Protect Your Good Credit

The current mortgage crisis did not begin when the subprime lenders began to announce that they were facing financial difficulties due to a surge in defaults. It didn’t begin when Greenspan was discussing the housing market ‘conundrum’. It wasn’t caused by the real estate ‘bubble’ popping. It wasn’t terrorists, the war in Iraq, inflation or [...]

Anyone worried that late or non-payments will result in foreclosure should consider making a few phone calls to their lender and/or servicing agent. The federal government has recommended that lenders and servicing agents (companies that collect mortgage payments for lenders) take steps to work out payment plans or alternative financing solutions for many borrowers that [...]

One of the simplest ways to improve your credit is to “clean up” unnecessary accounts that you have open. Since most consumers are inundated with pre-qualified/approved offers and offers of instant credit at many retailers, it’s easy to end up with numerous credit accounts that you don’t really need or use. Often [...]

Much of the information on this website has been about informing consumers how their credit history is used by the credit bureaus and the untold numbers of companies they sell it to. When people apply for something as weighty as a mortgage, most would think the information they provide their loan officers/brokers is confidential [...]

Insidious and subtle, software vulnerability and self-profligating viruses and worms are a danger to anyone with a personal computer. Whether you are an avid internet user or not, these programs can weaken and/or destroy your ability to maintain your computer’s security. An associate who is a principal with a local technology group has [...]

Today’s marketplace boasts a plethora of technical gadgets. There are palm-size phones, TVs, stereos, computers, medical monitors, etc. You can literally be “in touch” with just about any aspect of your life by a gadget that fits in the palm of your hand.
Convenience, portability, accessibility—-it’s in demand! Sometimes, however, you should be [...]

Marriage began as spiritual union between two people. In today’s world, it is a legal and financial union of both assets and debt. It’s also a merging of credit. People entering a marriage are usually thinking about merging their belongings, family holidays, etc., not their credit reports. Knowing what your partner’s [...]

In dealing with the vast number of “customer service” centers of the companies you do business with, you should always double check any information given to you over the phone—-even if it means hanging up and calling the 800 number a second time!!!
Why? It’s simple, many of the people who answer customer service calls [...]

Fox News.com offered an article by Marshall Loeb, How To Protect Your Passwords, which provides some very good advice for ensuring hackers and keystroke trackers can’t easily guess your passwords. Loeb’s article reports that God, Love, Sex and Money are the four most common passwords people use making it very easy for identity theives [...]

Continuing threats and exposures of personal data which leads to the theft of individual identities, brings one major thought to mind. The best protection against identity theft is to limit the accessibility to our personal data. Since businesses and government are taking their time about doing that, try limiting access by limiting the [...]