DollarVisor

Companies cannot pay for placement in our rankings. DollarVisor is funded by advertising, never by commissions on what we recommend.

DollarVisor blog

The DollarVisor Blog

Short guides that answer one money question at a time, across insurance, credit cards, loans and investing.

400 guides (page 13)

Loans Should You Use Savings to Pay Off Debt? Yes, use savings to pay off debt when the debt costs more than your cash earns, which is nearly always true of credit cards at 22.15… Read the guide → Loans 401(k) Loans: Rules, Costs and Risks A 401k loan carries the cheapest rate most borrowers can get (roughly 7.75% today) and the worst failure mode. Lose the job before i… Read the guide → Loans How to Deal With Medical Debt: 6 Real Options Work the options in order of how much they erase, not how easy they feel. Hospital financial assistance can zero the whole bill and… Read the guide → Loans Hardship Programs: How to Pause Your Payments A hardship program is a short deal with your lender to pause or shrink payments while your income recovers. Almost none of them stop… Read the guide → Loans What Is Debt-to-Income Ratio? How to Lower It Your debt to income ratio is your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income. Lenders read it as a payment test, not… Read the guide → Loans HELOC for Debt Consolidation: Smart or Risky? On $30,000 of card debt, a HELOC for debt consolidation saves about $20,300 in interest against paying the cards down. That is the r… Read the guide → Loans Balance Transfer vs Personal Loan for Debt Payoff On $8,000 of card debt, the balance transfer vs personal loan matchup goes to the transfer on price almost every time. A 3% fee cost… Read the guide → Loans Debt Consolidation vs Settlement: Key Differences Debt consolidation vs debt settlement comes down to one question: can you afford the new payment? Consolidating $30,000 of card debt… Read the guide → Loans Debt Settlement: How It Works and What It Costs Debt settlement means paying a lump sum to close a debt for less than the balance. A company can charge you nothing until it settles… Read the guide → Loans What Is a Debt Management Plan and Does It Work? A debt management plan is a 3-to-5-year repayment schedule run by a nonprofit credit counseling agency. Your creditors cut the inter… Read the guide → Loans How to Pay Off $10K in Debt: A 12-Month Plan To pay off $10K in debt in 12 months you need about $937 a month, not the $833 nearly every guide quotes. At the Federal Reserve's 2… Read the guide → Loans Debt Snowball vs Avalanche: Which Pays Off Faster? In the debt snowball vs avalanche matchup, the avalanche pays off debt faster on paper. On a modeled $18,500 stack at a $600 monthly… Read the guide → Credit Cards How to Check Your Credit Score for Free You can check credit score free from at least four places that never ask for a card number: myFICO's free tier, Amex MyCredit Guide… Read the guide → Credit Cards Credit Score for an Apartment: What Landlords Want Most large apartment managers set their cutoff between 620 and 650, and competitive city markets sit closer to 700. But the last nat… Read the guide → Credit Cards Credit Score Needed for a Car Loan in 2026 There is no minimum credit score for a car loan. Dealers finance scores in the 400s every day. What your score decides is the rate… Read the guide → Credit Cards What Credit Score Do You Need to Buy a House? The practical floor is 580 with an FHA loan and about 620 with most conventional lenders. The number that actually saves you money i… Read the guide → Credit Cards Medical Debt on Your Credit Report: 2026 Rules Yes, medical debt can still appear on your credit report in 2026. The federal rule that would have banned it was thrown out in July… Read the guide → Credit Cards Does Cosigning Hurt Your Credit? The Real Risks Signing does not lower your score on its own. You lose a few points to the credit check and the new account, and you gain points if… Read the guide → Credit Cards What Is Credit Monitoring and Do You Need It? Credit monitoring watches your credit file and texts or emails you when something on it changes. It does not stop fraud, and it miss… Read the guide → Credit Cards How to Get a Free Credit Report (Really Free) There is one site the law actually authorizes: AnnualCreditReport.com. It gives you a free credit report from Equifax, Experian and… Read the guide → Credit Cards How to Read Your Credit Report (Line by Line) Every credit report has the same five sections: personal information, accounts, public records, collections, and inquiries. Read the… Read the guide → Credit Cards What Is a CPN? The Credit Privacy Number Scam A CPN is a nine-digit number sold as a private stand-in for your Social Security number. It is almost always a real SSN stolen from… Read the guide → Credit Cards What to Do After Identity Theft: 7 Credit Steps Call the companies where the fraud happened, freeze all three bureaus, add a fraud alert, then file your FTC identity theft report a… Read the guide → Credit Cards How to Freeze Your Credit (And When You Should) Freezing your credit is free at all three bureaus and takes about 15 minutes online. It blocks new accounts opened in your name. It… Read the guide →