Living Well with Bad Credit: Buy a House, Start a Business, and Even Take a VacationNo Matter How Low Your Credit Score
If bad credit has happened to you, there is something you can do about it Feeling broke and battered? We know the feeling—heck, everyone knows it. According to the Wall Street Journal, 110 million Americans have bad credit—almost 50% of the adult population. But we don’t have to be depressed or discouraged about it. There is life after bad credit. In fact, there’s even life during bad credit.
Living Well with Bad Credit is the right help at the right time. If you’re bravely soldierin
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Review by M. Lapus for Living Well with Bad Credit: Buy a House, Start a Business, and Even Take a VacationNo Matter How Low Your Credit Score
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Chris Balish and Geoff Williams have come up with a sympathetic, clear, and helpful guide to navigating everyday and large financial decisions. The book is geared towards people with low credit scores, but it also offers information helpful to all of us. The main causes of the disruption/destruction of solid credit history are “divorce, disaster, a serious medical condition, or getting laid off from a job.”
We know that the cost of bad credit is expensive, so Living Well With Bad Credit is especially helpful with its solid suggestions of ways to both save money and to be able to get hired, find decent housing, rent a car, start a business, go on a vacation (not a posh one!), and repair credit history.
The book is divided into these ten parts:
* Welcome to the Land of Bad Credit
* Banking with Bad Credit
* Getting a Good Job with Bad Credit
* Good Housing with Bad Credit
* Driving: Bad Credit in the Passenger Seat
* Starting a Business with Bad Credit
* Living with Bad Credit
* Avoiding Bad Credit Scams
* Bad Credit: Psychology 101
Each of the chapters are straightforward and helpful. Balish and Williams flag what to look out for in each of the categories and offer specific ways to manage with a low credit score.
In Banking with Bad Credit, the book briefly explains ChexSystems which computes and tracks everyone’s credit scores. Since 80% of banks in the country subscribe to ChexSystem and a low credit score or disastrous credit history can make it difficult to open a checking account with a major bank, Balish and Williams suggest looking into the bank’s Second Chance program which may be a way to open a bank account again. Balish and Williams describe the “unbanked” and the costs that are incurred through payday lenders, pawnshops, and check-cashing outlets. Balish and Williams also evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using Probity Financial Services, [...], and credit unions for their financial services.
In Housing with Bad Credit, Balish and Williams offer ways to find decent housing through unusual housing arrangements, selecting the landlords that might be more open to a tenant with bad credit, and different ways that someone with bad credit can negotiate a lease with a landlord. Balish and Williams also cover different ways to obtain a mortgage or purchase a home from finding lenders and credit unions that are sympathetic to lenders with a bad credit history to seller financing to “rent-to-own”, lease-purchase and lease-option ways to acquire a home.
Beyond the specific tips offered in the book, Balish and Williams share their own experiences to good effect. Williams explains how he found himself having to declare bankruptcy. As Williams describes the steps that he took as he drew deeper into debt, the mistakes that he made, and what he went through and how he started over, Living Well with Bad Credit becomes more than the usual personal finance book.
ISBN-10: c – Paperback $12.95
Publisher: Publisher: HCI (January 4, 2010), 192 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher and TLC Book Tours.
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Review by Zachary H. Bissonnette for Living Well with Bad Credit: Buy a House, Start a Business, and Even Take a VacationNo Matter How Low Your Credit Score
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The biggest problem with nearly all of the books about credit that are on the market is this: They’re all about how to improve your credit, as though that’s somehow the key to financial success.
Guess what?
It isn’t. Good credit is what gets people into debt trouble in the first place. The only good thing you can do with a high credit score is buy a house. Everything else — consumer goods, new cars, private student loans, boats, luxury vacations, etc. — is bad.
What Geoff Williams and Chris Balish show in this book that is actually quite groundbreaking is this: YOU DON’T NEED GOOD CREDIT TO HAVE A GOOD FINANCIAL LIFE! I would rather be rich than have good credit and, contrary to popular belief, the two are not really that related. Most people use a high credit score to destroy their financial lives, not improve them.
Major props to Chris Balish and Geoff Williams for putting together a book whose time has come.
Wake up, America! Your credit score is not some token of your moral value! Get over your credit score and live your life — and this is just the book you need to get started.
5 STARS.
Zac Bissonnette
AOL Money & Finance
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Review by readforfun for Living Well with Bad Credit: Buy a House, Start a Business, and Even Take a VacationNo Matter How Low Your Credit Score
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I really enjoyed this book. There were alot of things I did not know that I learned through this book. I’ve not really had a credit problem before until the market turned and I lost my job. It helped me to make a few decisions that were needed.
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Review by April Jenkins for Living Well with Bad Credit: Buy a House, Start a Business, and Even Take a VacationNo Matter How Low Your Credit Score
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I bought this book thinking I wanted to buy a house. This book really puts viewing your financial “life” as your life into perspective. I definitely have done many of the tips in this book (by default of having no other choice). They give great advice how to get around credit checks and how to handle having bad credit in different situations. Its written thoughtfully and with wit and humor. I would definitely recommend this book.
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Review by Midwest Book Review for Living Well with Bad Credit: Buy a House, Start a Business, and Even Take a VacationNo Matter How Low Your Credit Score
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A low credit rating isn’t the end of the world. “Living Well with bad Credit: Buy a House, Start a Business, and Even Take a Vacation No Matter How Low Your Credit Score” is a guide to overcoming the dilemma of a poor credit score. With plenty of tips and tricks for conquering one’s poor credit and still getting what you want and need done in spite of it, “Living Well with Bad Credit” is a strong pick for readers who have bad credit but still want to live life.
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:53 pm