By Chad Hagy
As a college student, getting your very first credit card can feel like you were given free money and now you can go out and buy anything you want. However, using a credit card at this stage in your life can mean the difference between buying your first home with ease, or renting an apartment for several years until your credit score is fixed. Pay off your balance at the end of each month when...
By Robin Hewitt
Each state, including Montana, offers unemployment benefits to recently displaced workers, and each has its own process for filing an unemployment claim. Nationally, it takes two to three weeks after you file a claim to receive your first unemployment check, so it's to your advantage to file as soon as possible. Collect the information needed. In Montana, the Unemployment Insurance Division...
By Tricia Goss
Transunion is one of the three American credit bureaus--along with Equifax and Experian--that collect information from lenders and other sources, and create a credit history on anyone who has any type of credit. One of the options provided by Transunion is to opt out of preapproved offers from credit card agencies and other creditors. Doing so can help protect your credit score, since each time a ...
By Christa Titus
The easiest way to pay off debt is to consolidate it into one affordable monthly payment. This means taking stock of all the creditors you owe. Car payments, personal and student loans, charge cards, medical bills, past-due accounts: All of these are part of your debt. Once you calculate how much you owe, you need to figure out the best way to turn them all into one lump sum or just a few monthly ...
By Amy Jorgensen
Credit scores are used to determine whether you will get approved for a car loan or can rent an apartment. While credit scores are nothing new to most of us, their history dates back only to 1989 when the scoring system was first developed. Credit scores may be relatively new but the basis for their calculations--the credit report--is several decades older. When retail stores were just small...