No consumer is prevented from acquiring credit solely based on marital status. The Equal Opportunity Credit Act outlaws discrimination of all forms to provide consumers with equal access to credit resources. If you recently experienced a divorce, however, your credit score may be negatively impacted after you separate from your spouse.

Debt settlement, also known as debt arbitration, debt negotiation or credit settlement, is an approach to debt reduction in which the debtor and creditor agree on a reduced balance that will be regarded as payment in full.

If you find errors or inaccuracies in your credit history file, you will have to submit a dispute letter or request to each of the credit bureaus on which the mistake appears. In some cases you may be able to dispute the error with online forms, but in some cases you’ll have to submit a letter with your corroborating documents.

There are a lot of free credit score offerings out there, and many can be useful, but there are a few things consumers need to know when looking up their credit scores. Some scores are educational — meaning creditors do not use free credit score formulas for making lending decisions — but they can still inform you whether you have good or bad credit.

7.7% of Americans don’t have a bank account, but not everyone is checking-less by choice. If your ChexSystems score affects your ability to open a regular checking account, you still have a chance to put yourself on the road to financial security with a 2nd chance checking account. A second chance checking account is like a checking account for bad credit.