| Super-charging your credit score
For Natasha Horne, trying to buy a house all came down to a three-digit number. A 33-year-old home health care worker who lives with her husband and two kids in a rental in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, Horne was hampered by a low credit score of 612. But with the help of Marilyn Bell, a counselor at Neighborhood Housing Services, which has offices in all five boroughs, Horne went to work. She called her creditors; some were willing to negotiate a settlement. The big push, starting last May, wiped $4,000 off her debt load. Bell contacted the credit reporting agencies about Horne's efforts. Within three months, her credit score rose to 679. Now, she's eligible for a mortgage at better rates than those offered to people with very poor credit.
Chartered to protect the henhouse, has the FTC turned into a fox?
I rarely get e-mail from the USA Today's Byron Acohido (who from time to time interviews me for my opinions on tech). But today, Acohido drew my attention to a story that he has co-authored with Jon Swartz under the headline FTC under fire as credit bureaus sell consumers' data. The story draws attention to a complex Web of potentially conflicting interests involving Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, the law firm she used to work for, her husband who still works for it, how that law firm represents one of the big three credit reporting bureaus, and whether or not the FTC has morphed into an agent of the credit reporting bureaus' success from the consumer guardian that The People have entrusted it to be. While the targets of this follow-the-money like inquest deny any impropriety, I can certainly understand the position of Robert Kuttner, author of The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity who, who in response to the USA Today inquiry, said: Federal agencies that are supposed to be looking out for the consumer are really protecting the companies that do bad things the agencies were set up to prevent.
Free steps towards protecting your ID
Thanks to a new law in Maryland, you can now request the three major credit reporting agencies not give out your credit report. It is just the newest way to protect you from identity theft. It will cost you $15, a five dollar fee from each credit reporting agencies. But there are two other steps you can take to guard your good name and they are both free.You see ads all the time promising you a free credit report. Those ads are all too familiar to Angie Barnett, President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland. “It is all over the internet, we find them everywhere, I'm listening to the radio, you hear it constantly." But Barnett warns buyers beware. She says, “that you can get these free credit reports but what they are going to do is give you something you can already get for free then secondly they are going to try to sell you a bundle or package of services that are directly related to protecting you from identity theft." She goes on to say that those services are steps you can take on your own without paying.The federal government requires all three of the major credit reporting agencies, Transunion, Experian and Equifax, to give you a free copy of your report once a year. There is only one place on the internet where you can do that and it is http://www.annualcreditreport.com“We encourage people to be sure you stagger it," says Barnett.
Roddick and Nadal progress in Australia
Andy Roddick successful launched his Australian Open campaign with a quickfire 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy. Andy Murray knocked outDefeat will make me stronger, says MurrayIn pics: Day one from MelbourneThe American has never lost an opening round match at the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne, and his win was never in doubt as he needed one hour and 38 minutes to progress. .
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