Free Book: 7 Steps to 720
By Ryan Healy | November 30, 2007
I still remember the day when I decided to become debt free. It was because a credit card company had abused their relationship with me. As I began the process of paying down my debt, one of the things I did was call my creditors to ask for better terms. In most cases, I was looking for a lower interest rate.
I quickly discovered that creditors will ignore you and practically laugh in your face if your credit score is average or below average. They will not lower your interest rates.
In a way, if your credit score is too low, you are cornered. You are stuck with whatever interest rates your creditors give you. This is an uncomfortable position to be in.
What’s more, you can’t pay off your debts as quickly because you’re paying so much to interest. If you can lower your interest rates, that automatically means that more of your payment is going to pay down the principal. Don’t you think it’s worth a few phone calls to get your interest rates reduced?
But this strategy doesn’t work when your credit score has dropped. I found this out the hard way when I began making calls to my creditors. My credit score had slipped and I was unaware of this fact. So my creditors wouldn’t do anything for me even though I thought of myself as a “good customer.”
That’s when I realized I needed to pay closer attention to my credit score. I thought it didn’t matter. But the fact is, it does matter. So I read a book by Philip X. Tirone called 7 Steps to 720. I began to implement some of his suggestions. The biggest thing I did was pay down my balances across the board. Instead of “snowballing” my debt, I paid a little bit more than the minimum on every balance I had.
I paid extra special attention to balances that were near the limit. I knew these had a negative impact on my credit score.
Guess what? It only took a few months before my credit score had bounced right back. All of a sudden my creditors were willing to work with me. This was a great feeling. I began to receive special low-interest promotions. They even offered to lower my interest rates without any obligation to do anything else.
This is the position you want to be in. You want to be able to minimize what you pay to interest and maximize what you pay to principal. The only way to do this is to make sure your credit score is as high as it can be.
That’s why I’m giving away my copy of 7 Steps to 720. I want somebody else to benefit from it like I did. It is an easy read since it’s only 115 pages long.
Here’s how to enter this giveaway contest. Simply post a comment below telling me why you’d like my copy of the book. Why should I give it to you?
The winner will be chosen by me, at my sole discretion, based on the answers. I will select a winner next Wednesday, December 5, at 12 noon Mountain Time, and will create a new blog post to announce the winner. You have until then to leave a comment with your response.
I will mail the book to the winner at my own expense. The winner will not have to pay shipping, even if he/she lives outside of the U.S. This means you can participate if you live in Canada or overseas (although the advice in the book will be mostly relevant to North Americans).
I look forward to reading your response. Good luck, and may the best entry win!
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Topics: Credit Cards, Giveaways |
9 Responses to “Free Book: 7 Steps to 720”
Comments
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November 30th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I learned something here– I never knew that it was better to pay all a little something rather than trying to pay down one card completely.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I’m glad you learned something new.
Just to clarify, it can be good for your credit score to reduce each balance rather than paying off one card completely.
But ultimately, you will want to move to a plan where you “snowball” your payments. Because this will pay off your debt faster than any other approach.
November 30th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Dear Ryan,
I have begun working on raising my credit score in the last three weeks since both reading your blog and attending a real estate buying tour (where a 680 credit score is stressed as the minimum for entering the game of traditional finance on investment properties).
I thought it was comical when I signed up to receive my credit scores through a credit repair firm, and the report told me, ‘Your credit score is bad.’ I’ve never had an inanimate report tell me something so squarely. =)
Anyway, I took notice and resolved to do my best with raising the score from its place of 527 to something better, ideally 150 points higher in the next year. But, as you know, the credit system is very complex and I have but a very basic understanding of it. That is, make your payments on time, don’t carry credit balances near their limits (just learned this from you in this post), and… well, I can’t think of the third credit lesson I know.
I’m aiming, Lord willing, to begin investing in real estate by rehabbing bank foreclosed properties, and then renting them for positive cash-flow. All this is to the end of providing revenue that will support the mission work and travel that I feel called to do, as well as to help build a non-profit organization called Sponsor a Missionary.
The real estate buying tours came out of what I’d call a divine connection. Four years ago when I was beginning my career in marketing I attended a training seminar on network marketing. One of the top income earners there at the training I met and became friends with. Three and a half years later, that friend (named Tom) introduced me to a friend of his (named Charrissa) who is a real estate investor that leads these buying tours.
I see it as the Lord putting me directly in the path of these buying tours. Now you should know that these tours cost $18,000 to attend. I don’t have $18,000, just in case you were wondering. But last month the buying tour that happens each month (in different cities) was going to be in St Louis. I wanted to go, but not having an invitation nor $18,000, I realized I’d be sitting at home that weekend.
But as I was sitting at home the wednesday evening before that weekend, another friend of mine (Brett) emailed me and asked if I’d take his place at a $5,000 information marketing seminar in two days… in St. Louis. He told me he’d pay my way, and pay me to go to the event. Hmmmm… let me think.
I said yes, of course, so not only did I get to help my friend and go to this great seminar, and get paid to do so, but when I told my friend Charrissa (the real estate tour leader) that I would be in St. Louis the same weekend as the tour, guess what she did?? She invited me to come by the night before the tour and meet her in person (this would be the first time we actually met besides talking once on the phone).
I agreed, of course, and stopped by after the seminar was over that night. And to my delight (and God’s credit and glory) she invited me to come on the buying tour the very next day. I had actually completed all the things that my friend Brett wanted me to at the seminar, so I felt the liberty to be able to join this tour for a day on the bus to look at properties and learn about real estate. And not just that day did I attend the tour, but the next day as well. Then at the end of the two day tour, Charrissa invited me back on all the following tours to help crunch numbers on the bus to help the students (which would give me the perfect learning opportunity as well). Now, can you call that luck?? Not in a million years! That’s Jesus, plain and simple. He gets all the credit there! =)
So, in wrapping up, I should have told you earlier that the first thing I ever dreamed of doing when I was 13 years old and working hard for $135 a week with my paper route and my bicycle, was to become a real estate investor, even when I didn’t know what that really meant. Here it is, ten years later and God is fulfilling dreams.
Anyway, in wrapping up, I guess the main point is that God did all this, providing for ways to help reach others with the message of Jesus Christ though mission work, fueled perhaps in part by real estate investment success.
And in a distant second, the point that a book on how to raise a credit score would be a good and useful tool for me to have might be another blessing. If there’s someone else who it can help, it should go to them - I can pick many things up just along the way, but if no one else claims it, I’d see it as a privilege to receive it and go through it. =)
In Faithful Service and Friendship,
John W. Roney
December 1st, 2007 at 8:09 am
Hi Ryan,
I’d like a copy of the book. My score seems to have plateaued around 665. I’m hoping to co-sign a re-finance a 20 year old mortgage on my mother’s rental property sometime this winter. We need to take out about $10k to upgrade the heating and cooling system. I’d sure like to figure out a way to fast track my score up a little higher to help her get the lowest rate possible.
Cheers!
Amanda
December 1st, 2007 at 8:13 am
Free book: 7 Steps to 720
Ryan at Debt Reduction Formula is giving away a copy of the book 7 Steps to 720. Drop by the site to read his review and leave a comment for a chance to win the book….
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:48 am
[…] Free Book: 7 Steps to 720 “That’s why I’m giving away my copy of 7 Steps to 720. I want somebody else to benefit from it like I did. It is an easy read since it’s only 115 pages long.” […]
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I’d love to read this book. My husband and I are starting to get our financial house in order and reduce our debt, but don’t know a lot about how credit scores work — sounds like a book we need to read!
December 5th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Don’t know if your in California or not - had a shock the other day when I tried to apply for a prosper load - they told me I couldn’t because my FICO was below 520.
I year ago I started a new job at BANK of all places, and I know at that time it was 720.
DEBT SUCKS, I have to start a snowball, I’m just avoiding things hoping to have a happy holiday first.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Thank you all for your responses. I really appreciate your participation. I have announced the winner of this giveaway here:
http://debtreductionformula.com/blog/?p=88