BillMeLater is a new service that does what its name says: you can buy something paying using BillMeLater, they’ll front the cash, and send you a bill later, but, FiLife reports that what the name doesn’t tell you is that using it could temporarily damage your credit score.
credit scores
Consumer Wins $2.7 Mil Lawsuit Against Equifax For Screwing Up Her Credit
By 12.4.07
Angela P. Williams tried for more than a decade to clear up her credit report after Equifax confused her records with those of a person with bad credit but a similar name. The company denied any wrongdoing, right up until the jury awarded a $219,000 verdict in damages against Equifax, and $2.7 million in punitive damages for violating the federal credit-reporting laws. The decision is a victory for frustrated consumers at the mercy of these powerful institutions whose record-keeping errors can ruin innocent lives.
Comcast Charges You For Service You Never Ordered, Threatens To Ruin Your Credit
By 11.29.07
Reader Allison wrote her Congressional rep in regards to Comcast defrauding her:
Dear Representative Snyder,
Meet The Woman Who Devised The New FICO Scoring System
By 11.26.07
SmartMoney has a feature this week about Susan Blue Hitt, an Austin-based math nerd who loves football, flies planes, and is responsible for the revised FICO scoring model “that will change the way credit scores are calculated, affecting interest rates for 160 million Americans” sometime next year.
Buying A Home? Don't Rack Up Debt Between Approval And Closing
By 11.15.07
Don’t open any new lines of credit or go crazy with the credit card purchases between your home loan’s approval and the actual closing date, warns Ilyce R. Glink (doesn’t it look like we just tapped a bunch of keys at random to spell that name?) at Inman Real Estate News. Your lender will pull a second credit report before closing to make sure that you’re still capable of paying your loan—so if you’ve done anything in the interim that could impact your ability to pay, rest assured it will show up.
Where To Get Your Real Credit Score
By 11.14.07
Finding your credit score can be hard if you’ve never done it before. There’s scam sites, conflicting information, and the credit bureaus offering their own version of the credit score. But if you want your FICO, the real score looked at by lenders to determine your credit-worthiness and interest rates, here’s where you can go:
How To Freeze Your Credit Report
By 11.6.07
Red Tape Chronicles has a good guide for how to set up a credit report freeze at each of the three major credit bureaus.
Credit Card Piggybacking Still Raises FICO Scores
By 11.5.07
You can still raise your credit score by getting added as an “authorized user” on the credit card account of someone with better credit. Industry plans close the loophole starting this September are still yet to be implemented. The change was to be part of the update to “FICO ’08,” a revised version of the credit scoring system sold by the Fair Issac Corporation and in use at the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. So-called credit piggybacking is used by parents to help their kids get on the fast-track to better credit ratings. It has also used by fraudsters to qualify for mortgages they wouldn’t otherwise get – a contributing factor to the delinquencies in the subprime meltdown.
Employers Can Reject New Hires Based On Low Credit Scores Credit History
By 9.19.07
A friend of ours recently took his Air Force application tests and was told he qualified for every job, except those with Top-Secret classification, because his credit score was too low.
One Unpaid Bill Is Not Going To Ruin Your Credit Score
By 9.18.07
We get many tales of consumer disputes and a common situation we hear of us is where customers are dissatisfied with a product or service, refuse to pay until its fixed, and the business, usually a small business, threatens to “ruin” the customer’s credit score over the item. (For some reason, the word “ruin” is always used).
Make Credit Card Companies Your Bitch
By 9.16.07
Blueprint for Financial Prosperity reminds us that savvy consumers can take advantage of credit card companies hellbent on turning a profit. Most credit card companies will go to great lengths to keep their customers happily spending away. Use these tips to make them cater to your every financial desire:
FICO Expanding Number Of Bad Credit Categories, Overall Score Fluctuations Expected
By 8.13.07
Besides closing the authorized user piggyback loophole, another change in the new FICO score system is that the number of categories for risky debtors will go from two to four, reports the News&Observer. There will remain 8 categories for good credit, brining the total number of rankings to 12.
FICO Removing "Authorized Users" From Calculations; Credit Piggybackers Scores Dropping
By 8.13.07
No longer will consumer credit scores be able to get a free ride on another’s credit report; FICO has removed “authorized user” accounts from their calculations.
By 7.13.07
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20 must-know credit scoring terms so you will know how to understand your credit report [Bankrate] (don’t forget you can get your free credit report at annualcreditreport.com)
By 7.9.07
../../../..//2007/07/09/straight-talk-about-the-convoluted/
Straight talk about the convoluted world of credit scores from author Evan Hendricks, who says it’s all a game to make you cough up more dough.
Key Parts Of 2003 Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act Still Unimplemented
By 6.20.07
Major parts of the 2003 Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) still haven’t been put into practice, says Chi Chi Wu, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, in an LATimes article. Here’s some of the things that are missing:
