Protect your credit
As business owners, CEOs or CFOs, it is extremely vital to maintain a professional and protected credit profile while securing your assets.
The world of credit is vast and growing more than ever, so it is important to be aware of the growing fraud in the credit industry as well. During these times with a global pandemic among us, it is inevitable that hackers are taking advantage of both personal and business accounts as identity theft is up 300%.
To protect yourself and your credit history, it is highly recommended that a security freeze be placed with all three major credit bureaus as this preemptively blocks any fraudulent accounts from being opened in your name.
With a freeze, the only way for lenders to access your profile would be to manually unfreeze your account each time with a personalized pin provided to you by the bureaus- keep in mind this must be done individually with each bureau.
Beyond protecting your file, keeping a well sustained credit score and report is crucial. The best way to do this is by maintaining several credit lines, keeping $0 balance “sleeper” accounts open, minimizing all balances or if possible, paying them off in full each pay cycle.
Having only average credit throughout one’s lifetime can cost you up to $140,254, based on three major life expenses- credit card debt, mortgage costs and car loans. Factor in interest on student loans, auto insurance, or additional debt payments, and the cost of average credit could be much higher.
For your reference, the perfect credit profile should have a score above 740, a variety of accounts as well as 5 to 7 tradelines that have been open for 2 years or longer.
