A credit reporting agency (also called a credit bureau or credit agency) is a private company that collects and sells information about a person or corporation’s identifying information, debt, and repayment history in order to create credit...
financial services
credit score
A credit score is a number between 300 and 850 that serves as a numerical representation of a person’s creditworthiness. The higher the score, the better an individual’s chances of securing a loan since a higher score suggests a greater...
credit union
Credit unions are nonprofit institutions owned and controlled by members of the union that provide loan and savings services to members. Unlike banks, credit unions are controlled by the account holders (members) of the union, and the union...
creditor
A creditor is someone (or an entity) to whom an obligation is owed. Most commonly, the obligation owed is an obligation to pay money for some prior services or to pay off a loan. The person who owes a creditor an obligation is known as a...
creditor's rights
Creditor’s rights can refer to many different aspects of creditor-debtor and creditor-creditor relations including a creditor’s rights to place a lien on a debtor’s property, garnish a debtor’s wages, set aside a fraudulent conveyance, and...
currency
Currency can be defined as a system of money issued by a State on a national territory, used by people in that nation, allowing to carry out monetary exchanges.
Issued by public authorities, currency is a unit of account and...
dealer
A dealer has two common definitions in the legal context:
A retailer who purchases goods or services for resale to consumers in a principal capacity. In securities law, a person who functions at least part time as an agent, broker, or...debt
Debt is a financial liability or obligation owed by one person, the debtor, to another, the creditor.
Debt is mainly composed of two elements: principal and interest. While debt can take many forms, the main variables by...
debt-management plan (DMP)
Debt-management plan (DMP) is a term used in credit counseling to describe an agreement concluded between a debtor, a credit counseling firm and the debtor’s creditors. Under the DMP, the debtor makes a payment to the counseling firm, which...
debt-to-income ratio
The debt-to-income (DTI) ratio measures the amount of income a person or organization generates in order to service a debt. As explained by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, your debt-to-income ratio is all your monthly debt payments...