Credit Bureaus

Should I Worry About the Equifax Hack?

by
equifax-hacked

Boy, time flies when you’re protecting your identity. This article was originally written September, 2017. It was just a taste of things to come. In August, 2024 criminal hackers went bigger and literally hacked the Social Security Administration and got away with as much as all of our social security numbers, date of birth, address, and who knows what else. Even a baby identity thief could profit from this. The worry is that new state-sponsored criminal organizations are already working on profit and intelligence gathering. If you are wondering whether to be worried about the Equifax hack from 2017, the answer is yes. You should be worried. However, you do not need to panic. How ever bad the Equifax hack of 2017 was, there were plenty of doozeys on its heels. So many, in fact, that any one of them likely caused more damage. Still, those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Get Some Credit Monitoring By now, you should probably have some rudimentary credit monitoring whether it comes through a free credit score service like Credit Karma, or from your bank, or one of your credit cards. You’ll want to read all of those emails …

Read More

Credit Bureau Phone Numbers

by
Credit Bureau Phone Numbers 1

Why would you need credit bureau phone numbers? Your credit score is a critical component of your financial wellbeing. Your credit score is computed from the information in one of your credit reports. Those credit reports are maintained by the major credit bureaus. If there is an issue with your credit report, you’ll have to fight your way through the standard red tape of major corporations with the added complication that you aren’t really the credit bureau’s customer, so they really aren’t very interested in hearing from you in the first place. Finding a useful credit bureau phone number is, therefore, sometimes tricky. Before Calling a Credit Bureau Before you grab your phone and dial hoping to get credit bureau phone numbers live person access, consider whether or not calling the credit bureau will actually be useful to you. For example, if there is some incorrect information on your credit report, it may be better to dispute the wrong information in writing. Even if you call directly to the CEO, disputes still have to be made according to the credit bureau’s dispute procedure, so calling the wrong number is a waste of time. Also, if you wish to enter your …

Read More

Help Your Child Build Credit with This One Trick

by
Help Your Child Build Credit with This One Trick 2

Building credit is an important task for financially savvy adults. Unfortunately for most people when they turn 18, they start out with zero credit. Even worse, it can take years to build up good credit. Fortunately, you can help your child build credit with this one trick. Why Start Building Credit Early Although most of your credit score comes from other factors like how good your payment history is, one important factor in your credit is how old your credit history is. This age of credit factor starts when information starts getting put on your credit report. So, all other things being equal, an 18-year-old who signed up for their first credit card or loan last month will have much lower credit than an 18-year-old with the exact same credit card or loan, but with an account that is two or three years old. How To Build Credit for Your Child Getting a loan for a 13-year-old is probably irresponsible. However, there is a trick to build your child’s credit fast and easy. Add your child as an “authorized user” on one of your credit cards. The older the account, the better. Then, be 100% sure to make payments every …

Read More

How To Improve Your Credit Score

by
how to improve your credit score experian boost

There is a lot of phony information out there about improving your credit score. There is also a lot of information that once worked, but doesn’t anymore, things like disputing everything on your credit report. So, what is the real way on how to improve your credit score? What Is In Your Credit Score? Let’s start from the beginning. What is in your credit score? Your credit score comes from the information in your credit report. If you are wondering how information gets on your credit report, your creditors are snitches. Each money, they report data to the credit bureaus about what accounts you have with them, how long you have had the account, how much money you owe, how much credit you have available, and if your payment was on-time, late, or never paid. How are they allowed to do that? Easy. When you signed up, it was buried in that agreement you never read. Besides, if it’s true, then there is nothing you can do about it. People are allowed to say true things about you. Your credit score is made up of four main things (check here for how your credit score is calculated) Your Payment History …

Read More

Is Credit Repair Legit, or Just a Credit Repair Scam?

by
credit repair scam legit fix

Is it just me, or are you getting a lot more offers for real credit repair these days? Legitimate Credit Repair Is there a way for someone to do legit credit repair? After all, there are all of these people out there selling credit repair services, so there has to be some real credit repair that isn’t just a scam, right? The reality is that credit scores, credit reports, and the credit bureaus that run the whole racket is big business. While you may know about credit scores and credit reports as what determines if you get credit or not, on the other side of the equation are big banks and investors who build billion dollar portfolios off of pools of borrowers. The key to both buying and selling these pools is the credit scores of the borrowers. Getting fake credit scores, or borrowers who fixed their credit with a scam, would be a big problem. Check out my Credit Karma review. The reality is that there really isn’t any legitimate way to fix your credit, other than to do better with your credit. Once upon a time, back before the housing bust and the Great Recession, you could fix …

Read More

What the Equifax Hack Really Means For You

by
equifax-hacked

There is a lot of misinformation out there about the Equifax security breach, or hack. I wrote up a quick blurb the night I heard about it to try and help, but now it’s been a few days and it’s clearer what is happening, and what people are thinking. What Can I Really Do About the Equifax Hack? About the only thing that might punish Equifax is if tons of Americans put a freeze on their Equifax credit reports and then refused to take them off when lenders ask. Unfortunately, the answer is really that there is nothing you can do about the Equifax security breach. Unlike your usual credit card number theft, or username and password theft, the information the hackers got from Equifax isn’t able to be cancelled and replaced. This is your life, your addresses, employers, banks, cable company, cell phone company. It’s a master key for identity theft, and it exists out there forever, now. There is nothing you can do but watch and wait. Let’s start with what won’t help you stay safe from the Equifax data breach. Changing usernames and passwords – The hackers didn’t get usernames and passwords. Assuming your usernames and passwords …

Read More

Experian Free Review – Scam, Legit, Worth It?

by
experian free credit report score

Did you see commercials for a free credit service from Experian.  They do something clever in that they de-emphasize the free credit score idea and instead play up the concept that “credit is a skill” rather than a number. This is actually true advice, even if it isn’t what most people are looking for. This new push is undoubtedly a response to the growing number of free credit score services out there like Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, and WalletHub. Keep in mind there is no Experian free credit score offering, but we’ll get to that in a minute. This is also not the same thing as getting your annual free credit report that is required by federal law. Free Experian Credit Report Not Free Experian Credit Score Is Experian a scam? There are plenty of unsavory things about Experian’s business, but at least they are not some new free credit report, or free credit score business. Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus, and they have been around for a long time. If you have ever had a credit card, mortgage, car loan, or personal loan, chances are, they already have a report on you with all of your information. …

Read More

Free Annual Credit Report

by

You are probably aware that all three credit bureaus are required by federal law to provide you with a free credit report annually. Each year you can request a free credit report from Transunion, Equifax, and Experian. You may think that the best way to get your free credit report is to call the major credit bureaus directly, but actually the best way is to use the FTC approved free annual credit report website. Free Credit Report Website Unfortunately, as with everything, there are a lot of free credit report scams out there hoping to trick unsuspecting users with official looking websites purporting to offer “free” credit reports. If you look closely, you’ll find some find print saying that these are not the officially, federally endorsed, websites to offer free annual credit reports, but if you just start clicking the big, inviting buttons, you’ll end up on the hook for some expensive services to go along with your “free” services. Free Credit Report Scams First of all, do NOT go to freeannualcreditreport.com or anything with the word FREE in it. The free government mandated credit report website does NOT have the word FREE in it’s name. If you go to …

Read More

Real Credit Score or Fake Credit Score

by

After investigating is CreditKarma.com legit or not, we got a lot of questions about credit scores and credit reports. Hopefully, this can help clear up some of the most common credit score misconceptions. Update: A Credit Karma tax review is here looking at the new free tax returns offering by CreditKarma.com. Update: Now CreditKarma.com offers free credit report monitoring. Check out the Credit Karma review of free credit monitoring service. Credit scores are confusing to many people. This is not the result of ignorance or being naive. Credit scores are not consumer products. They were (are) meant to be used by financial institutions. These lenders are the ones who pay for the credit scores. Banks and lenders are credit score customers, not the people who are being scored. Credit scores are not a free, open system. Rather, they are a product, sold by Fair Issac. They charge money for each credit score calculated. Fair Issac’s customers are banks, mortgage companies, and other lenders, not you. In fact, a quick look around the Fair Issac website should show you that this is not a company concerned about selling products or services to individuals as customers. Fair Issac has a separate website …

Read More

Preventing Identity Theft – Paper Shredder Files and Documents

by

Identity theft can happen in a lot of different ways. Some of them are difficult to avoid, if not impossible. Others are easily preventable with a little knowledge, experience, and understanding, plus a little bit of effort. Preventing identity theft with a paper shredder to destroy junk mail and other documents is an important start. Shred Records Files and Documents to Protect Against Identity Theft One of the easier methods how to steal someone’s identity is to obtain documents or other papers that have personal information printed on them. Everything from old tax returns, to receipts, to old contracts, or even a utility bill can be a wealth of information for an identity thief. Easier still is to do identity theft while getting a fraudulent credit card at the same time. This is frighteningly easy thanks to banks and credit card companies sending out hundreds of thousands of credit card offers, complete with pre-filled information like your name and address. While neither your nor the identity thief would be able to interpret it, the various letter and  number combinations printed on the credit card application or special zero percent interest balance transfer offer can also direct the credit card company …

Read More