Protect Your Good Credit

The credit bureaus have recently announced they are adopting a new scoring method for consumer credit histories in order to have “more uniform” scores across the three bureaus and provide better “predictors” of credit risk. Yeah, right! A Waltz is a waltz, whether the tune is Blue Danube or not.
Bottom line, just because [...]

Whether you are seeking work, credit, a purchase, a service or a place to live, the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Transunion and Experian, have some influence on how you are treated as a consumer. Yet, they aren’t public service agencies, they aren’t consumer agencies, they are not beholden to the consumers whose credit they [...]

Many people believe, mistakenly, that the credit bureaus in this country are some type of consumer-service provider or regulatory agency. They control many aspects of our daily existence. Most people don’t even realize the extent of the bureaus’ influence. You can’t buy a car, a house, get a credit card, get insurance, [...]

Since credit is so easy to obtain in today’s world, often at a moment’s notice, it could create unexpected liability for married individuals. In some cases, whether you are aware of a spouse getting new credit or not; whether it’s a joint account or not; you could be liable for your spouse’s debt.
For those [...]

My local Sunday paper contained an article about a woman in Georgia who, as a result of her identity being stolen, has been convicted of a felony. This only reinforces my belief that not only are we all at serious risk, the credit reporting ones may be minor compared to the possibility of criminal [...]

Nearly 10 million people fall victim to identity theft annually, costing consumers $5 billion in out-of-pocket losses and businesses $48 billion, according to the FTC.

Yesterday’s Washington Post included an article “Have You Been Stolen?’ in which the numerous recent security breaches of personal data by several large national creditors are outlined in detail. In several of my recent posts, I also noted these breaches and pointed out that this is an increasingly significant threat nationwide.
The Post’s article refers [...]

There’s been another ‘breach’ of security and the credit cards of almost 40 million citizens have been compromised. This time, instead of losing the data being sent from one location to another, security at the collection point has been breached.
First of all, according to news reports from CNN and others, the vendor, [...]

You may have heard recently in the news that a large creditor recorded several million Amercian consumers’ personal information on a data-storage disk/tape and shipped it via “a reliable courier” to the credit bureaus. The only problem is it never arrived and can not be found.
What does this mean? To one of my [...]