Articles & Resource Library

Your credit score can be like the classic chicken and egg situation. You need good credit to secure a loan, but you need the loan so you can build or repair your credit.  

Luckily, there are some simple steps you can take to get yourself in a great place on your financial journey. Read on to find out more about how to build credit. 

Personal loans are incredibly flexible and can be used in many different ways. As the name suggests, you can use the funds to pay for anything that will be of personal benefit to you. 

Personal loans can be used for almost any purpose. They are one of the most flexible ways to borrow money at the most competitive interest rate. Whether it’s cash for a special occasion, funds for tuition, money for home improvements, or consolidating debt, you can apply for the cash you need and never pay any fees at APG Federal Credit Union. 

Personal loans are a great way to consolidate debt, fund your next business venture, pay for a wedding or honeymoon, deal with unexpected expenses, or renovate your home. Unlike a mortgage or car loan, you are not restricted to how you can spend your funds. Personal loans and personal lines of credit can be obtained from banks, credit unions, and even online lenders.

Choosing the perfect gift for the children in your life can be overwhelming. While a physical toy may be the more exciting option to tear into now, you may want to give a more substantial gift to set a little one up for a stable financial tomorrow.

Lenders use a similar approach when evaluating an applicant for a loan and often base their decision on a person’s financial reputation: How they’ve handled credit in the past and how likely they are to pay new credit on time. To do this, they review your credit score.

Credit scores are your financial reputation, which allows potential lenders, employers, insurance agencies and even landlords to gauge your likelihood of following through on an agreement. A poor credit score can follow you around for years, preventing you from new opportunities and reaching your personal and professional goals.

Your credit report has the power to influence almost every opportunity in your life. For example, a poor credit score can halt you from getting your dream car, house, and even job. Because it carries so much weight, knowing your credit score and the items on your report is crucial to ensure your future. But, what happens when you discover an error on your credit report?

The objective of any credit score is to act as a numerical representation to future lenders of your financial behavior and how much of a risk they would take with you as a borrower. But, the effects of your credit spread much further than just the lender. Understanding and preparing for credit checks in various aspects of your life is a must.

The New Year is a time for new begin-nings. Are you ready to make money resolutions that stick?

Your customers instill a level of trust in you that when purchasing from your business, their information will remain secure. So if data fraud occurs, you may face severe damage to your reputation, as well as your finances. In 2021, the average cost of a data breach was $4.24 million, a 10% increase from 2019.

There are a few days every employee looks forward to each month – paydays! But while this can be a time of celebration for workers, it can be stressful and tedious for small businesses – especially those just setting up shop.

Obtaining a business loan gives you the power to get your company off of the ground, manage daily operations and harness your future. However, getting there can be tricky if you are unprepared.

Setting out on a new business venture requires time, effort and, of course, money. Business loans offer the funds to fuel your business but are often dependent on your personal and professional qualifications. The main contributor to whether or not you receive a business loan is your credit score – both personal and business.

Your business requires certain tools to accurately and efficiently perform, profit and succeed. However, technology, vehicle and machinery purchases can add up quickly and drain your savings. If you do not have enough cash flow to purchase the necessary equipment outright, you have two options: lease or loan.

To succeed in your industry, you need to drive prospective customers to your business through online marketing. However, certain online marketing ventures can cost your business big. To help, we’ve compiled a list of budget-friendly methods to market your business online.

The end of a year brings an opportunity to save big on stocking stuffers, holiday mark-downs and business essentials. If you are considering a vehicle purchase for your business, signing on the dotted line before December 31 could get you on the road to significant tax benefits in the New Year.

Almost overnight, entire companies began working remotely as a result of the recent public health emergency. And for those that had not yet ventured into the working-from-home space, juggling the economic uncertainty of the pandemic while establishing a protocol to help employees navigate this time may have felt overwhelming.

Almost every successful business starts at the same point: developing a business plan. Business plans help you create concrete goals, plans and milestones by putting pen to paper and laying out exactly where your business is going and how it is going to succeed. This step is often a sticking point for entrepreneurs seeking a business loan, as many lenders require a solid business plan to move forward in the loan process; however, it can be challenging and time-consuming to compile. 

Wrapping up the year does not only give business owners peace of mind that their records are closed out properly, but it also enables you to plan for a successful year ahead. Failing to plan means planning to fail, so it is essential to evaluate your company’s information and leverage your findings to improve operations next year.

Use this checklist of seven steps to efficiently analyze your business at the end of the fiscal year and set goals to prosper in the year to come.

Buying or selling a home is a major investment that comes along with negotiations, offers, contracts and other technical aspects, which can be overwhelming if you are not experienced in the field. A real estate agent can offer valued assistance when entering the housing market.

Buying your first house is an exciting part of the American dream! However, it is an extensive process that you need to be prepared for to avoid getting in over your head. Let’s take a look at 10 steps you can take to successfully get through the buying process and move into the home of your dreams.

So you bought a house, now what? This is a common question among new homeowners who have just finished the buying and closing process — and are likely already overwhelmed. The good news is that you have as much time as you need to move in and get settled into your new home. However, there are a few things homeowners should do relatively quickly after buying. To help, we’ve compiled a checklist of new-home tasks so you can hit the road running.

Think of an HOA as a government for your community, neighborhood, or condominium. The board members of an HOA create and enforce regulations onto property residents to maintain the appearance and property value of the community. When you purchase a home within an HOA, you are automatically enrolled and must begin paying dues and fees to support the association.

While costly, taking out PMI can be crucial for some to purchase a home — especially for the first time. But here’s the good news: You likely won’t need to pay it forever. The first step to dropping your PMI payments is to check how much of the principal balance of the loan has already been paid.

Within the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, many of us can’t remember to take out the garbage, let alone dive deep into our homeowner’s policy. But regardless of how tedious it may seem, reviewing your home insurance just once a year can go a long way in protecting your family, belongings, and likely your biggest investment of all — your home.

A house is not just wood beams, concrete, and metal — it’s an investment. And like any investment, a house needs care and nurturing to achieve growth and pay off long term. We know how hard you’ve worked to own your own home, so we’ve compiled a list of best practices you can follow to prepare for every season and keep your investment thriving all year long.

Buying a new home involves various factors, which impact your location, size, and financing decisions for a house. And if you’re planning on taking out a loan to assist with your new home payments, lenders will look at several aspects to gauge your financial responsibility and likelihood of repaying a mortgage. The most influential piece: Your credit score.

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in mortgage rates hovering over record lows, which means it’s a great time to save by refinancing.

So you’ve started the process of buying a home and the seller has finally accepted your offer. Hooray, the end is in sight! However, there is still one thing left: closing.

Handing hackers administrative access into your computer or mobile device is something most individuals would never dream of doing. But, what if the hacker disguised their identity, phone number and email address to appear as a professional from a company you trust? This confusion is just what criminals hope for during remote access or screen sharing scams.

Tax season is here, which means your information and refund are at risk. As many begin filing their income tax statements ahead of the April deadline, scammers and criminals already have several cons in place to try to steal your personal information and your return.

Desperately searching for a way to quickly boost your credit score is common after trying for weeks or months to amend past financial mistakes. Enter credit repair scams, or advertisements, claiming to erase bad credit, legally create a new credit identity, and remove bankruptcies, liens, and judgments from your credit history. Engaging with one of these illegitimate ads will not only waste your time and money and do nothing for your credit score, but could lead to being charged and prosecuted for misrepresenting your Social Security number or getting an Employer Identification Number (EIN) under false pretenses — which are federal offenses.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for scammers. As we are busy buying gifts for loved ones, scammers are hard at work on their next ploy to take our money, information and identity. Before you start shopping, learn our tips to proactively avoid fraud through the holidays.

Natural disasters can wreak havoc on your home, family and community. Rebuilding your lives while dealing with the aftermath of scammers attempting to leverage your unfortunate circumstances to their advantage can take your overwhelming situation from bad to worse.

Seniors have increasingly become targets for elder financial abuse scams in recent years.

It seems simple enough: Someone sends you a check, you deposit it into your account, and the funds are determined to be valid upon crediting your account. Right? Wrong.

At 9:30 one evening, you receive an email from your bank urging you to click on a link to verify your personal information or your account will be frozen. Frantic, you click on the link, which sends you to a page asking for your Social Security and account numbers. After filling out and submitting the information page, you notice large sums of money are being taken out of your account and your identity has been stolen.

Keeping your finances safe and secure is of optimal concern in today’s environment, which is why cashier’s checks are often trusted over personal checks or electronic payments to transport large amounts of money.

Online stores and services have made impressive bounds in recent years to compete with the Amazon Effect — offering same- and next-day shipping, instant streaming, and even grocery delivery. Just as we have embraced the opportunity to streamline our lives through the capabilities of technology, so have scammers and hackers to take advantage of our online presence.