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A recent creditcards.com survey found that a large majority of Americans with debt would not be willing to cut spending on either leisure travel or clothing and shoes by 50%. I joined CBS This Morning to discuss how these choices can impact your credit.
Americans can help fight identity theft by freezing their credit – now free of charge – at the three main credit-monitoring services. This new policy is part of a law called The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act. Over a year ago, a hack of one of those credit services, Equifax, affected nearly 150 million people and exposed personal information including names, social security numbers and birth dates. I joined CBS This Morning to discuss the importance of freezing your credit, how to do it, and what to do if you are experiencing fraud.
Have a money question? Email me here.
Have a money question? Go to jillonmoney.com for all the contact info. Connect with me at these places for all my content: http://www.jillonmoney.com/ https://twitter.com/jillonmoney https://www.facebook.com/JillonMoney https://www.instagram.com/jillonmoney/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillonmoney/ http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jill-on-money https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/better-off-jill-schlesinger/id431167790?mt=2
Have a money question? Email me here.
Have a money question? Go to jillonmoney.com for all the contact info. Connect with me at these places for all my content: http://www.jillonmoney.com/ https://twitter.com/jillonmoney https://www.facebook.com/JillonMoney https://www.instagram.com/jillonmoney/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillonmoney/ http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jill-on-money https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/better-off-jill-schlesinger/id431167790?mt=2
Have a money question? Email me here.
Credit scores recently reached a record high and given changes to the industry, they could continue to rise. According to Fair Isaac Corporation (creator of the widely used FICO score), the average score hit 700 during the spring, the highest since at least 2005. As a reminder, FICO scores range from 300 to 850 and borrowers with scores above 750 are generally considered excellent, while scores below 650 are considered poor. The three most important factors that determine your FICO score are: payment history, total debt outstanding, which takes into account how many accounts you have and how close you are to your credit limit and the number of hard credit inquiries made on your behalf from mortgage, auto or student loan companies.
Have you ever tried to correct an error on your credit report? If so, there is good news: the credit reporting industry is about to change dramatically. Earlier this year, the three main credit reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian and Transunion -- agreed to a multi-phase settlement with the New York Attorney General. This fall, the agencies begin phase one of being more proactive in resolving disputes and changing the way they report on unpaid medical bills. To help untangle the new reform measures, we asked nationally-recognized credit expert John Ulzheimer to come back on the show to tell us what's going on.
Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. He has served as a credit expert witness in more than 230 cases and has been qualified to testify in both Federal and State court on the topic of consumer credit.
As a reminder, the three main agencies report your information to the scoring companies. According to FICO, the company behind the most widely used credit score, the most important factors are:
John also reminds us that identity theft is the NUMBER ONE white collar crime. Criminals are looking for your name, address, date of birth and social security number. With that information, they can wreak havoc on your financial life. To help defend yourself, John recommends the following steps:
Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer/Music Curator in the World. Here's how to contact us:
It’s been nearly 60 years since the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) started on the premise that data could be mined and used to inform business decisions. FICO honed the score and currently sells it to banks, insurers, retailers and credit card companies. Today, FICO score ranges from 300 to 850 and are based on data provided by the nation’s three credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax). Borrowers with scores above 750 are generally considered excellent, while scores below 650 are considered poor.
The most important factors that determine your score are:
(1) Payment History (including especially paying bills on time) accounts for about 35 percent.
(2) Total debt outstanding takes into account how many accounts you have and how close you are to your total credit limit. It makes up 30 percent of the score.
(3) Number of inquiries, which are broken into "soft", for preapproved offers; for insurance or employment purposes; and for when you check your own credit report or score. Soft inquiries, which do not hurt your score. Hard inquiries, like when you are shopping for a mortgage, auto or student loan can count against you and are responsible for about 10 percent of your score.
(4) The mix of credit (credit cards; installment loans like mortgages or car loan, and/or a student loan), contributes about 10 percent.
(5) Credit history – the more established your credit history, the better. This accounts for about 15 percent.
The ubiquitous use of credit scores makes their accuracy all the more important. If scores are lower, due to bad data or error-ridden reports, a consumer’s cost of borrowing could be higher than it should be or their living arrangements or job prospects could be negatively impacted.
After the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau conducted a 14-month probe, which found that it is notoriously difficult for consumers to correct credit report errors, the State of New York led the charge on reforming the credit reporting agencies. In a sweeping settlement, credit bureaus will make sweeping changes to everything from the credit reporting format they will accept from lenders to how they conduct investigations of disputed items to how and when they'll accept medical collections. The settlement will be implemented in three phases, starting this month and concluding by June 2018.
The highlights of phase one include a big change for consumers: bureaus cannot refuse to accept a consumer's dispute simply because she does not have a current copy of her credit report. Additionally, if the bureaus receive a dispute from a consumer that contains documentation, which supports the consumer's dispute, they must modify the information accordingly or fast track the dispute to an employee who is empowered to make the change as requested by the consumer on the sole basis of the documents they provided.
This so-called “empowered agent” provision of the settlement underscores the importance consumers providing supporting documents with their disputes. Otherwise the credit bureaus will simply contact a collection agency and take their side with respect to the disputed information.
In addition to removing errors from your credit record, there are a number of steps to take to improve your score. The most important is to pay your bills on time. According to FICO, 96 percent of people with excellent credit (above 800) pay their bills on time. (Most lenders will not report a late payment until you are 30 days late.)
You should also keep your total balances in check. Consumers with the best scores use just 7 percent of their revolving credit lines, but anything below 30 percent is considered acceptable. Apply for new credit judiciously and don’t close accounts—just don’t use them. Remember that co-signing a loan counts in this calculation. Maxing out a credit card could cost you as many as 45 points), according to FICO, even if the amount you owe is small.
Finally, stay away from credit repair pitches. There's nothing a so-called “credit repair clinic” can do that you can't do on your own.
