Month: September 2011

Do you know if your spouse has a secret debt? One spouse hid $50,000 worth of gambling debt on credit cards. Another spouse stole his wife’s credit card to use at the racetrack. A third spouse stacked up big debts paying for online porn and dating sites. According to Liz Weston, there is usually an […]

There was a gathering of Debt Collectors in Atlantic City this week. There are more than 4,100 debt collection agencies in the US employing close to 450,000 people. This is expected to grow by 26% in the next three years. The average amount of recovery on a delinquent debt is 20%. That is down from […]

You think you heard crazy and wacky. Wait to you hear these stories! A women in Rhode Island received $65 worth of flowers paid for on her own stolen credit card. This is even wackier. Jennifer Mercado was sitting on a Bronx, N.Y. jury in a credit card theft case when she stole a fellow […]

If you are currently looking for employment or considering applying for a new job, you must consider your history – all of it. Gizmodo took 6 of its employees and had Social Intelligence run background checks. Social Intelligence uses your Internet and social media history to run background checks.  You should check out your credit […]

If your credit score took a beating because your house went into foreclosure or you filed for bankruptcy, do not despair. The good news is that a bad credit score is not permanent.  It can be fixed.  It can take 7-10 years for improvement, but it might be faster if you are proactive. If you […]

What is FICO and how does it help my credit score? FICO is Fair, Isaac and Co., founded by engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Isaac in 1956. It was created to help department stores and gas station chains decide when to extend in-house credit cards to customers. FICO has become the benchmark of the credit […]

Leonardo Molina worked at a Roskam Baking Co. through a temp agency. He earned a permanent job, but after 2 days he was terminated. The temp agency did not want Mr. Molina back. The problem was that his background check showed that Mr. Molina was convicted of a 2007 felony in Florida. Later Leonardo Molino […]

It used to be that you when you took out a loan or applied for a store credit card, the lender would check your credit score. Today, the credit checks go beyond the score. The major lesson that lenders have learned from the recession is that traditional credit scores do not determine the whether or […]

Marquis Jones has been sued by a debt collection company for a credit card that she does not believe she owes. The firm never proved she did own the debt. But Jones was never given notice of the lawsuit. The collection company’s process server claimed her nonexistent “wife” accepted the summons. The county judge approved a […]

The Federal Trade Commission staff looked at a company selling background reports that include information derived from social media to see if they complied with the FCRA. The companies selling such reports have to comply that information derived from social media must comply with the FCRA. This means that the have to provide copies of […]