Positive Credit; Using Credit Wisely: Mortgage Loans; Your Credit Record: Keeping It Clean

Three new titles from Cambridge Educational look at the multitude of pathways people can take on the road to personal debt, as well as the tortuous journey back to fiscal health, once their interest payments are eating up half of their monthly paychecks. Positive Credit is a fairly straightforward introduction to the world of deferred finance, aimed primarily at young people who face the Catch-22 situation of trying to get credit without any credit history. Interviews with loan officers, credit counselors, and financial planners help steer viewers through the difficulties of putting together a workable budget, establishing credit, and assuming financial responsibility (and points out the penalties for financial irresponsibility.) A good introduction to the subject. Recommended for larger collections.Using Credit Wisely: Mortgage Loans takes viewers through the 9 steps of purchasing a new home, from doing one's research, and making an offer, to applying for financing, and learning about closing costs. Too general to be of serious use to consumers, the program also features a few odd remarks and omissions. The tape claims, for example, that most fixed mortgages are for 10-15 years, implying that the standard 30-year fixed mortgage is a real rara avis, which it ain't. And, in the segment on adjustable rate mortgages--which the video clearly favors--there's no emphasis made that one's payment on a $100,000 house can easily take a $150 a month jump the following year (young buyers, in particular, should understand this point). Finally, there are a whole slew of lesser-priced programs in this subject area, including The First Time Home Buyers Manual (VL-9/94) and Welcome Home: A Consumer's Guide to Home Buying (VL-1/94), each priced at $29.95. Not a necessary purchase.The last title is the best and most useful for a wide range of viewers, since getting into debt is relatively easy, while getting out of debt presents a bit more of a challenge. Your Credit Record: Keeping it Clean points out that anyone can know just how dirty your financial laundry is within 30 seconds just by dialing into one of the big three (TRW, Equifax, and Trans Union). But to put the consumer on equal footing, the program interviews credit counselors and loan officers about the ways consumers can take control of their financial history. While there's no magic bullet (and the program advises viewers to steer clear of credit repair agencies), viewers can obtain copies of their credit rating easily, and see for themselves where the problems lie. In addition, the program directs people to a non-profit organization called Consumer Credit Counseling Service where they help those folk with 27 VISA and MasterCards before they charge again. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)