Credit Card Now

They said it couldn’t be done, but it has: Two blog posts in two blog carnivals — in one week.

This week, two of my recent blog posts made it into two separate carnivals, establishing what surely must be some sort of Internet record. Yeah, that’s right Rebecca Black: You’re not the only online phenomenon.

My blog post about the Epsilon data breach, “Consumers, bank customers on alert following major email theft,” made it into the Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted this week by Blogging For Change. Meanwhile, my blog post about an Experian credit reporting foul-up titled “April Fool’s Day blunder temporarily damages borrowers’ credit” was included in the Totally Money Blog Carnival, hosted by Thousandaire. Those carnivals collected lots of great personal finance posts from across the web, and like a recording artist winning their first Grammy, I’ll say that I’m humbled to be included alongside them.

Those blog carnival inclusions have already made for an exciting week, and it’s only Monday. Read more…

Tags: Week, Week Internet

The next email bearing my bank’s logo could very well be from a hacker.

Earlier today, Chase sent an email warning of a major theft that could affect me and other bank customers. “Chase is letting our customers know that we have been informed by Epsilon, a vendor we use to send emails, that an unauthorized person outside Epsilon accessed files that included email addresses of some Chase customers,” the email said.

Chase explained that although some customer email addresses were compromised in the breach, the stolen information “did not include any customer account or financial information. Based on everything we know, your accounts and confidential information remain secure.”

Based on news reports, Chase customers aren’t the only ones who have been victimized. Read more…

Tags: Bank Customers, Theft

The earthquake in Japan scared the crap out of me, and I was simply sitting in the comfort of my home nearly 5,000 miles away.

I would find myself up late at night watching video clips on CNN over and over again thinking, “Did this really just happen?” The footage looked like something straight out of an apocalyptic movie. Really scary stuff!

Of course, my thoughts would eventually turn to all the Japanese people whose lives were lost and how prepared I would be to take care of my own family and friends in the face of such devastation. I do live in Seattle, so earthquakes and even tsunamis are real dangers that shouldn’t be ignored. Sadly, I can’t say I’m prepared at all.

So I’m determined this month to buy 72-hour kits that will always be ready to go in the event of an unplanned evacuation from our home. I’d also li

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FICO scores are used by the majority of credit grantors and are used more than any other score brand. FICO credit scores have been used since the late 1980’s and the FICO score has be an industry standard. Lenders benefit from using the scores because they are faster than manual underwriting and yield a more consistent evaluation of the consumer risk, or lack thereof.

More Efficient Than Manual Underwriting

Prior to credit scores, credit grantors manually reviewed applications and credit reports to evaluate risk. This took time and made the credit granting process long and drawn out.  Lenders used credit applications, bank account information, credit file information such as past and present payment history, plus their experience to assess risk.  They depended upon their previous experience to make a decision.

Now the underwriting process includes FICO scores. The

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Tags: Fico Scores, Scores

Merchants have taken a united stand in protesting against the high fees that credit cards charge them and a businesswoman has filed a lawsuit against some of the major banks, Visa, and MasterCard.

A lawsuit has been filed in B.C. Supreme Court on behalf of Mary Watson who is the owner of Metropolitan Home in Vancouver. As per the claim, it has been alleged that card issuers as well as banks are involved in a multibillion dollar conspiracy and increasing the fees that is to be paid by merchants for every transaction made on the credit card.

Visa and MasterCard charge a percentage fee when a customer pays through the card. The card issuing bank as well as the company which processes the payment also charges a fee.

Read more…

Tags: Cards Charge, Credit Cards Charge, Fees, High Fees