[buckettgirl]

Originally Posted by HappyHousewife

Has anyone even used an online service (Experian, Transunion, Equifax) to look at their credit score/credit report? Is it safe???? How much does it cost??

I have looked up my credit score online several times... It is the law that you are allowed 1 free credit report from each agency per year (but it costs like $5 to get your credit score). If you go to www.annualcreditreport.com, you can access your free report from each agency. This is not a website that tries to sell you something... as quoted from the website "This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion."

[buckettgirl]

Originally Posted by kateful

I respect Dave Ramsey's position on credit, to an extent. One needs to have a good credit score to get the best interest rate for a house, for example. I don't think it's reasonable to think you can pay cash for a home.

I know people who can pay cash for just about anything. Until they got a discover card, they didn't have a credit score and were unable to obtain credit when they wanted it for convenience because they'd never used credit for anything.

I think it's prudent to establish a strong credit history and to use credit cards if you have enough self control to charge only what you can afford to pay off at the end of the month and only what you would buy if you were using cash.

I don't necessarily agree with paying for a home with cash - but I am going to follow Dave Ramsey's advice about not getting a home mortgage for longer than 15 years, with no more than 25% of our income going to the house payment. Makes perfect sense to me.
Statistically, most people do not have any self control with credit cards. As a nation we are saving less and spending more (and spending beyond our means) than we ever have in history. I don't feel sorry for anyone with bad credit card stories to tell because they did it to themselves. I did it to myself and unfortunately did not find Dave Ramsey until after I filed bankruptcy. However, because of Dave Ramsey's common sense ideas, we have been able to get a substantial amount of money in savings and more than double our assests/net worth since my bankruptcy was discharged this summer.
My husband doesn't even have a credit score; and I have a bad credit score and yet we were still able to be approved for a home loan in 2005 (actually, my husband was approved, I wasn't on it because I wasn't employed)....which just simply making a house payment will improve one's credit score... so its not like getting credit is impossible.