Fair Debt Collection Practices Act - This law is key to protection people against collection agencies. Collection agents are not allowed to do many things such as threaten you with violence, talk to your neighbors, call your parents, etc. However many collection agencies often do break this law.

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) - This law is one of the few protections people have against the credit bureaus. It allows us to dispute items and forces them to respond in a reasonable amount of time. It is a great tool for helping you with credit issues. Knowledge of the FCRA is key to helping fix credit issues.

FICO Score - The credit scores used by lenders to decide how to finance you are your FICO score. You will find all sorts of credit scores for sale online, but really the only ones of value are FICO scores.

Fixed Monthly Payment - Loans typically have fixed payments that are due each month. Over time on such loans the payment stays the same but more starts to go to principal as time progresses. With large loans such as mortgages and car loans most of the payment goes to interest during the first few years typically. Merchant cash advances do not have fixed payments but the payments change with the company’s amount of merchant transactions for a given month. This helps to account for hardship that a company might face.

Foreclosure - Once a person is a few months behind on their mortgage payments the foreclosure process will begin. This process can end in a number of ways; seizure of the property, short sale of the property, “curing” of the loan (catching up with payments), etc. Once started, foreclosure is reported on your credit report and will greatly hurt your credit scores. It is very difficult to buy another property with a foreclosure on your credit report. Foreclosure should be prevented if at all possible.