Market watchers expect a rate hike before the end of the year. What will that mean for your finances?

Debbie Siegel, president of Westchester Mortgage, says now is the time to take a hard look at your household budget, be proactive and get ready for when the expected increases start to affect the variable rate.

She said, “It’s a good time to trim your credit card balances. A lot of people don't understand that your credit scores work to figure out what your interest rate is going to be. If you want to increase your credit score rating, you need to be mindful of your credit card balances and you need to be at 50-percent or less of the credit card balance utilization I've helped people to increase credit scores and get better rates.

Keep track of your credit cards. It may be a good time to take advantage of a zero percent balance transfer offer. Remember, any missed payment will impact your credit score.

Siegel said, “People have miscellaneous cards because of the deal or the one time they bought it and then they open the mail and they lose it. Or they miss the payment and it hurts their credit and if it hurts their credit it hurts the rate that they can ultimately get from the bank when borrowing.

If you have private student loans you may want to consider consolidating them into a fixed-rate loan. As for mortgage rates, they are not tied directly to the federal funds rate.