A clerk at Home Depot offered us a Home Depot credit card.  We told her that we have credit cards we never even use so don’t need another one.  She said they made her offer them to everyone, but then told us that it had taken her and her husband five years to climb out […]

By Robert L. Cain   With the unemployment rate hovering around “no qualified employees” available, it is becoming more and more of a challenge to pick and choose the person who can do the job you want done.  Rental owners and managers have the opposite “problem,”  too many applicants.  Even so, the solution is the […]

How to ensure a judgment gets on a credit report As we discussed last month, beginning July 1 judgments will appear on credit reports only if they contain a minimum of a name, address, and Social Security number and/or date of birth so the debtor can be properly identified.  It is up to county court […]

Reduced Student Loan Payment Concern Here’s something to watch out for on credit reports: student loan payments.  About 43 million people have student loan debt, with industry estimates at around $1.4 trillion nationwide. Of that 43 million, over five million participate in one reduced payment plan or another on their loans.   That has allowed […]

Tax lien and civil-judgment information may be missing from credit reports beginning July 1, 2017. The deletion comes on the heels of a deal that the three major credit-reporting agencies made with 31 state attorneys general in 2015.  That means that some judgments and tax liens normally on credit reports may disappear and some FICO […]

Most, 54 percent, are concerned about paying their student loans. Only about 36 percent own a home, while almost one-third of them, 32 percent, owe more than their home is worth. One-quarter of those, 24 percent, have been late with mortgage payments. And more than one in three, 35 percent have unpaid medical bills.  Those […]

Almost one-third of Americans got calls and/or letters from a collection agency in the past year about debts they hadn’t paid. Over half of those, 57 percent, were contacted about two to four debts. So reports the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) in its Consumer Experiences with Debt Collection report.  You don’t get a call […]

When Gary hired Jennifer to work in his print shop some 15 years ago, he of course wanted someone who could keep the daily books, make sure jobs got out on time, issue receipts, make occasional copies, and do other things that the assistant in a print shop does.  But he wanted something more.  He […]

They have special credit scores, the so-called “sophisticated” lenders.  In fact, Fair Isaac (FICO) even offers industry-specific scores for mortgage lenders (FICO Mortgage), auto lenders (FICO Auto) and credit card lenders (FICO bankcard).  Other lenders can ask FICO to give more or less weight for different factors important to their industries.  The reason for this […]

They are invisible—53 million of them estimates Fair Isaac.  Some estimates even say as many as one in four rate invisibility, which would be about 80 million.  But then, how would anyone know for sure since they are invisible. Who are these invisible people? The majority are millennials, low-income households, ethnic minorities, and older consumers. […]