This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

In the midst of the 2008 widening financial crisis, your credit score is becoming more critical to your financial life than it's ever been. That's because lenders are suddenly making it tougher to get credit than ever before and even tougher to get the rates and terms you deserve. Now, MSNBC/L.A. Times personal finance journalist Liz Pulliam Weston has thoroughly updated her best-selling book on credit scores to cover all you need to know to maximize your score right now and save money in the process. This fully updated edition reveals the tough new realities of borrowing and credit scoring in post-crash America and shows why those realities aren't going to change any time soon. Weston rips away the mystery surrounding the industry's massive FICO 08 credit scoring overhaul, and tells you exactly how to use the new system to maximize your score. You'll find up-to-the-minute guidance on: fighting back against lenders who want to lower your limits or raise your rates...strategizing about the number of cards and the outstanding balances you should have now...bouncing back from bad credit and bankruptcy...choosing the right credit "solutions" and avoiding options that will only make things worse. Simply put, Your Credit Score, Revised and Updated Edition, offers a complete, up-to-the-minute action plan that you can't afford to be without.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 44 Ratings

Great Book for the Novice or Professional - 2009-10-15
Reviewer Rating:
I had worked in the credit area of a major US bank for many years and I had assumed there really wasn't anything I could learn from this book. I was pleasantly surprised when I was wrong. This is a great book with lots of little updates for the changed landscape in the credit industry. The book was very readable and well written which you don't always see for a topic that can sometimes be dry like credit scores. I highly recommend this book.

Helpful - 2009-09-24
Reviewer Rating:
A good guide on how to understand your credit score and what it all really means. It's helped me understand it all a bit better and made it less confusing!

Wish I Had This Book Years Ago - 2009-08-20
Reviewer Rating:
I occasionally monitor my credit score. But I wish I had this book years ago. It would have helped me through the bumps in the road when I was first establishing my credit. Before reading this book, my knowledge of how credit scores work was through those annoying website ads and commercials telling you what a "good" credit score is. The great thing about this book is it goes into detail and still remains accessible. It goes into depth of how your credit score is calculated, how to fix it, and how to improve it.

The chapters that I also found useful were on how to prevent identify theft and what to do if it were to happen to you. My social security number was stolen (Thanks to a "missing laptop" that was lost by college faculty), so this book provides useful contingency plans. With the millions of identities being stolen in the news, you can't afford not to read this book.

I'd also recommend this book for parents to buy for their kids leaving for college. It should be the owner's manual for credit cards and for those paying their own bills for the first time.

Great tips! - 2009-08-19
Reviewer Rating:
This was an excelent book on understanding and improving your credit score, especially in this economic climate we are facing today. It is full of useful information such as how a credit score is calculated, different kinds of bankrupcy and the effects on the credit score, where to see debt management counseling, and how to repair your credit. There are tons of useful tips, written in layman's terms and it is a small enough book that it is not intimidating.

Credit Scores Explained - 2009-08-07
Reviewer Rating:
I really wasn't sure what to expect from a book on the not-so-fascinating, but all-important credit score, I've really got to admit that You're Credit Score, by Liz Pulliam Weston has provided me with new information that will be very useful to me. In addition to explaining, in layman's terms, what credit scores are, as well as some of the mystery behind how they are derived, she also examines legitimate ways in which to enhance your existing scores and potential problems that need to be dealt with.

The one item that I noticed lacking from this book is how to deal with corrupt government agencies that fraudulently report innocent people as "being in arrears" on child support and the refusal of the credit bureaus to correct that false information. One such case in which the California Health and Human Services Agency, Greta Wallace (former Director of the California Department of Child Support Services) Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department, and Experian were successfully sued for illegally harming one of their innocent victims is well documented by the Federal Courts in Frank Mayer v. California Health and Human Services Agency. et al, (CASE #: 2:05-cv-04747-JFW-SS). This also raises another issue concerning Weston's choice of examples in which she uses a hypothetical case of a man who may, or may NOT, have been cheating on his wife and the processes by which deciding the truth is similar to how credit scores are calculated. To be honest, I found that example to be rather offensive as so many innocent men are subject to harm by fraudulent reports on the credit reports. Sadly, the Mayer case is not an isolated one: it's merely the first to have been successfully argued in Federal Courts about how credit ratings are used to damage innocent people.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a good source of information - I hope that any future editions might use better examples.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Business

Sub-Categories:
Business > Personal Finance