Is It Worth the Work to Improve Your Credit Score?

In this episode, we cover the types of debt tools available to us Canadians, and how to get the lowest rate on them. In other words, what debt options do we have in our Canadian toolbox that we can potentially use, and what are the pros and cons of each?

My goal for you is that by the end of this episode, you'll know what your options are in Canada so that if you ever do need a loan, you know exactly what's available to you, which types of loans have the lowest and highest rates, and which ones are the easiest and hardest to qualify for.

And Sure, we've all heard of mortgage and credit cards, but what other types of loans are out there that we could potentially use?

To help me answer these questions, our guest for this episode is Scott Satov. He's a CA, a CFA, and the founder of LoansCanada.ca which was Canada's first and today's largest online loan search and comparison platform.

So I figured, if we want to know what types of loans are available to us Canadians, then why not get the first and largest Canadian loan search and comparison provider to help us with this since it's clearly their job day in and day out to know what's out there.

• You can do your loan comparison shopping over at Scott's company: LoansCanada.ca. They also have a lot of educational resources on the site so you can definitely learn a lot there, even if you aren't looking to immediately take out a loan.
• The top personal finance and investing tools guide mentioned on the episode can be received for free by signing up on the main page over at buildwealthcanada.ca.
• The how to invest videos mentioned during the show can be found at buildwealthcanada.ca/invest.

1. While ideally, we as Canadians want to have no debt, the reality is that most Canadians don't have enough money on-the-side to just buy a car or house with cash, or to fund some expensive unforeseen emergency (whether it's an expensive home repair, something medical that you have no coverage for, or something else). We've all heard of mortgages, but what are the other tools available to us, and can you cover the pros and cons of each along with which ones are the least expensive options here in Canada?
2. What are the different things that are within our control that we can do, to get the lowest rates on loans?
3. Most don't have the cash to buy a new or used car outright, so what have you found to be the best practices for getting the best loan for a new vs used car? Ex. Going through dealer vs the bank vs sites like yours that can pull the rates from different providers.
4. If you need money for an important expense, have you found home equity lines of credit (HELOC) to be the least expensive way to raise the funds required?
5. If someone isn't a homeowner and can't get a HELOC, what type of loan is the least expensive?
6. How do you go about getting a loan and securing it against your car for example (or some other asset) so that it becomes a secured loan giving you the lowest rates?
7. What are the most effective ways of building your credit score?
8. If you have an average credit score, is it worth the effort to try to improve it? In other words, how large are the savings you can get if you do actually work on your credit score and improve it?
9. What are your thoughts on debt consolidation? When should somebody consider it vs not?
10. What are your top strategies for getting out of debt? Especially for those that are struggling or feeling the pressure from the loans that they already have outstanding.

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