Finance Friday: The Importance of Paying Your Bills On-time

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Which bills are reported to the Credit Bureau?

When you take out a loan of any kind such as credit cards, personal bank loans, car loans, mortgage, home equity, salary advances, student loans, computer loans, etc they will show up on your credit report. Each are types of credit that were graciously extended to you. If you do not pay them on time it will negatively affect your credit because they will report your late payments to the 3 credit bureaus. The 3 Credit Bureaus are: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

So you want to make sure you pay these bills before they are due.

Which bills are generally not reported?

Other bills such as tuition, utility, phone, cable, etc. generally are not lines of credit so they are not reported, but if you fail to pay and they are sent to a collection agency your score will be penalized.

What’s the significance?

A person’s credit score can affect their entire life, where you live, work, go to school, and so on. FICA scores range from 300-850, the closer to 850 the better the person’s score and the better the interest rates the person will receive. A good score can potentially save a person thousands, if not, millions of dollars. Your credit score evaluates your credit history. The scores tells credit lenders whether or not it is risky to lend you money based on how often you have paid your bills and debtors in the past.