Category: Personal Credit

How to Shop for A Business Loan Without Hurting Your Credit Scores

How to Shop for A Business Loan Without Hurting Your Credit Scores

A high credit score improves your chances of getting approved for a business loan, but credit inquiries during your loan shopping process could lower your scores – how does that work?! The situation sounds like a catch-22, but you can minimize the negative credit impact of your search with a few strategies. Understanding Inquiries Your credit score reflects multiple factors, such as your credit utilization, age, account diversity and ratio of revolving credit lines. Credit inquiries can impact your credit… Read More
The Huge Credit Mistake This Expert Says You Must Avoid

The Huge Credit Mistake This Expert Says You Must Avoid

Jeanne Kelly is the author of The 90 Day Credit Challenge. A credit coach and speaker, she became interested in credit after being turned down for a mortgage fifteen years ago. She has since become a recognized authority on credit, and her articles have appeared on numerous websites. We've asked her to share insights she's gleaned from her work with consumers across the country. Are there common misconceptions about rebuilding your credit that you often hear from readers and clients?… Read More
Podcast: Personal VS. Business Credit Scores

Podcast: Personal VS. Business Credit Scores

"SMBs need to take care of personal and business credit scores."   [Editor's note: This podcast originally aired on Lendio.com as part of their Business Fuel Podcast series.]  In this interview, Nav's Founder, Levi King, discusses: The difference between personal and business credit Why small business owners should pay attention to both How to make your business attractive to any lender   From the transcript: Patrick Wiscombe:  Well let’s bring in Levi King. He’s the founder and owner of Nav.… Read More
7 Credit Hacks To Raise Your FICO Score

7 Credit Hacks To Raise Your FICO Score

  Before you try any credit hacks with your personal credit score, you should understand the basics. In our post on How your FICO Score gets determined, we cover the basics for keeping your FICO scores healthy. Do those things first. For example, Payment History makes up 35% of your FICO scores. The best thing you can do for your FICO scores is to make sure you always pay on time. It won't happen overnight, but it is the single biggest… Read More
What Credit Score Does Your Lender Use?

What Credit Score Does Your Lender Use?

Did you know: As a small business owner, you can be judged by more than 7 different credit scores! So when applying for business credit or a loan, you probably won't know what score—or combination of scores—your lender uses. And ignoring any one of them could ruin your chances of getting approved. Credit errors can kill your app A few years ago, Nav’s founder and CEO, Levi King, experienced this problem first hand. “In 2005 I got mailed a generic… Read More
Pepperdine survey: Lenders see business borrowers’ credit quality decline, requiring more collateral

Pepperdine survey: Lenders see business borrowers’ credit quality decline, requiring more collateral

This morning our friends at The Coleman Report shared some stats out of the Pepperdine Private Capital Market Project report. It's a study of all major types of funding and contains survey data about what bankers have seen in lending trends. Among other things, one stat stands out for me: "Over the last 12 months, [lenders report] seeing decreased credit quality of borrowers applying for credit, with an increase in demand for business loans, leverage multiples and focus on collateral… Read More