Experian announces its Extended ViewSM score

Costa Mesa, Calif., June 13, 2012 — Experian^®, the leading global information services company, announced its Extended View^SM score .  Extended View is a highly-predictive score designed to assess the creditworthiness of consumers who have little or no traditional credit history--typically referred to as underbanked or underserved consumers.

Extended View is a proprietary credit score developed by Experian that includes three unique data sources: Experian’s credit data, rental information and public record data.  This product provides a comprehensive view of a consumer’s payment behavior.

Student Loan Update

Easier IBR Enrollment Process in the Works Last week, the White House issued a Presidential Memorandum that will make it much easier for federal student loan borrowers to enroll in Income-Based Repayment (IBR). By the end of September, you'll be able to electronically transfer your IRS income data directly into the IBR application and submit it online. But people need to know about IBR before they can benefit from this major improvement to a process that can currently take weeks or even months. (For more on the Obama Administration's planned IBR improvements, see the White House's fact sheet.) In a statement, TICAS praised the planned simplification and said it should also be used to verify annual income information for those already in IBR. We also called on the Obama Administration to do much more to tell struggling borrowers about IBR and how it could make their payments more manageable. According to news reports, about 700,000 people are enrolled in IBR. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that more than five million people are past due on at least one student loan. If you know people who might benefit from IBR, help spread the word and tell a friend! TICAS is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, and we developed the policy framework that became the basis for IBR. The generous support of people like you helps make IBRinfo.org and our other work possible. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to support our ongoing efforts to make college more affordable and reduce the burden of student debt.

Does it help to spread your debt across all your cards?

The short answer: Sometimes.

The long answer: The FICO scoring model considers utilization by looking at your balances divided by the credit limits on all your cards, as well as the single highest utilization on your credit cards. It's possible for two consumers owing the same amounts and having the same credit limits to get different credit scores if one puts a large balance on a card with a low limit, causing that card to have a high single utilization compared to the other consumer.

Spreading your debt across multiple cards generally won't help your credit score, unless putting all your charges on one card would put that card close to being maxed out.
Having one credit card with a low credit limit could harm your score if you charge up a high balance on it, but your score could also suffer if you charge high balances on all your cards. People with balances on a number of cards are more likely to mismanage their credit. As such, there can be an impact to your score of having a large number of credit cards that have high balances on them.

Good credit management will save you money and help you build a better credit score.

Should I pay my Collections ?

It is very important that you understand how the paying of collections impacts your credit report.

For this discussion let's imagine you have a $65 medical collection that has a date of last activity greater than two years.

I know what you are thinking let me just pay them the $65 and get this taken care of.

Here is the scenario when you pay this collection:

The collection agency collects your $65 and then updates your credit report to a zero balance indicating that you no longer owe this debt. Now for the bad news you just lowered your score. When the collection agency updated your credit report to a zero balance it also updated the date of last activity.

In summarization, you just paid money to lower your credit score

70% to 80% of all credit reports have issues….  contact me to review your personal ( or someone you know or care about ) report.

Why Your 750 Credit Score Is Not Good Enough In 2012

For the vast majority of the last decade, if you had a 750 score you could get approved for any loan or credit card  (assuming you had reasonable income, too). 

How to get a credit score of 750?

1.      Set up a consultation with Score Well Credit to review a current and accurate report.

2.       Know the different credit scoring models

Monitoring your score is a useless endeavor if you don’t know what type of score you are looking at.  But I’m willing to bet there’s a good chance you don’t even know your real FICO. You can read more here

3. Keep your credit utilization super low!

Spread your spending across multiple credit cards if necessary. Or if you’re only using one or two accounts with relatively low limits, then make more than one payment per month to keep your utilization low.

4. Have multiple accounts

In order to get into the high 700’s you will need to have multiple lines of credit, a diverse mix. That might mean a few revolving accounts (credit cards) and a couple installment loans (loans where you owe the same amount each month). Utilities don’t show on your credit report unless you are delinquent on them, so if you banking on those to give you diversity then think again.

Converting fear into fees

They say sex sells, and I’m sure they’re right. But I doubt it outsells fear. From burglar alarms to bomb shelters, Americans shell out billions annually to protect against all manner of evil: some real, much greatly exaggerated. But wherever fear can be churned up, you can bet there’s someone not far behind making a buck.

Such is the case with credit monitoring.

Credit monitoring is a billion-dollar business, with more than 12 million Americans paying for “protection” against ID theft. 

Why you don’t need credit monitoring

These services are more sizzle than steak for at least three reasons…

1. You’re not liable if someone opens credit in your name. 

If someone forges your signature on a credit application, check, or anywhere else, you’re generally not responsible for the charges. As with anyone stealing anything, the thief is liable. And if the thief isn’t caught or can’t make restitution, it’s a problem for the institution that accepted the fraudulent charge, not you.

2. Credit monitoring doesn’t prevent ID theft.

By definition, credit monitoring can only monitor transactions that have already occurred. What you want is to prevent them from happening in the first place.

According to Experian, “Fraud alert messages notify potential credit grantors to verify your identification before extending credit in your name in case someone is using your information without your consent.”

Because ID theft is so highly publicized and so frightening, a crop of companies now offer to help – for a fee, of course. Pay them every month and they’ll help protect your identity…But here’s something the ads don’t say: The technique many services use is something you can do yourself in less than five minutes absolutely free.

Score Well Credit can help !!

Everyone in the insurance industry - including the broker sales force - has a role to play in educating consumers about the use of credit scoring: IBC | Canadian Underwriter

Everyone in the insurance industry - including the broker sales force - has a role to play in educating consumers about the use of credit scoring: IBC | Canadian Underwriter