Frequently Asked Questions

No. Funditia is an independent educational publication. We do not issue credit cards, lend money, broker applications, or make approval decisions. Our guides explain how credit products work; every application decision belongs to the issuer and every product's terms live in its official disclosures.

No. We do not endorse, rank, or accept payment to feature any card or issuer. Our guides explain categories — secured, student, balance transfer, travel, cash back — and the mechanisms behind them so readers can evaluate offers themselves using the federally standardized Schumer box.

The Funditia briefing is sent bi-weekly and contains educational content only — no promotional placements. Every issue includes a working unsubscribe link, and you can withdraw your consent at any time.

A credit score is a statistical summary of your credit report, most commonly on a 300–850 scale. Scores below the mid-600s are generally considered fair or poor, mid-600s to mid-700s good, and roughly 740+ very good to excellent. Different models weigh the same file differently, so several valid scores exist at once.

Federal law entitles you to free weekly reports from all three nationwide bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — through AnnualCreditReport.com, the only federally authorized source. Checking your own report is a soft inquiry and never affects your score.

A hard inquiry is created when you apply for credit and can cost a few points, fading within a year. Soft inquiries — checking your own file, prescreened offers, existing-account reviews — are invisible to lenders and never affect scores. Rate-shopping windows collapse multiple same-type loan inquiries into one for scoring.

Pay your full statement balance by the due date and new purchases never accrue interest — the grace period covers the gap between statement closing and due date, at least 21 days by federal rule. Carry any balance and the grace period typically suspends, so new purchases accrue interest immediately. Cash advances and most balance transfers never receive it.

Our tools apply standard published math — amortization, daily periodic rates, utilization and DTI ratios — to the hypothetical values you enter. Results are educational estimates, not account data: real outcomes depend on your issuer's specific terms, computation methods, and your payment behavior.

Most negatives — late payments, collections, charge-offs — remain up to seven years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act; bankruptcies can persist up to ten. Positive accounts can contribute indefinitely. No legitimate service can remove accurate, timely negative information.

Utilization is your reported card balances divided by your limits — the second-heaviest scoring factor. Stay under 30% on each card and overall, and under 10% when optimizing. Issuers report the statement-closing balance, so paying before the closing date — not just the due date — controls what bureaus see.

Dispute free of charge with the bureau publishing the error — it must investigate within 30 days — and in parallel with the furnisher that reported it. Include evidence: statements, letters, or identity records. If the response is inadequate, escalate through the CFPB complaint portal.

No — and no one can legally promise that. The legitimate levers are on-time payments, lower utilization, corrected errors, and time. The FTC warns that credit repair companies cannot do anything you cannot do yourself for free; we publish guides on exactly those steps.