Thursday, February 25, 2010

How Healthy is your Debt Management?

Take FINANCIAL IQ TEST: How Healthy is your Debt Management? at WiseBread.

Find mine answers below.

Knowledge / Awareness
I know how much I owe and to whom, and what each interest rate is. - Yes

I understand the difference between secured and unsecured debt. - Yes

I understand the difference between good debt and bad debt. - Yes

If my mortgage interest rate increased, I could easily handle the increase in payments. - Yes

I never get payday loans. - Yes

I know the difference between a line of credit, credit card, and fixed loan. - Yes

Credit Cards - I don't have one so I'll mark all as Yes. :)
I don’t charge anything new to my credit card if there is a balance outstanding. - Yes

I never use my credit card for cash advances. - Yes

I understand the consequences of making only minimum payments on credit card debt. - Yes

I will use one credit card to pay off another only if it is a 0% interest balance transfer deal and I can pay it off in full before the rates increase. - Yes

I never carry a balance on department store credit cards if there are interest charges or fees. - Yes

Transactions - Here I am replacing use of credit card with debit cards to answer.
I negotiate interest rates and/or annual fees with credit card companies, mortgage issuers, and other lenders. - Yes

I pay the entire balance on my credit card each month, before interest is charged. - Yes

If for some reason I miss a debt payment, I immediately call the lender to advise them of what happened to reduce or eliminate fees and penalties. - Yes

Security - Here I am replacing use of credit card with debit cards to answer.
I check my credit card statement every month for suspicious activity or incorrect charges. - Yes

I have a list of all my credit card numbers, and phone numbers to call if they are lost or stolen. - Yes

Credit Rating - skipping.

So, I scored quite well. :) How about you, share your score.

4 comments:

  1. hi IT

    This comment is about mint.com. Seems like
    I might have been unnecessarily worried.
    I was quite worried about the method of operation of mint where it claimed it would OBTAIN information from bank about our card purhcases etc.,
    Few days back on travel read in ( think Deccan Herald) about BLIPPY.COM.
    a social networking which showcases one's expense trails.
    Now since this too seems to work on similiar
    grounds (i.,e obtaining your card expense details from bank) looks like mint.com may be be so bad. However it still is useful only for US citizens.
    Am writing this comment to clarify the "method of operaration " of mint and now blippy seems to be within legal fraternity and safe.

    rgds
    murali

    ReplyDelete
  2. hey. thanks for this information. and I feel so sorry that I couldn't help you. :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi IT
    a small correction to above comment of mine:

    What i meant to say in earlier comment is " ... MINT.com is NOT BAD".
    This seems to be safe method adpoted by blippy and mint websites to help organise ones expense habits.

    Am thankful for the very effort you took to find one upon request.:) So thks for that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A good questionnaire. Gives complete health check report of your financial health.

    ReplyDelete