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The DollarVisor Blog

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

400 guides (page 4)

HELOC With Bad Credit: Real 2026 Options Yes, but the door is narrow. Most banks want 680 and stop at 620. Credit unions and some online lenders go lower when you leave more… Read the guide → Renting After an Eviction: 7 Ways Back In Yes, you can rent again. An eviction filing can be reported for up to seven years under federal law, but only one of the ten biggest… Read the guide → Personal Loan After Bankruptcy: Real Options Yes. You can apply for a personal loan after bankruptcy the day your discharge is entered, and Chapter 13 filers can borrow mid-plan… Read the guide → Car Loan With No Credit: 6 Ways to Get One Yes, you can get a car loan with no credit. Six routes work: a credit union first-time buyer program, a captive lender's CPO program… Read the guide → Car Loan After Bankruptcy: What to Expect You can get a car loan after bankruptcy, and the chapter you filed decides how. Chapter 7 filers are free to apply the day the disch… Read the guide → Car Loan After Repossession: How to Qualify Yes, you can get a car loan after repossession, and no lender makes you wait a set number of years. What blocks approvals is the def… Read the guide → Mortgage With a Judgment: Can You Qualify? Yes, you can get a mortgage with a judgment against you, but only through two doors. FHA and VA let you keep the judgment open if yo… Read the guide → Mortgage With Student Loans: How Lenders Count Your student loan balance is not what blocks the loan. Underwriters count a monthly payment, and the five main programs calculate th… Read the guide → Can You Buy a House With a Charge-Off? Yes. Buying a house with a charge-off is allowed under every major loan program, and none of them force you to pay a non-medical cha… Read the guide → Mortgage After Debt Settlement: How to Qualify There is no waiting period for a mortgage after debt settlement when the debt you settled was a credit card, a personal loan, or a m… Read the guide → Mortgage After a Short Sale: The Wait Times A mortgage after short sale takes zero to four years. FHA can lend immediately if you were current on every payment for the 12 month… Read the guide → Mortgage After Bankruptcy: 2026 Waiting Rules A mortgage after bankruptcy takes two to four years, and which chapter you filed matters more than your score. FHA and VA say two ye… Read the guide → Mortgage After Foreclosure: Waiting Periods You can get a mortgage after foreclosure in two to seven years, depending on the loan program. FHA and USDA say three years, most VA… Read the guide → Does Closing a Bank Account Affect Credit? No, not if you close it clean. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion do not carry checking or savings accounts at all, so a closed accoun… Read the guide → Do Unpaid Tickets Affect Your Credit? No, not the ticket itself. Do unpaid tickets affect credit? A fine is owed to a city, not a lender, so there is no tradeline for Exp… Read the guide → Does an Overdraft Affect Your Credit? No, not the overdraft itself. Does overdraft affect credit? Going negative, paying the fee and fixing it costs you cash and nothing… Read the guide → Do Utility Bills Affect Credit? How to Use Them Mostly no, and that is the problem. Do utility bills affect credit? Paying on time does nothing by default, because most utility com… Read the guide → Does Divorce Affect Your Credit? What to Guard No. Does divorce affect your credit? Not the divorce itself. There is no marital-status field on a credit report and no bureau recor… Read the guide → Does Marriage Affect Your Credit Score? No. Does marriage affect credit? Not the score itself. Credit files stay separate for life, and no bureau records that you got marri… Read the guide → Does Financing a Car Build Credit? The Data Yes. Does financing a car build credit? It does, but slowly, and your score falls before it climbs. The gain comes almost entirely f… Read the guide → How Long Does a Repo Stay on Your Credit? Seven years, but not seven years from the day the car was towed. The clock starts at the date of first delinquency, meaning the firs… Read the guide → Does Debt Settlement Hurt Your Credit? Does debt settlement hurt your credit? Yes, and more than most people expect. But the settlement itself is the smallest part of it… Read the guide → Does Refinancing Hurt Your Credit? For How Long Does refinancing hurt your credit? A little, and not for long. The application is a hard inquiry, usually worth fewer than five poin… Read the guide → Does Being Denied Credit Hurt Your Score? No. Being denied credit does not hurt your score, because the denial is never written to your credit report and no scoring model can… Read the guide →