather hilly, so the changes in elevation provide a lot of natural character in addition to the mature trees lining all the fairways. Many of the greens are elevated, but the complexes are fairly simply designed and the bunkering isn’t too intimidating. This layout is mostly about positioning yourself safely off the tee (don’t hit a tree or catch a side slope) and then you’ll have some decent scoring opportunities. 

The back nine is easily more memorable than the front, especially the closing stretch of 14-18. Otherwise, Sierra View has a really strong collection of par-3s. The 5th and 12 feature elevated tees hitting downhill to the greens. The 8th and 17th both find you hitting over water hazards with elevated tees and greens. We had quite a bit of wind on Tuesday afternoon, which made 8 and 17 especially play very long. I found myself using a driver on the 168-yard 17th, only to come up about 10 yards short after a solid shot! Mind you, a good drive for me is only 200-210 yards max these days, but that’s still a very stiff wind.

Conditions were very nice overall, and again we had fantastic greens that were receptive and rolling super smooth at medium-fast speeds. The fairways and rough were all nicely conditioned kikuyu (with the occasional bermuda patch here and there). The bunkers were excellent, as well. There wasn’t anything to knock about the conditions here.

The facilities are nice and relaxed, and the staff was great. We felt really welcomed and comfortable as outside guests on a normal day of play. The food was also quite good.

Sierra View isn’t one of Northern California’s more prominent private clubs, but it is well worth playing if you ever have a chance. It offers an old school, friendly club vibe with a very enjoyable classic course design.

Some pictures from Sierra View Country Club (9/19/17):

Now, Sierra View was supposed to be my last round for the day so I could hit the road back home and perhaps get home at a reasonable hour. However, something else came up that couldn’t be ignored, even though it was well out of the way...

Camino Heights Golf Course • Camino, CA • 9/19/17

I mentioned in my previous article that my friend and I split up on Monday afternoon because we had different local course collecting priorities. He went off to play Apple Mountain, which is my personal favorite in the Sacramento area and one that I hope to play again someday. However, there are still so many other courses I need to play, which is why I stayed in town and knocked out a few shorties instead.

Anyway, in planning for Apple Mountain, he wanted to knock out nearby Camino Heights if he was going to drive out that way. In calling around, he discovered that Camino Heights actually just closed. Northern California short courses have been dropping like flies in recent years, which is sad. Every time I plan a trip, I have to update my list and cross off a few more. It turns out that Camino Heights’ last official day in business was Sunday. What a bummer that we just barely missed it. Or did we?

Still, he stopped by there after finishing at Apple Mountain to see what it looked like. In talking with some residents of the community that he ran into, it turns out that the course did close. However, a couple other residents just bought it and have plans to reopen it in the future, perhaps as a private course just for the residents of Camino Heights. 

What made things interesting is that the flags were still out on the course and it was accessible for play. The little parking lot and pro shop were completely deserted, but some scorecards were out. Basically, they said it’s just a play-it-as-is-if-you-want situation while the course is essentially in limbo. 

He was able to play it that evening and I wasn’t going to be outdone. I had to make my way out there on Tuesday evening before heading home, even though it meant getting home after 3:00am instead of around midnight! The course was available to play, it was free and its future is very uncertain. It may or may not reopen and it may only be private when it does, so I had better play it while I for sure could.

Camino is about 45 minutes east of Sacramento on the way to South Lake Tahoe. I was able to take side streets down straight from Roseville, but it is brutal drive in rush hour traffic. It took me over an hour to get down there. I found the course and finished walking it just before dark.

Fortunately, Camino Heights is/was only a 9-hole course with a par of 31. It features four relatively short par-4s mixed with five par-3s of varying lengths. That made it playable with my time constraints. Unfortunately, this is a very hilly course with a sometimes confusing, tangled routing, so it was completely exhausting to walk, carry my full bag and play fast at the end of a grueling golf trip. I survived, though.

It’s actually a fun little course thanks to the changes in elevation and rural setting. I hope the new owners are able to recover and restore it as much as possible.

Otherwise, calling the conditions “as-is” is exactly that. The course just officially closed and you can tell they haven’t been putting in that much effort in its final weeks/months of business. The fairways are super shaggy, lumpy, patchy, etc. The greens are ugly. There was even one temporary green in play. 

The conditions were not good, and I didn’t expect them to be. It was at least moderately playable, which is all I could hope for in this situation. It was enough to say I officially played the course. I have the scorecard and pictures to prove it!

Some pictures from Camino Heights Golf Course (9/19/17):

[kennethherrerablog]

What is a Good Credit Score?

Most financial decisions you make can be summarized into a three-digit number.

That one number can cost, or save, you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your life.

Lenders not only decide whether to give you a loan based on this number, it also determines how good your interest rate is. Lower interest rates means you can pay off loans a lot faster.

When buying a home, this has a huge impact on how much you ultimately pay.

This critical number is called your credit score.

Improving it is one of the big wins of personal finance.

So what’s a good score anyway? And how do they work?

How Credit Scores Work

A credit score takes personal data and uses the information to determine a number ranging from 300 to 850. It’s a summary of how likely you are to pay your loans back. Credit reporting agencies use an algorithm to analyze all the information they have on you ad give you a credit score.

Credit scores are broken down into several levels:

Very Poor = 300-580

Fair = 580-670

Good = 670-740

Very Good = 740-800

Exceptional = 800 and above

Every time you make a payment, miss a payment, take out a new loan, or even have your credit report checked, that information gets added to your credit report. From there, your score gets calculated.

Credit scores tend to increase slowly over time. You’ll need a long history of flawless payments on several different types of loans in order to get an amazing score. That doesn’t happen overnight.

But your score can drop pretty quickly. All it takes is one missed payment and you’ll get hit. And a default on a loan is even worse, that will immediately tank your score and won’t get dropped from your credit report for years.

In college, I had to see a bunch of doctors for a herniated disk of mine. I was also moving around a lot at the time and one of the bills never made it to me. It went to collections and I paid it as soon as the collections agency got a hold of me. But it had already been added to my credit report and took 7 years for it to get dropped. My score took a huge hit during that period. Luckily I wasn’t trying to get a mortgage at the time.

Who Decides Your Credit Score

Your credit score is the result of an algorithm created by the Fair Isaac Corporation (now called FICO). While FICO is not the only credit scoring tool, it is the most popular. The exact math formula used to determine an individual’s credit score is kept under extreme secrecy.

What many people don’t realize is that FICO has multiple versions of your credit score which is why you might get two different results when applying for a store card verses a mortgage loan. Additionally, some lenders prefer to get your credit score from Vantage, Community Empower, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion.

Depending on who your lender uses to pull your score, it might be slightly different. The differences between the scores are trivial, it’s not worth spending time learning how they each work. You’ll use the same methods to improve them all.

Factors That Impact a Credit Score

Your credit score focused primarily on:

Payment history

Amount owed

Credit age

New credit

Type of credit used

Payment History

Your payment history makes up 35% of your total credit score. That means late payments or non-payment will have the largest impact on your credit score. This factor looks at whether you make your payments on time if you have any bankruptcies or accounts with a collection agency. And how long it’s been since you’ve had credit issues.

Amount owed

This factor makes up roughly 30% of your total credit score. The amount of money you owe is primarily concerned with the amount of money you owe debtors relative to your income and the amount of credit you have available. For example, if someone has a credit card with a $5,000 limit and they have a balance of $2,500, they’re total utilization score is 50%. Lenders like to see a total utilization score of less than 30%. Your credit utilization score includes all of your debt including credit cards, student loans, auto loans, home loans, and personal loans.

Credit Age

Your credit age makes up 15% of your credit score. This number just refers to how long you’ve had credit accounts open. The longer your credit history, the higher your score. This is why you’ll see advice to keep your oldest credit card open. That lengthens your credit age and improves your credit score a bit.

New Credit

This portion of your score looks at how many new lines of credit you’ve obtained in recent months as well as how many times you’ve applied for loans or lines of credit. This section makes up 10% of your credit score. The one time you want to worry about this is when you’re applying for a major loan like a mortgage. Don’t apply for any new credit cards or other loans in the months before you apply for the mortgage.

Type of Credit

Your mix of credit types comprises the last 10 percent of your credit score. A mix of credit types (revolving, installment, and open) looks better on your credit score than a focus on one type of loan. Revolving credit includes credit cards that have a balance limit. This just means that you have continuous access to the line of credit as you pay off your total owed. Installment debt refers to loans or lines of credit that have a single balance you pay off. Open debt refers to open lines of credit that you can access indefinitely.

FICO vs. VantageScore

The FICO credit score is the most popular choice for most lenders, but it’s not the only score that lenders can access.

Fair Isaac (now FICO) launched the FICO credit score in the 1980s. The design of this score was to help lenders identify potentially risky borrowers. FICO held the market on the credit scoring industry for more than 20 years. In March of 2006, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion worked together to launch VantageScore.

Both VantageScore and FICO provide the same service to lenders, but there are some differences between the two companies.

The biggest difference that consumers will notice is the credit score range and percentage that each component of the credit score considers. The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, as mentioned above. VantageScore 3.0  recently adopted the 300 to 850 credit score range, but earlier versions used a 500-990 range.

Another major difference that affects the ending credit score is the factors that the credit scoring company considers. As mentioned above, FICO looks at five major components: payment history, amount of debt, credit history age, type of credit and new credit.

VantageScore looks at six different categories: payment history, age and type of credit, percent of credit used, total debt, recent credit behavior, and available credit. It’s also important to note that VantageScore weighs payment history heavier (40%) than FICO. Recent credit behavior and inquiries only make up 5% of the total credit score for VantageScore compared to the 10% FICO factors.

Neither score is better and I wouldn’t stress these details. Getting a few types of loans and paying them off flawlessly over a long period of time is going to be the best way to improve both scores.

Why Credit Scores Matter

Credit scores are important for several reasons. While many people think the credit score only matters if you’re applying for a home loan or car loan, your score can actually affect other areas of your finances.

A few other common uses of your credit score:

Getting a cell phone

Renting an apartment

Purchasing insurance

Applying for a job

Opening a utility account

Getting an auto loan

Getting a home loan

Applying for public assistance

Not only does it determine if you get a loan in the first place, your credit score also affects how much you have to pay in interest.

If you have a higher credit score you can get better interest rates on loans and credit cards. You may also get better terms on your insurance and phone bill. Having a low credit score could result in a higher down payment for a rental property or utility account.

Credit scores impact you the most when you apply for a mortgage. If you don’t have a good score, you might not be able to get a mortgage at all. And a great credit score can get you a much lower interest rate. You’ll save tens of thousands of dollars easily.

When you start saving for a down payment for a home, also check your credit score and do anything you can to start improving it. It’s definitely worth the effort.

Improving Your Credit Score

Time is a major player when it comes to raising your credit score. It takes time for your current lenders to report payments to the credit bureaus, so your score may not change for weeks or even a few months after you’ve made significant changes.

A few things you can do to help improve your credit score include:

Get current on your payments

If you’re behind on credit card bills or loan payments, make it a priority to get your payments back on track. Make your payment on time, every month, for every bill. If all you can afford is the minimum payment, pay that every month. If you’re struggling with paying your bills, you can call your lenders and ask for a reduced payment plan or consider consolidating your debt into one payment.

On-time payments make the biggest impact on your credit score, so this should be a top priority if your goal is to increase your score.

Pay off debt

Reduce the amount of money you owe and your score will go up. If you have any bills in collections, pay them quickly and ask the collection agency to note that they were paid in full on your credit report.

Aim to keep the balances on your credit cards lower than 30% of the total available balance to reduce negative effects on your credit score. If you have an account with a good payment history you could ask your lender to increase your credit line. Since your amount of available credit will go up, your credit utilization could decrease, helping you add a few points to your score. To really optimize your score, call your credit card companies every 6 months and ask for a higher limit. Even if it’s small, it’ll add up over time giving you a really low credit utilization.

Don’t close old accounts

Keeping old accounts open (even those you don’t use) is more beneficial than closing them. When you close a credit card account you reduce your available credit (which raises your credit utilization score) and you reduce your average credit age.

Even if you want to close a few accounts to simplify your life, try to keep the oldest account open.

Limit credit applications

Don’t apply for new lines of credit unless you need them. When you apply for a lot of credit cards or loans, each lender checks your credit. Hard pulls (when a lender has your permission to pull your credit information) can ding your score by a few points.

Apply for new loans when you need them but definitely avoid applying for anything before a major loan like a mortgage or a car loan.

Apply for a credit boost

Some companies, like Experian, offer a credit boosting service. This service allows you to add a bank account so that you can report positive payment history on most bills (like utilities, rent, and phone bills) to your account. These on-time payments will help give your score a bump within days instead of weeks.

What is a Good Credit Score? is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

What is a Good Credit Score? published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

[samuelfields]

What is a Good Credit Score?

Most financial decisions you make can be summarized into a three-digit number.

That one number can cost, or save, you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your life.

Lenders not only decide whether to give you a loan based on this number, it also determines how good your interest rate is. Lower interest rates means you can pay off loans a lot faster.

When buying a home, this has a huge impact on how much you ultimately pay.

This critical number is called your credit score.

Improving it is one of the big wins of personal finance.

So what’s a good score anyway? And how do they work?

How Credit Scores Work

A credit score takes personal data and uses the information to determine a number ranging from 300 to 850. It’s a summary of how likely you are to pay your loans back. Credit reporting agencies use an algorithm to analyze all the information they have on you ad give you a credit score.

Credit scores are broken down into several levels:

Very Poor = 300-580

Fair = 580-670

Good = 670-740

Very Good = 740-800

Exceptional = 800 and above

Every time you make a payment, miss a payment, take out a new loan, or even have your credit report checked, that information gets added to your credit report. From there, your score gets calculated.

Credit scores tend to increase slowly over time. You’ll need a long history of flawless payments on several different types of loans in order to get an amazing score. That doesn’t happen overnight.

But your score can drop pretty quickly. All it takes is one missed payment and you’ll get hit. And a default on a loan is even worse, that will immediately tank your score and won’t get dropped from your credit report for years.

In college, I had to see a bunch of doctors for a herniated disk of mine. I was also moving around a lot at the time and one of the bills never made it to me. It went to collections and I paid it as soon as the collections agency got a hold of me. But it had already been added to my credit report and took 7 years for it to get dropped. My score took a huge hit during that period. Luckily I wasn’t trying to get a mortgage at the time.

Who Decides Your Credit Score

Your credit score is the result of an algorithm created by the Fair Isaac Corporation (now called FICO). While FICO is not the only credit scoring tool, it is the most popular. The exact math formula used to determine an individual’s credit score is kept under extreme secrecy.

What many people don’t realize is that FICO has multiple versions of your credit score which is why you might get two different results when applying for a store card verses a mortgage loan. Additionally, some lenders prefer to get your credit score from Vantage, Community Empower, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion.

Depending on who your lender uses to pull your score, it might be slightly different. The differences between the scores are trivial, it’s not worth spending time learning how they each work. You’ll use the same methods to improve them all.

Factors That Impact a Credit Score

Your credit score focused primarily on:

Payment history

Amount owed

Credit age

New credit

Type of credit used

Payment History

Your payment history makes up 35% of your total credit score. That means late payments or non-payment will have the largest impact on your credit score. This factor looks at whether you make your payments on time if you have any bankruptcies or accounts with a collection agency. And how long it’s been since you’ve had credit issues.

Amount owed

This factor makes up roughly 30% of your total credit score. The amount of money you owe is primarily concerned with the amount of money you owe debtors relative to your income and the amount of credit you have available. For example, if someone has a credit card with a $5,000 limit and they have a balance of $2,500, they’re total utilization score is 50%. Lenders like to see a total utilization score of less than 30%. Your credit utilization score includes all of your debt including credit cards, student loans, auto loans, home loans, and personal loans.

Credit Age

Your credit age makes up 15% of your credit score. This number just refers to how long you’ve had credit accounts open. The longer your credit history, the higher your score. This is why you’ll see advice to keep your oldest credit card open. That lengthens your credit age and improves your credit score a bit.

New Credit

This portion of your score looks at how many new lines of credit you’ve obtained in recent months as well as how many times you’ve applied for loans or lines of credit. This section makes up 10% of your credit score. The one time you want to worry about this is when you’re applying for a major loan like a mortgage. Don’t apply for any new credit cards or other loans in the months before you apply for the mortgage.

Type of Credit

Your mix of credit types comprises the last 10 percent of your credit score. A mix of credit types (revolving, installment, and open) looks better on your credit score than a focus on one type of loan. Revolving credit includes credit cards that have a balance limit. This just means that you have continuous access to the line of credit as you pay off your total owed. Installment debt refers to loans or lines of credit that have a single balance you pay off. Open debt refers to open lines of credit that you can access indefinitely.

FICO vs. VantageScore

The FICO credit score is the most popular choice for most lenders, but it’s not the only score that lenders can access.

Fair Isaac (now FICO) launched the FICO credit score in the 1980s. The design of this score was to help lenders identify potentially risky borrowers. FICO held the market on the credit scoring industry for more than 20 years. In March of 2006, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion worked together to launch VantageScore.

Both VantageScore and FICO provide the same service to lenders, but there are some differences between the two companies.

The biggest difference that consumers will notice is the credit score range and percentage that each component of the credit score considers. The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, as mentioned above. VantageScore 3.0  recently adopted the 300 to 850 credit score range, but earlier versions used a 500-990 range.

Another major difference that affects the ending credit score is the factors that the credit scoring company considers. As mentioned above, FICO looks at five major components: payment history, amount of debt, credit history age, type of credit and new credit.

VantageScore looks at six different categories: payment history, age and type of credit, percent of credit used, total debt, recent credit behavior, and available credit. It’s also important to note that VantageScore weighs payment history heavier (40%) than FICO. Recent credit behavior and inquiries only make up 5% of the total credit score for VantageScore compared to the 10% FICO factors.

Neither score is better and I wouldn’t stress these details. Getting a few types of loans and paying them off flawlessly over a long period of time is going to be the best way to improve both scores.

Why Credit Scores Matter

Credit scores are important for several reasons. While many people think the credit score only matters if you’re applying for a home loan or car loan, your score can actually affect other areas of your finances.

A few other common uses of your credit score:

Getting a cell phone

Renting an apartment

Purchasing insurance

Applying for a job

Opening a utility account

Getting an auto loan

Getting a home loan

Applying for public assistance

Not only does it determine if you get a loan in the first place, your credit score also affects how much you have to pay in interest.

If you have a higher credit score you can get better interest rates on loans and credit cards. You may also get better terms on your insurance and phone bill. Having a low credit score could result in a higher down payment for a rental property or utility account.

Credit scores impact you the most when you apply for a mortgage. If you don’t have a good score, you might not be able to get a mortgage at all. And a great credit score can get you a much lower interest rate. You’ll save tens of thousands of dollars easily.

When you start saving for a down payment for a home, also check your credit score and do anything you can to start improving it. It’s definitely worth the effort.

Improving Your Credit Score

Time is a major player when it comes to raising your credit score. It takes time for your current lenders to report payments to the credit bureaus, so your score may not change for weeks or even a few months after you’ve made significant changes.

A few things you can do to help improve your credit score include:

Get current on your payments

If you’re behind on credit card bills or loan payments, make it a priority to get your payments back on track. Make your payment on time, every month, for every bill. If all you can afford is the minimum payment, pay that every month. If you’re struggling with paying your bills, you can call your lenders and ask for a reduced payment plan or consider consolidating your debt into one payment.

On-time payments make the biggest impact on your credit score, so this should be a top priority if your goal is to increase your score.

Pay off debt

Reduce the amount of money you owe and your score will go up. If you have any bills in collections, pay them quickly and ask the collection agency to note that they were paid in full on your credit report.

Aim to keep the balances on your credit cards lower than 30% of the total available balance to reduce negative effects on your credit score. If you have an account with a good payment history you could ask your lender to increase your credit line. Since your amount of available credit will go up, your credit utilization could decrease, helping you add a few points to your score. To really optimize your score, call your credit card companies every 6 months and ask for a higher limit. Even if it’s small, it’ll add up over time giving you a really low credit utilization.

Don’t close old accounts

Keeping old accounts open (even those you don’t use) is more beneficial than closing them. When you close a credit card account you reduce your available credit (which raises your credit utilization score) and you reduce your average credit age.

Even if you want to close a few accounts to simplify your life, try to keep the oldest account open.

Limit credit applications

Don’t apply for new lines of credit unless you need them. When you apply for a lot of credit cards or loans, each lender checks your credit. Hard pulls (when a lender has your permission to pull your credit information) can ding your score by a few points.

Apply for new loans when you need them but definitely avoid applying for anything before a major loan like a mortgage or a car loan.

Apply for a credit boost

Some companies, like Experian, offer a credit boosting service. This service allows you to add a bank account so that you can report positive payment history on most bills (like utilities, rent, and phone bills) to your account. These on-time payments will help give your score a bump within days instead of weeks.

What is a Good Credit Score? is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-is-a-good-credit-score/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewdburton]

What is a Good Credit Score?

Most financial decisions you make can be summarized into a three-digit number.

That one number can cost, or save, you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your life.

Lenders not only decide whether to give you a loan based on this number, it also determines how good your interest rate is. Lower interest rates means you can pay off loans a lot faster.

When buying a home, this has a huge impact on how much you ultimately pay.

This critical number is called your credit score.

Improving it is one of the big wins of personal finance.

So what’s a good score anyway? And how do they work?

How Credit Scores Work

A credit score takes personal data and uses the information to determine a number ranging from 300 to 850. It’s a summary of how likely you are to pay your loans back. Credit reporting agencies use an algorithm to analyze all the information they have on you ad give you a credit score.

Credit scores are broken down into several levels:

Very Poor = 300-580

Fair = 580-670

Good = 670-740

Very Good = 740-800

Exceptional = 800 and above

Every time you make a payment, miss a payment, take out a new loan, or even have your credit report checked, that information gets added to your credit report. From there, your score gets calculated.

Credit scores tend to increase slowly over time. You’ll need a long history of flawless payments on several different types of loans in order to get an amazing score. That doesn’t happen overnight.

But your score can drop pretty quickly. All it takes is one missed payment and you’ll get hit. And a default on a loan is even worse, that will immediately tank your score and won’t get dropped from your credit report for years.

In college, I had to see a bunch of doctors for a herniated disk of mine. I was also moving around a lot at the time and one of the bills never made it to me. It went to collections and I paid it as soon as the collections agency got a hold of me. But it had already been added to my credit report and took 7 years for it to get dropped. My score took a huge hit during that period. Luckily I wasn’t trying to get a mortgage at the time.

Who Decides Your Credit Score

Your credit score is the result of an algorithm created by the Fair Isaac Corporation (now called FICO). While FICO is not the only credit scoring tool, it is the most popular. The exact math formula used to determine an individual’s credit score is kept under extreme secrecy.

What many people don’t realize is that FICO has multiple versions of your credit score which is why you might get two different results when applying for a store card verses a mortgage loan. Additionally, some lenders prefer to get your credit score from Vantage, Community Empower, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion.

Depending on who your lender uses to pull your score, it might be slightly different. The differences between the scores are trivial, it’s not worth spending time learning how they each work. You’ll use the same methods to improve them all.

Factors That Impact a Credit Score

Your credit score focused primarily on:

Payment history

Amount owed

Credit age

New credit

Type of credit used

Payment History

Your payment history makes up 35% of your total credit score. That means late payments or non-payment will have the largest impact on your credit score. This factor looks at whether you make your payments on time if you have any bankruptcies or accounts with a collection agency. And how long it’s been since you’ve had credit issues.

Amount owed

This factor makes up roughly 30% of your total credit score. The amount of money you owe is primarily concerned with the amount of money you owe debtors relative to your income and the amount of credit you have available. For example, if someone has a credit card with a $5,000 limit and they have a balance of $2,500, they’re total utilization score is 50%. Lenders like to see a total utilization score of less than 30%. Your credit utilization score includes all of your debt including credit cards, student loans, auto loans, home loans, and personal loans.

Credit Age

Your credit age makes up 15% of your credit score. This number just refers to how long you’ve had credit accounts open. The longer your credit history, the higher your score. This is why you’ll see advice to keep your oldest credit card open. That lengthens your credit age and improves your credit score a bit.

New Credit

This portion of your score looks at how many new lines of credit you’ve obtained in recent months as well as how many times you’ve applied for loans or lines of credit. This section makes up 10% of your credit score. The one time you want to worry about this is when you’re applying for a major loan like a mortgage. Don’t apply for any new credit cards or other loans in the months before you apply for the mortgage.

Type of Credit

Your mix of credit types comprises the last 10 percent of your credit score. A mix of credit types (revolving, installment, and open) looks better on your credit score than a focus on one type of loan. Revolving credit includes credit cards that have a balance limit. This just means that you have continuous access to the line of credit as you pay off your total owed. Installment debt refers to loans or lines of credit that have a single balance you pay off. Open debt refers to open lines of credit that you can access indefinitely.

FICO vs. VantageScore

The FICO credit score is the most popular choice for most lenders, but it’s not the only score that lenders can access.

Fair Isaac (now FICO) launched the FICO credit score in the 1980s. The design of this score was to help lenders identify potentially risky borrowers. FICO held the market on the credit scoring industry for more than 20 years. In March of 2006, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion worked together to launch VantageScore.

Both VantageScore and FICO provide the same service to lenders, but there are some differences between the two companies.

The biggest difference that consumers will notice is the credit score range and percentage that each component of the credit score considers. The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, as mentioned above. VantageScore 3.0  recently adopted the 300 to 850 credit score range, but earlier versions used a 500-990 range.

Another major difference that affects the ending credit score is the factors that the credit scoring company considers. As mentioned above, FICO looks at five major components: payment history, amount of debt, credit history age, type of credit and new credit.

VantageScore looks at six different categories: payment history, age and type of credit, percent of credit used, total debt, recent credit behavior, and available credit. It’s also important to note that VantageScore weighs payment history heavier (40%) than FICO. Recent credit behavior and inquiries only make up 5% of the total credit score for VantageScore compared to the 10% FICO factors.

Neither score is better and I wouldn’t stress these details. Getting a few types of loans and paying them off flawlessly over a long period of time is going to be the best way to improve both scores.

Why Credit Scores Matter

Credit scores are important for several reasons. While many people think the credit score only matters if you’re applying for a home loan or car loan, your score can actually affect other areas of your finances.

A few other common uses of your credit score:

Getting a cell phone

Renting an apartment

Purchasing insurance

Applying for a job

Opening a utility account

Getting an auto loan

Getting a home loan

Applying for public assistance

Not only does it determine if you get a loan in the first place, your credit score also affects how much you have to pay in interest.

If you have a higher credit score you can get better interest rates on loans and credit cards. You may also get better terms on your insurance and phone bill. Having a low credit score could result in a higher down payment for a rental property or utility account.

Credit scores impact you the most when you apply for a mortgage. If you don’t have a good score, you might not be able to get a mortgage at all. And a great credit score can get you a much lower interest rate. You’ll save tens of thousands of dollars easily.

When you start saving for a down payment for a home, also check your credit score and do anything you can to start improving it. It’s definitely worth the effort.

Improving Your Credit Score

Time is a major player when it comes to raising your credit score. It takes time for your current lenders to report payments to the credit bureaus, so your score may not change for weeks or even a few months after you’ve made significant changes.

A few things you can do to help improve your credit score include:

Get current on your payments

If you’re behind on credit card bills or loan payments, make it a priority to get your payments back on track. Make your payment on time, every month, for every bill. If all you can afford is the minimum payment, pay that every month. If you’re struggling with paying your bills, you can call your lenders and ask for a reduced payment plan or consider consolidating your debt into one payment.

On-time payments make the biggest impact on your credit score, so this should be a top priority if your goal is to increase your score.

Pay off debt

Reduce the amount of money you owe and your score will go up. If you have any bills in collections, pay them quickly and ask the collection agency to note that they were paid in full on your credit report.

Aim to keep the balances on your credit cards lower than 30% of the total available balance to reduce negative effects on your credit score. If you have an account with a good payment history you could ask your lender to increase your credit line. Since your amount of available credit will go up, your credit utilization could decrease, helping you add a few points to your score. To really optimize your score, call your credit card companies every 6 months and ask for a higher limit. Even if it’s small, it’ll add up over time giving you a really low credit utilization.

Don’t close old accounts

Keeping old accounts open (even those you don’t use) is more beneficial than closing them. When you close a credit card account you reduce your available credit (which raises your credit utilization score) and you reduce your average credit age.

Even if you want to close a few accounts to simplify your life, try to keep the oldest account open.

Limit credit applications

Don’t apply for new lines of credit unless you need them. When you apply for a lot of credit cards or loans, each lender checks your credit. Hard pulls (when a lender has your permission to pull your credit information) can ding your score by a few points.

Apply for new loans when you need them but definitely avoid applying for anything before a major loan like a mortgage or a car loan.

Apply for a credit boost

Some companies, like Experian, offer a credit boosting service. This service allows you to add a bank account so that you can report positive payment history on most bills (like utilities, rent, and phone bills) to your account. These on-time payments will help give your score a bump within days instead of weeks.

What is a Good Credit Score? is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-is-a-good-credit-score/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[paulckrueger]

What is a Good Credit Score?

Most financial decisions you make can be summarized into a three-digit number.

That one number can cost, or save, you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your life.

Lenders not only decide whether to give you a loan based on this number, it also determines how good your interest rate is. Lower interest rates means you can pay off loans a lot faster.

When buying a home, this has a huge impact on how much you ultimately pay.

This critical number is called your credit score.

Improving it is one of the big wins of personal finance.

So what’s a good score anyway? And how do they work?

How Credit Scores Work

A credit score takes personal data and uses the information to determine a number ranging from 300 to 850. It’s a summary of how likely you are to pay your loans back. Credit reporting agencies use an algorithm to analyze all the information they have on you ad give you a credit score.

Credit scores are broken down into several levels:

Very Poor = 300-580

Fair = 580-670

Good = 670-740

Very Good = 740-800

Exceptional = 800 and above

Every time you make a payment, miss a payment, take out a new loan, or even have your credit report checked, that information gets added to your credit report. From there, your score gets calculated.

Credit scores tend to increase slowly over time. You’ll need a long history of flawless payments on several different types of loans in order to get an amazing score. That doesn’t happen overnight.

But your score can drop pretty quickly. All it takes is one missed payment and you’ll get hit. And a default on a loan is even worse, that will immediately tank your score and won’t get dropped from your credit report for years.

In college, I had to see a bunch of doctors for a herniated disk of mine. I was also moving around a lot at the time and one of the bills never made it to me. It went to collections and I paid it as soon as the collections agency got a hold of me. But it had already been added to my credit report and took 7 years for it to get dropped. My score took a huge hit during that period. Luckily I wasn’t trying to get a mortgage at the time.

Who Decides Your Credit Score

Your credit score is the result of an algorithm created by the Fair Isaac Corporation (now called FICO). While FICO is not the only credit scoring tool, it is the most popular. The exact math formula used to determine an individual’s credit score is kept under extreme secrecy.

What many people don’t realize is that FICO has multiple versions of your credit score which is why you might get two different results when applying for a store card verses a mortgage loan. Additionally, some lenders prefer to get your credit score from Vantage, Community Empower, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion.

Depending on who your lender uses to pull your score, it might be slightly different. The differences between the scores are trivial, it’s not worth spending time learning how they each work. You’ll use the same methods to improve them all.

Factors That Impact a Credit Score

Your credit score focused primarily on:

Payment history

Amount owed

Credit age

New credit

Type of credit used

Payment History

Your payment history makes up 35% of your total credit score. That means late payments or non-payment will have the largest impact on your credit score. This factor looks at whether you make your payments on time if you have any bankruptcies or accounts with a collection agency. And how long it’s been since you’ve had credit issues.

Amount owed

This factor makes up roughly 30% of your total credit score. The amount of money you owe is primarily concerned with the amount of money you owe debtors relative to your income and the amount of credit you have available. For example, if someone has a credit card with a $5,000 limit and they have a balance of $2,500, they’re total utilization score is 50%. Lenders like to see a total utilization score of less than 30%. Your credit utilization score includes all of your debt including credit cards, student loans, auto loans, home loans, and personal loans.

Credit Age

Your credit age makes up 15% of your credit score. This number just refers to how long you’ve had credit accounts open. The longer your credit history, the higher your score. This is why you’ll see advice to keep your oldest credit card open. That lengthens your credit age and improves your credit score a bit.

New Credit

This portion of your score looks at how many new lines of credit you’ve obtained in recent months as well as how many times you’ve applied for loans or lines of credit. This section makes up 10% of your credit score. The one time you want to worry about this is when you’re applying for a major loan like a mortgage. Don’t apply for any new credit cards or other loans in the months before you apply for the mortgage.

Type of Credit

Your mix of credit types comprises the last 10 percent of your credit score. A mix of credit types (revolving, installment, and open) looks better on your credit score than a focus on one type of loan. Revolving credit includes credit cards that have a balance limit. This just means that you have continuous access to the line of credit as you pay off your total owed. Installment debt refers to loans or lines of credit that have a single balance you pay off. Open debt refers to open lines of credit that you can access indefinitely.

FICO vs. VantageScore

The FICO credit score is the most popular choice for most lenders, but it’s not the only score that lenders can access.

Fair Isaac (now FICO) launched the FICO credit score in the 1980s. The design of this score was to help lenders identify potentially risky borrowers. FICO held the market on the credit scoring industry for more than 20 years. In March of 2006, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion worked together to launch VantageScore.

Both VantageScore and FICO provide the same service to lenders, but there are some differences between the two companies.

The biggest difference that consumers will notice is the credit score range and percentage that each component of the credit score considers. The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, as mentioned above. VantageScore 3.0  recently adopted the 300 to 850 credit score range, but earlier versions used a 500-990 range.

Another major difference that affects the ending credit score is the factors that the credit scoring company considers. As mentioned above, FICO looks at five major components: payment history, amount of debt, credit history age, type of credit and new credit.

VantageScore looks at six different categories: payment history, age and type of credit, percent of credit used, total debt, recent credit behavior, and available credit. It’s also important to note that VantageScore weighs payment history heavier (40%) than FICO. Recent credit behavior and inquiries only make up 5% of the total credit score for VantageScore compared to the 10% FICO factors.

Neither score is better and I wouldn’t stress these details. Getting a few types of loans and paying them off flawlessly over a long period of time is going to be the best way to improve both scores.

Why Credit Scores Matter

Credit scores are important for several reasons. While many people think the credit score only matters if you’re applying for a home loan or car loan, your score can actually affect other areas of your finances.

A few other common uses of your credit score:

Getting a cell phone

Renting an apartment

Purchasing insurance

Applying for a job

Opening a utility account

Getting an auto loan

Getting a home loan

Applying for public assistance

Not only does it determine if you get a loan in the first place, your credit score also affects how much you have to pay in interest.

If you have a higher credit score you can get better interest rates on loans and credit cards. You may also get better terms on your insurance and phone bill. Having a low credit score could result in a higher down payment for a rental property or utility account.

Credit scores impact you the most when you apply for a mortgage. If you don’t have a good score, you might not be able to get a mortgage at all. And a great credit score can get you a much lower interest rate. You’ll save tens of thousands of dollars easily.

When you start saving for a down payment for a home, also check your credit score and do anything you can to start improving it. It’s definitely worth the effort.

Improving Your Credit Score

Time is a major player when it comes to raising your credit score. It takes time for your current lenders to report payments to the credit bureaus, so your score may not change for weeks or even a few months after you’ve made significant changes.

A few things you can do to help improve your credit score include:

Get current on your payments

If you’re behind on credit card bills or loan payments, make it a priority to get your payments back on track. Make your payment on time, every month, for every bill. If all you can afford is the minimum payment, pay that every month. If you’re struggling with paying your bills, you can call your lenders and ask for a reduced payment plan or consider consolidating your debt into one payment.

On-time payments make the biggest impact on your credit score, so this should be a top priority if your goal is to increase your score.

Pay off debt

Reduce the amount of money you owe and your score will go up. If you have any bills in collections, pay them quickly and ask the collection agency to note that they were paid in full on your credit report.

Aim to keep the balances on your credit cards lower than 30% of the total available balance to reduce negative effects on your credit score. If you have an account with a good payment history you could ask your lender to increase your credit line. Since your amount of available credit will go up, your credit utilization could decrease, helping you add a few points to your score. To really optimize your score, call your credit card companies every 6 months and ask for a higher limit. Even if it’s small, it’ll add up over time giving you a really low credit utilization.

Don’t close old accounts

Keeping old accounts open (even those you don’t use) is more beneficial than closing them. When you close a credit card account you reduce your available credit (which raises your credit utilization score) and you reduce your average credit age.

Even if you want to close a few accounts to simplify your life, try to keep the oldest account open.

Limit credit applications

Don’t apply for new lines of credit unless you need them. When you apply for a lot of credit cards or loans, each lender checks your credit. Hard pulls (when a lender has your permission to pull your credit information) can ding your score by a few points.

Apply for new loans when you need them but definitely avoid applying for anything before a major loan like a mortgage or a car loan.

Apply for a credit boost

Some companies, like Experian, offer a credit boosting service. This service allows you to add a bank account so that you can report positive payment history on most bills (like utilities, rent, and phone bills) to your account. These on-time payments will help give your score a bump within days instead of weeks.

What is a Good Credit Score? is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Surety Bond Brokers? Business https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-is-a-good-credit-score/

[mcjoelcain]

What is a Good Credit Score?

Most financial decisions you make can be summarized into a three-digit number.

That one number can cost, or save, you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your life.

Lenders not only decide whether to give you a loan based on this number, it also determines how good your interest rate is. Lower interest rates means you can pay off loans a lot faster.

When buying a home, this has a huge impact on how much you ultimately pay.

This critical number is called your credit score.

Improving it is one of the big wins of personal finance.

So what’s a good score anyway? And how do they work?

How Credit Scores Work

A credit score takes personal data and uses the information to determine a number ranging from 300 to 850. It’s a summary of how likely you are to pay your loans back. Credit reporting agencies use an algorithm to analyze all the information they have on you ad give you a credit score.

Credit scores are broken down into several levels:

Very Poor = 300-580

Fair = 580-670

Good = 670-740

Very Good = 740-800

Exceptional = 800 and above

Every time you make a payment, miss a payment, take out a new loan, or even have your credit report checked, that information gets added to your credit report. From there, your score gets calculated.

Credit scores tend to increase slowly over time. You’ll need a long history of flawless payments on several different types of loans in order to get an amazing score. That doesn’t happen overnight.

But your score can drop pretty quickly. All it takes is one missed payment and you’ll get hit. And a default on a loan is even worse, that will immediately tank your score and won’t get dropped from your credit report for years.

In college, I had to see a bunch of doctors for a herniated disk of mine. I was also moving around a lot at the time and one of the bills never made it to me. It went to collections and I paid it as soon as the collections agency got a hold of me. But it had already been added to my credit report and took 7 years for it to get dropped. My score took a huge hit during that period. Luckily I wasn’t trying to get a mortgage at the time.

Who Decides Your Credit Score

Your credit score is the result of an algorithm created by the Fair Isaac Corporation (now called FICO). While FICO is not the only credit scoring tool, it is the most popular. The exact math formula used to determine an individual’s credit score is kept under extreme secrecy.

What many people don’t realize is that FICO has multiple versions of your credit score which is why you might get two different results when applying for a store card verses a mortgage loan. Additionally, some lenders prefer to get your credit score from Vantage, Community Empower, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion.

Depending on who your lender uses to pull your score, it might be slightly different. The differences between the scores are trivial, it’s not worth spending time learning how they each work. You’ll use the same methods to improve them all.

Factors That Impact a Credit Score

Your credit score focused primarily on:

Payment history

Amount owed

Credit age

New credit

Type of credit used

Payment History

Your payment history makes up 35% of your total credit score. That means late payments or non-payment will have the largest impact on your credit score. This factor looks at whether you make your payments on time if you have any bankruptcies or accounts with a collection agency. And how long it’s been since you’ve had credit issues.

Amount owed

This factor makes up roughly 30% of your total credit score. The amount of money you owe is primarily concerned with the amount of money you owe debtors relative to your income and the amount of credit you have available. For example, if someone has a credit card with a $5,000 limit and they have a balance of $2,500, they’re total utilization score is 50%. Lenders like to see a total utilization score of less than 30%. Your credit utilization score includes all of your debt including credit cards, student loans, auto loans, home loans, and personal loans.

Credit Age

Your credit age makes up 15% of your credit score. This number just refers to how long you’ve had credit accounts open. The longer your credit history, the higher your score. This is why you’ll see advice to keep your oldest credit card open. That lengthens your credit age and improves your credit score a bit.

New Credit

This portion of your score looks at how many new lines of credit you’ve obtained in recent months as well as how many times you’ve applied for loans or lines of credit. This section makes up 10% of your credit score. The one time you want to worry about this is when you’re applying for a major loan like a mortgage. Don’t apply for any new credit cards or other loans in the months before you apply for the mortgage.

Type of Credit

Your mix of credit types comprises the last 10 percent of your credit score. A mix of credit types (revolving, installment, and open) looks better on your credit score than a focus on one type of loan. Revolving credit includes credit cards that have a balance limit. This just means that you have continuous access to the line of credit as you pay off your total owed. Installment debt refers to loans or lines of credit that have a single balance you pay off. Open debt refers to open lines of credit that you can access indefinitely.

FICO vs. VantageScore

The FICO credit score is the most popular choice for most lenders, but it’s not the only score that lenders can access.

Fair Isaac (now FICO) launched the FICO credit score in the 1980s. The design of this score was to help lenders identify potentially risky borrowers. FICO held the market on the credit scoring industry for more than 20 years. In March of 2006, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion worked together to launch VantageScore.

Both VantageScore and FICO provide the same service to lenders, but there are some differences between the two companies.

The biggest difference that consumers will notice is the credit score range and percentage that each component of the credit score considers. The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850, as mentioned above. VantageScore 3.0  recently adopted the 300 to 850 credit score range, but earlier versions used a 500-990 range.

Another major difference that affects the ending credit score is the factors that the credit scoring company considers. As mentioned above, FICO looks at five major components: payment history, amount of debt, credit history age, type of credit and new credit.

VantageScore looks at six different categories: payment history, age and type of credit, percent of credit used, total debt, recent credit behavior, and available credit. It’s also important to note that VantageScore weighs payment history heavier (40%) than FICO. Recent credit behavior and inquiries only make up 5% of the total credit score for VantageScore compared to the 10% FICO factors.

Neither score is better and I wouldn’t stress these details. Getting a few types of loans and paying them off flawlessly over a long period of time is going to be the best way to improve both scores.

Why Credit Scores Matter

Credit scores are important for several reasons. While many people think the credit score only matters if you’re applying for a home loan or car loan, your score can actually affect other areas of your finances.

A few other common uses of your credit score:

Getting a cell phone

Renting an apartment

Purchasing insurance

Applying for a job

Opening a utility account

Getting an auto loan

Getting a home loan

Applying for public assistance

Not only does it determine if you get a loan in the first place, your credit score also affects how much you have to pay in interest.

If you have a higher credit score you can get better interest rates on loans and credit cards. You may also get better terms on your insurance and phone bill. Having a low credit score could result in a higher down payment for a rental property or utility account.

Credit scores impact you the most when you apply for a mortgage. If you don’t have a good score, you might not be able to get a mortgage at all. And a great credit score can get you a much lower interest rate. You’ll save tens of thousands of dollars easily.

When you start saving for a down payment for a home, also check your credit score and do anything you can to start improving it. It’s definitely worth the effort.

Improving Your Credit Score

Time is a major player when it comes to raising your credit score. It takes time for your current lenders to report payments to the credit bureaus, so your score may not change for weeks or even a few months after you’ve made significant changes.

A few things you can do to help improve your credit score include:

Get current on your payments

If you’re behind on credit card bills or loan payments, make it a priority to get your payments back on track. Make your payment on time, every month, for every bill. If all you can afford is the minimum payment, pay that every month. If you’re struggling with paying your bills, you can call your lenders and ask for a reduced payment plan or consider consolidating your debt into one payment.

On-time payments make the biggest impact on your credit score, so this should be a top priority if your goal is to increase your score.

Pay off debt

Reduce the amount of money you owe and your score will go up. If you have any bills in collections, pay them quickly and ask the collection agency to note that they were paid in full on your credit report.

Aim to keep the balances on your credit cards lower than 30% of the total available balance to reduce negative effects on your credit score. If you have an account with a good payment history you could ask your lender to increase your credit line. Since your amount of available credit will go up, your credit utilization could decrease, helping you add a few points to your score. To really optimize your score, call your credit card companies every 6 months and ask for a higher limit. Even if it’s small, it’ll add up over time giving you a really low credit utilization.

Don’t close old accounts

Keeping old accounts open (even those you don’t use) is more beneficial than closing them. When you close a credit card account you reduce your available credit (which raises your credit utilization score) and you reduce your average credit age.

Even if you want to close a few accounts to simplify your life, try to keep the oldest account open.

Limit credit applications

Don’t apply for new lines of credit unless you need them. When you apply for a lot of credit cards or loans, each lender checks your credit. Hard pulls (when a lender has your permission to pull your credit information) can ding your score by a few points.

Apply for new loans when you need them but definitely avoid applying for anything before a major loan like a mortgage or a car loan.

Apply for a credit boost

Some companies, like Experian, offer a credit boosting service. This service allows you to add a bank account so that you can report positive payment history on most bills (like utilities, rent, and phone bills) to your account. These on-time payments will help give your score a bump within days instead of weeks.

What is a Good Credit Score? is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Money https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-is-a-good-credit-score/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[ianmkeenan]

Critical Sensi Star

Information about Critical Sensi Star:

Effects

Fragrance

Flavors

Adverse reactions

Medical

Growing

Flowering time

Cannabis is a booming industry. With that, it is not only that breeders keep developing new hybrids – there are also more of them nowadays. As such, the number of strains today is likely in the tens of thousands. Not all of them lasts in the marketplace though. Granted that some may be due to difficulty in producing seeds, most which have endured are the exceptional ones such as Critical Sensi Star.

This hybrid is an offspring of the Sensi Star. Considered to be among the legends, it unique brand of sedating body high has helped countless people find comfort. It has also won numerous major awards in prestigious cannabis competitions around the world.

In developing Critical Sensi Star, Delicious Seeds chose to use Critical Mass. Aptly named due to its vigorous production, its most notable trait is the weight of its buds. Being one of the heaviest, it can snap branches unless supported. Furthermore, it is also known for inspiring creativity and full body relaxation.

Both Sensi Star and Critical Mass are Indica-dominant hybrids. Hence, much of its effects are centered on the physical much more so than the mental.

Information about Critical Sensi Star:

ORIGIN Sensi Star and Critical Mass EFFECTS Relaxed – 10 Happy – 6 Sleepy – 5 Tingly – 4 Uplifted – 3 ADVERSE REACTIONS (NEGATIVE) Dry mouth – 10 Dizzy – 1 Dry Eyes – 1 Headache – 1 Paranoid – 1 FRAGRANCE Citrus, earthy, lemon, sour, sweet FLAVORS Citrus, grapefruit, honey, lemon, skunky, sweet, tangy MEDICAL Insomnia – 10 Stress – 8 Depression – 7 Pain – 7 Muscle spasms – 6 FLOWERING TIME INDOORS 7 to 8 weeks FLOWERING TIME OUTDOORS Mid-September THC CONTENT % 15% to 20% INDICA / SATIVA % 90%/10% INDOOR YIELD 17 ounces per square meter OUTDOOR YIELD 17 to 28 ounces or more per plant CLIMATE Warm climate GROWTH LEVEL Easy to grow

* 10 is the highest * 1 is the lowest

Effects

Critical Sensi Star is an excellent companion for late afternoon or evening relaxation. Even though it leans towards Indica, it retains enough of its Sativa heritage to deliver a stimulating mental high. Often, this is enough to take away any inhibitions and bring users into an upbeat mood.

TIP: Looking to buy Critical Sensi Star seeds? Check out this marijuana seed shop

After some time, a tingling sensation spreads over the body and soothes the muscles. As it intensifies, it leaves users feeling remarkably relaxed and on a spacey high.

Critical Sensi Star Effects – Image powered by Cannasos.com

Overall, Critical Sensi Star is a strain that promotes wellbeing and positivity. But, because of its potency, users must take into consideration the amount of ganja smoked. With its high THC content of 15% to 20%, it can be overwhelming and could easily knock out users. Not that it is a bad thing, though. In fact, it is one of its best medical use – to help people sleep.

Fragrance

Critical Sensi Star has an earthy zesty aroma reminiscent of Nepali incense. Often described as being citrus scented, it can sometimes smell like sweet lemon. However, typical of citric fragrances, this bud can be quite sour too.

Flavors

Upon inhale, Critical Sensi Star explodes into a myriad of different flavors. True to its scent, the strain has quite the citrus taste of lemon and grapefruit combined complemented by the sweet taste of honey and a hint of skunk. When exhaled, it leaves the mouth with a tangy aftertaste.

Adverse Reaction

With Critical Sensi Star, users often experience dry mouth and eyes. However, because these reactions are quite mild, most people just brush it off. At times, this bud may cause a small degree of dizziness or paranoia. But, this is only possible when users end up smoking too much.

Critical Sensi Star Adverse Reaction – Image powered by Seedfinder.eu

Medical

Critical Sensi Star is effective at uplifting the mood. Because of this, many people use it to de-stress. It can also provide comfort to those suffering from depression by promoting a sense of happiness.

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Besides the changes in behavior, this strain is also known to have physical medical benefits. For example, Critical Sensi Star has analgesic properties. As such, it can quickly relieve chronic body pains and muscle aches.

Critical Sensi Star Medical – Image powered by Cannabisowl.com

Besides the benefits mentioned, perhaps the best use of Critical Sensi Star for most people is to find quality sleep. A heavy-hitting Indica, this strain is very potent and can induce drowsiness. Often, it leaves people sleeping and waking up the next day feeling reinvigorated.

Growing

Critical Sensi Star is not a difficult grow. Being a sturdy plant, it is not as demanding of attention and care as some others. Thus, not only is it popular with experience growers but also beginners. Its appeal mostly is due to its effects. More than that, it is also because of its incredible yield. Like its parent strains, Critical Sensi produces a lot of resin. In fact, it does look swollen due to its resin-filled calyx.

Flowering Time

Indoors While cultivating Critical Sensi Star in a Screen of Green environment, growers should strive to keep track of the plant’s growth. To keep it short, top it early. After flowering for a period of 7 to 8 weeks, it can produce up to 17 ounces per square meter.

Outdoors Critical Sensi Star usually flowers by the second or third week of September, which is a little earlier than most Indica dominant plants. At harvest, growers can expect a yield of 17 to 28 ounces per plant.

Have you ever smoked or grown your own Critical Sensi Star? Please let me know what you think about this marijuana strain in the comments below.

Robert

The post Critical Sensi Star appeared first on I Love Growing Marijuana.

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