credit scores and credit repair

How to Read Your Credit Report Like a Pro

Your credit report is not a judgment of you. It is a messy math worksheet that three companies keep on you: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. When I was in my early twenties and my score fell to a 515, I avoided looking at my reports because I thought they would confirm what I already felt: that I...

Hard vs. Soft Credit Inquiries

If you have ever checked your credit and seen the word “inquiry,” you have probably had the same thought I did in my early 20s: Did I mess something up again? Here is the good news. Most inquiries are harmless. And even the ones that can ding your score are usually a small, temporary hit. Let’s...

The 5 Factors That Make Up Your FICO Score

If your credit score feels like a mood ring that changes whenever it wants, I get it. I used to think the bureaus were just tossing darts at a wall. But after rebuilding my own credit from the low 500s into the 800s, I realized something important: your FICO score is mostly a math formula reacting...

FICO vs. VantageScore: What Matters Most?

I remember the first time I checked my credit after months of hiding from it. One app told me I had a “pretty decent” score. Then the credit pull we used at the credit union showed something else entirely. Same person, same credit reports, two different numbers. If you’ve ever thought, “Which one...

About Julian Hayes

Welcome to Cred Reboot. I’m Julian Hayes, a personal finance educator and credit counselor who specializes in helping everyday people make sense of credit scores and fix what’s holding them back. If credit has ever made you feel embarrassed, overwhelmed, or like you “should have known better,”...