Tag Archives: Credit Reports

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Three Simple Steps: Managing Debt

July 29, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Filed under: Debt, Credit Cards, Credit Reports, Interest Rates, Loans

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Being in debt can be one of the most overwhelming financial challenges you’ll ever face. That’s one reason that Americans have worked so hard to break themselves of their debt habit, with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York having reported recently that debt levels have fallen by $1.45 trillion since the third quarter of 2008. In particular, credit-card debt is down more than 20 percent over that time frame, reflecting the priority of getting high-interest-rate debt paid down fastest.

Even if you have a lot of debt, don’t panic! You can get your outstanding loans under control if you take a long-term view and start taking baby steps toward better managing your debt. Start out with these three simple tips:

1. Order your credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com, which is the free website set up under federal law to provide copies of credit reports to all Americans. You can get one free report every year from each of the three main credit-reporting agencies, and the report will tell you what loans and cards you have outstanding, how much you owe, and your payment history, including any late payments or delinquent accounts.

2. Gather up your loan and credit-card statements to match them up with your credit report. If you see extra entries on your credit report that aren’t among the bills you’re paying every month, flag those unknown accounts for future follow-up to avoid potentially nastier surprises further down the road.

3. Figure out the interest rates you’re paying on each of your loans and cards. Usually, that information will be right on the loan statement, and doing so will give you a good idea of how to prioritize which debt to pay off first. Moreover, it’ll give you ammunition in negotiating better interest rates down the road.

Debt can be a huge burden, but managing your debt doesn’t have to be. Instead of freaking out or hoping that your credit-card balances will just magically go away, taking these simple first steps will get you on the road toward dealing with your debt once and for all.

You can follow Motley Fool contributor Dan Caplinger on Twitter @DanCaplinger or on Google+.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Four Things to Know About the New VantageScore Credit Score

March 25, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Business Insider

Filed under: Debt, Credit Reports, Credit Score

(Alamy)

By MANDI WOODRUFF

Everyone is talking about the new credit score on the block — VantageScore 3.0.

It’s a completely revamped version of the original VantageScore, which is a generic credit scoring model that has been around since 2006. It was launched as a joint effort by the three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax).

We’ve checked out the stats on the new model and we have to admit there are some fairly intriguing changes.

Here’s what you should know:

It won’t count debt collection accounts that have been paid off.

VantageScore will now be the only credit score that doesn’t track debt collection accounts that have been paid in full. This is huge. Just because a consumer has paid a debt in full to a collections agency doesn’t erase that history from their credit account, and credit scoring models like FICO still let that negative account factor into a consumer’s credit score. The VantageScore would essentially wipe the slate clean once collections are paid off, which could be a boon for consumers who are working to rebuild their credit history after a rough patch.

Millions of consumers who never qualified for credit scores will have a shot.

With the VantageScore 3.0, up to 30 million consumers whose credit histories weren’t long enough to qualify for a traditional FICO score will now be eligible. For example, the new model will look back 24 months into consumer credit history to track any credit activity, and it includes activity from people whose last credit transaction is less than six months old. This could be the gateway out of the subprime lending market for tens of millions of under- and un-banked consumers in the U.S.

It’s adopted the same scoring scale as FICO.

The old version of this scoring model used a different point scale (501 to 990), which might have confused people who were used to seeing FICO‘s 300 to 850 point scale. That’s no longer the case.The new VantageScore has adopted the same scale, which will not only make it a little more familiar to consumers but also make it easier for lenders to digest when they’re sussing out potential borrowers.

It won’t count negative history for customers impacted by natural disasters.

In the wake of recent disasters like Hurricane Sandy, banks and lenders were willing to give customers a break on fees for a period of time. The VantageScore has taken a page from their book. With the new score, they have the ability to negate any account activity that may potentially harm a customer’s credit score if it occurred during a natural disaster.

What’s next?

The question that remains is whether all major lenders will get on board with the new VantageScore. According to the company, seven of the top 10 financial institutions, six of the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Credit Score Dating Has Potential Partners Watching Their Assets

March 22, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Michele Lerner

Filed under: Debt, Credit Reports, Consumer Issues, Credit History, Credit Score

Alamy

You know your credit score gets checked when you apply for a credit card, a job, an apartment, insurance or a loan. But these days, even potential dates may be asking about your fiscal health when they’re checking you out.

While not every prospective date will come right out ask you for your FICO digits, some singles we talked to say they want to know a potential partner’s financial status.

Websites such as Creditscoredating.com and Datemycreditscore.com have received plenty of attention in the media. Both are based on the idea that singles want to date others with an excellent credit score. In fact, the motto of CreditScoredating.com is “Good Credit is Sexy.”

Practical Romance

The concept may sound a little mercenary, but since a low credit score can keep you from doing everything from buying a house to landing a job, singles interested in a finding a life partner may have a point.

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“I’ve never been asked about my credit score, but I wouldn’t mind it,” says Kathy (not her real name), a single woman from Maryland. “I think financial compatibility is critical at this stage in life, especially if there is even the flicker of a thought that the relationship could lead to something long term.”

Kathy says a friend of hers rushed into the arms of a man who, despite his $100,000-plus salary, had a bleak financial picture. “She didn’t want to believe his finances were as disastrous as they were, and he ended up costing her thousands and a hard lesson in protecting her assets,” she says.

Credit counselors say many of their customers come to them because their romantic partners refuse to get married before they eliminate their debt. Some debt-laden clients have simply made pacts with themselves to get rid of debt before they wed.

We polled a group of five accountants and asked whether they would like to check a potential date’s credit score. Most of them said yes, because “a responsible individual makes a better partner.”

Naturally, not everyone is buying it.

You’re More Than Just a Number to Me

One naysayer among the accountants asked “What do you want, a good person or a good credit score?”

“As much of a stalker as I am, I think it’d be creepy to know someone’s credit score before a date,” says J., a Washington, D.C.-area single. “There could be many contributing factors to a poor credit score, and I wouldn’t want to rule someone out. In fact, if someone had a poor credit score because he’s in over his head for, say, helping out a family member, I may want to hear that story, not rule out the candidate. And what about the person who’s working really hard to improve their credit score? They may be …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

How A Leaker Got Access To Celebs' Credit Reports

March 12, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff

The world now knows that Michelle Obama has a Banana Republic credit card and that Jay-Z has a limitless AmEx card thanks to an anonymous leaker who posted addresses, social security numbers, and in some cases, credit reports, of a bunch of well-known names. The list continues to grow; reports for Al Gore, Sarah Palin and Arnold Swartzenegger were added to the mix today. Initial reports suggested that the financial deets were obtained through “hacking,” but it would better to call it an impersonation crime. The amazing repository of celebs’ credit files wasn’t in the computer of a tax accountant to the stars, but a free tool that everyone in the U.S. is advised to use yearly. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Identity Thieves Are After Your Children

March 11, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Michele Lerner

Filed under: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, Consumer Issues, Consumer Protection, Credit Repair

As if parents didn’t have enough on their minds, now they have to worry about making sure their offspring aren’t in the crosshairs of financial scammers. According to AllClear ID, an identity-theft protection company, children are 35 times more likely than adults to be identity theft victims.

It’s hard to nail down exactly how pervasive the crime really is.

Erik Larson, president and founder of NextAdvisor.com, a company that analyzes identity-theft protection products, says between 2.5 percent and 10 percent of Americans under age 18 have had their identity stolen.

And according to a recent report by AllClear based on a survey of 27,000 financial records between September 2010 and December 2011, nearly 11 percent of kids had their personal information stolen. “The reason the data on this is incomplete is that people often don’t know an identity theft has taken place,” says Larson. “They don’t realize it for years sometimes.”

The way most young people find out they have been victimized is that they turn 18 and apply for their first job, first credit card, or a student loan and discover they already have bad credit.

“In the Boston area, a 17-year-old applied for a job and the employer pulled his credit,” says Larson. “It turned out someone had used his Social Security number and bought a $47,000 houseboat and then defaulted on the loan. The boat had been purchased when he was just 7 years old.”

A Different Sort of Crime Family

Larson says that 27 percent of all identity theft victims know their perpetrator: someone in their family, a co-worker, or a friend. That number may be higher for child victims.

“It happens unfortunately far too often that a parent, stepparent, uncle, or, almost worst of all, a foster parent will steal a Social Security number from a child to open new credit card accounts or to establish a new utility company account,” says Larson. “Foster kids are particularly vulnerable because they’re in and out of many homes.”

In one case in New Jersey, a mother stole the Social Security numbers of each of her five children to open credit card accounts and then didn’t pay the bills, says Larson. Someone who knew her tipped off the police and she was arrested for fraud.

Even if you catch the family member, there may be more damage to come.

Larson says that sometimes a Social Security number will be sold to a network of criminals and new problems can crop up over the years, including even a criminal record associated with your child’s identity.

According to AllClear, one victim’s Social Security number had been used to open more than 40 accounts, in which more than $1 million had been fraudulently charged.

Cleaning Up …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

5 Ways Consumers Can Protect Themselves in 5 Minutes

March 6, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Matt Brownell

Filed under: Consumer Ally, Credit Reports, Ripoffs & Scams

This week is Consumer Protection Week, when a group of nonprofits and government agencies come together to highlight critical issues ranging from identity theft to dodgy debt collector practices.

Most consumer protection tips tend to be reactive — telling you how to spot a scam email, for instance, or respond to a collections call. But there are also certain proactive steps you can take right now to head off fraud and financial screw-ups before they even take place.

Here are five actions you can take to protect yourself as a consumer, all of which should take less than five minutes to complete.

1. Turn on Two-Step Verification on Your Email

Security experts will tell you that you should have a different password for every online account you open. But anyone who uses the Internet on a regular basis knows that this is virtually impossible — you likely have dozens of accounts ranging from bank accounts to email to social media to news sites, and you access them on multiple devices.

You have a few options here. One is to use a few strong, unique passwords for your most sensitive accounts and then repeat passwords for non-critical accounts. A better choice is to use a password-management tool like LastPass; you’ll only have to remember one master password, and the program will generate nigh-uncrackable passwords for all of your accounts.

But whichever route you choose, there’s one easy step that you should take now: Enable two-step verification on your email.

Email is in many ways your most important account: When you forget a password to one of your other accounts, the password reset link will be sent to your email. If someone takes over your email, they can reset all the passwords to your other accounts and take them over.

Fortunately, email providers like Gmail now offer what’s known as two-step verification. Enabling this feature means that if someone tries to access your email account from a different computer than you usually use, they’ll need more than just your password — they’ll also need a second one-time password that’s sent to your mobile phone. So unless the hacker has also gotten ahold of your phone, they’ll be unable to get into your account.

Two-factor authentication can be set up in less than 5 minutes. We’d recommend putting it in place for your email and bank accounts.

2. Get on the Do-Not-Call List

If you’re being harassed by a telemarketer, you can always block the call. But let’s be honest: You probably don’t want to hear from any telemarketers, ever, so you might as well exercise your right to block them forever.

If you didn’t get on the do-not-call list when it first came out, don’t fret: You can do it any time, and you can add up to three numbers, including your …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Bartle Doo Article Archives

Tag Archives: Credit Reports

Three Simple Steps: Managing Debt

Four Things to Know About the New VantageScore Credit Score

Credit Score Dating Has Potential Partners Watching Their Assets

How A Leaker Got Access To Celebs' Credit Reports

5 Ways Consumers Can Protect Themselves in 5 Minutes

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