Facebook Identity Theft

by mgustman on Monday, August 30, 2010

Facebook and other social networking sites are popular avenues for identity thieves to gain personal information online. Here is one instance of Facebook identity theft involving a teenager who filled out a credit application as part of a game on Facebook: Facebook Identity Theft

  • Share/Bookmark

{ 0 comments }

Take The Quiz: How Credit Savvy Are You?

by mgustman on Saturday, August 21, 2010

Think you’re credit savvy? Take the quiz and find out! Answers with explanations are available here.

Here are the questions: True or False?

  1. You don’t need to worry about your credit score unless you are considering taking out a loan, applying for a credit card or getting a mortgage.
  2. You don’t have to be rich to have a good credit score.
  3. It takes a very long time to build credit history.
  4. Having many credit cards is bad for your credit score.
  5. Debt drags your credit score down.
  6. If you miss a credit card payment one month it is ok as long as you pay it the next month.
  7. It takes a very long time to improve your credit score.
  8. It takes 5-7 years to fix bad marks on your credit report.
  • Share/Bookmark

{ 0 comments }

5 Tips for Managing Credit Cards

by mgustman Sunday, August 15, 2010

Here are a few basic practices that can help you manage credit cards and protect your credit score. 1. Know the difference between needs and wants – your dog needs food, but you want to buy him a rhinestone collar. Only use your credit card for needed, necessary purchases. 2. Pay off your balance in [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

7 Tips for College Students to Avoid Identity Theft

by mgustman Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Young college aged adults (18-24) take almost twice as long than other age groups to discover identity theft, but are the fastest to take action once discovered. Here are 7 Tips for College Students to Avoid Identity Theft: 1. Have sensitive direct mail sent to your home address or P.O. Box. 2. Shred unwanted credit [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

7 Effective Ways to Improve Your Credit Score

by mgustman Monday, August 2, 2010

There are a lot of misconceptions about credit scores and rumors about how to improve it. Here are 7 effective ways to improve your credit score: 1. Understand where credit scores come from – Your credit score is a measure of your patterns of repayment of debts and indicates your credit risk to lenders. 2. [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

Credit Scores Slip Across the U.S.

by mgustman Monday, July 26, 2010

Recent figures provided by FICO show that 25.5% of consumers, or more than 43.4 million people, have a credit score lower than 599. Having a credit score that low marks consumers as a credit risk and can make getting a home mortgage, credit card or other loan difficult and expensive. These findings show an increase [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

Things Every Senior Citizen Should Know About Identity Theft

by mgustman Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Senior Citizens are more at risk of identity theft than they may think. Many falsely believe if they don’t go online or use credit cards then they have nothing to worry about. The truth is, any person with a social security number needs to be concerned with identity theft. Senior citizens are at an increased [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

Myths and Truths About Credit Scores

by mgustman Monday, July 12, 2010

First let’s start with what a credit score IS. The FICO Credit Score is the most widely used formula which lenders use to assess your potential credit risk. The credit score can be broken down into 5 parts. Your payment history accounts for 35% of the score, the amount of money you owe is 30%, [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

Credit Card Hackers Target Hotels

by mgustman Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The hotel sector is a favorite target of credit card hackers. A study by SpiderLabs found that 38% of credit card hacking cases involved the hotel industry. This is because there is a large amount of credit card data stored in hotel databases with very low security. It often takes months to discover these attacks [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

3 Smart Tips for Borrowing Money

by mgustman Tuesday, June 29, 2010

All of us have had to borrow money at some time in our lives: to pay for a car, house or other item that you could not be purchased in full. Here are 3 simple tips for borrowing money the smart way: 1) Only borrow what you need. 2) Get the best interest rate out [...]

  • Share/Bookmark
Read the full article →

← Previous Entries