If this is also what you want, then there’s one place where you can get both, for free, at Quizzle.com.

Getting free credit score & report from Quizzle is quite easy. Unlike at Credit Karma where you have to provide your Social Security number in order to let Credit Karma to pull your credit information, Quizzle doesn’t need your SSN to get your score. That’s a big plus in my opinion. One of the main reasons that I waited quite a long time before using Credit Karma was that I wasn’t very comfortable of giving my SSN to a new website. No such worry with Quizzle.

To get your score, you need to register first and providing information such as name and email address. After you create an account with Quizzle, it will send you a link to activate your account and once your account is active, you will be asked to provide your address and date of birth and that’s all Quizzle needs. It will then use only these information to locate your credit file at Experian and verify your identify by asking your a few questions based on your credit report. If everything goes well, you will have your free credit score in a minute.

The credit score range is from 350 to 850, different from FICO score which ranges from 300 to 850, also slightly different from Experian’s Score PLUS score.

Actually, I like how the score is presented at Quizzle better than at Credit Karma

In addition to free credit score, you can also get a free credit report every 6 months from Quizzle, something that’s no available at Credit Karma. Six months is quite a long time, but it’s only half the time you will have to wait to get a free credit report from the same agency through AnnualCreditReport.com.

The credit report isn’t as detailed as what you will find in reports purchased from the credit agencies or free reports from AnnualCreditReport.com, but it does contain basic information in all credit reports (as show above). Best of all, if you find anything wrong in the report, you can dispute the error with Experian right from within Quizzle. Very convenient.

What do you think?

BTW, I complained about the stability of my credit score at Credit Karma. At Quizzle, things seem going in the opposite direction. I got my first score 759 yesterday. When I logged into my account today, the score changed to 772. That’s a little too much too fast, isn’t it?

Well, since they are all free, I accept the fact that they are not *perfect*.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

I wrote a lengthy review of CreditKarma back in March. At that time, I thought I could use the free service to monitor my credit score because, though it isn’t really the FICO score, I can still use the relative changes to have an idea on how my credit score moves. Now, after six months, I have a little doubt about the usefulness of the program.

There are a few signs that make me come to this conclusion. First, my CreditKarma score almost didn’t change, only four points from March to September.

When I raised  the question to CreditKarma on Twitter, I was told that my score didn’t change because my credit is very stable. While I believe that’s the case, there are things happened in the last three months that could affect my score, though maybe only slightly. When I got my FICO score back in January, it was 792, but in June, the score dropped to 780. But the CreditKarma score didn’t change at all since April. But when I checked the Credit Report Card from CreditKarma, it showed that I had a hard credit inquiry recently, which I believe should have a negative impact on my score, but it’s not showing in the score.

Then the Credit Report Card, a new service from CreditKarma. It shows that I have an average credit length of 6 years and 5 months. However, the Equifax credit report I got early this month (I got a free credit report every four months from one of the three agencies) showed the average length as 7 years and 5 months. That’s a significant difference, though both reports have the oldest credit as 11 years and 8 months. My understanding is when credit score is calculated, the average credit history matters a lot as it accounts about 15% of the total score. If CreditKarma, or the credit agency it uses to provide the score, can’t get the credit length right, the score will very likely be wrong.

BTW, the Equifax report showed I have to hard pulls, all from real state agencies when I was searching a place to rent in August. CreditKarma reported only one.

Are you using CreditKarma too? Have you seen your score changed?

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

First in June, when I got my current job, I signed an agreement with my employer that authorizes them to check my credit. Then late last month, we made an offer to rent a private apartment. Part of the application was to check our credit history to see if we qualify. When we were told by our agent that our application was rejected, it really caught us off guard. It turned out that it wasn’t because of our credit, but there was another applicant who submitted their application on the same day bu can move 2 weeks earlier than we do. I was very upset by this because there was no way we can get the apartment (the owner has said to me he doesn’t want to lose any rent) but the owner checked our credit anyway. Then we tried to get a townhouse from a private owner. Our offer was accepted, but once we got the lease, we determined it wasn’t the contract we wanted to sign. That’s another credit check. Finally, last week we decided to get a managed apartment instead. We got it without any problem as I expected, as the expense of yet another credit check, though only my file was pulled.

So in less than two months, there were four credit inquiries on my file, which has never happened to me before. I wonder how much damage these inquiries can do on my credit score, though the last three happened in a rather short period of time. Thus, the idea of getting a credit monitor occurred to me. However, I am not sure whether it’s worth the money or not because I think I have done a pretty good job in managing stuff myself. Though I don’t and never had a credit monitor, I have been getting credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com every four months for years to keep an eye on things. In addition, I also use Credit Karma to monitor my FAKO score for free. And whenever there is a chance, I try to get a FICO score for free, on top of occasional purchases I made myself. But these recent activities just worry me a bit when my score is finally getting close to 800.

I posted my question on Twitter and got a few responses, all quite negative on the idea:

@mapgirlsfc I use credit monitoring. Good for measuring score improvement efforts & loan shopping. Otherwise, pointless. It’s not worth the money unless you are trying to secure another loan and need to know how good your score is/improve it.

@dolans credit monitoring: only worth it if you don’t have time and discipline to do it yourself.

@indexcreditcard IMO you will spend more on credit monitoring than you will ever lose from identity theft or credit report inaccuracies.

I haven’t decided whether to get one or not, but I checked a few services and found two that are quite interesting. One is the myFICO Credit Watch. It has a free 30-day trial, then an annual subscription fee of $89.95 ($7.50/month). With Credit Watch, I can get FICO score and Equifax credit report. The other one is Costco Total Protection with 3 credit bureau monitoring and 3-in-1 credit report with score. The monthly subscription fee is $9.99 for Executive Member.

Are you using any credit monitoring service? Do you think it’s worth it?

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

I got my free Experian PLUS score back in April when AMEX offered the deal to cardholders. Though it’s not the most widely used FICO score, it should still give you an idea of your credit worthiness if you haven’t checked your score recently. And it’s free.

However, it appears that you can only take advantage of this offer once. When I tried the link to see if the  score is updated, an error message showed up instead, saying the 30-day free period has expired. So if you have got the score before, don’t try again this time.

Use this link to get your complementary Experian PLUS score from American Experience. For details about this offer, see my previous post.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Since I have been doing this for very long time (I got my first credit report from Experian in 1999), I know exactly what to read each time I receive a new credit report, whether there’s a credit score comes with it or not (while credit reports can be provided to you for free by the law, you generally have to pay to get a credit score, FICO or FAKO, unless you take advantage some special promotions or use the free service from Credit Karma, for instance). If you have never got your hands on your credit report before, but are about to get your own copy for the first time (make sure you use AnnualCreditReport.com for absolutely free reports though), the following is information you can expect to see on your credit report. Even though each credit reporting agency may format the information differently on their reports, they all provide:

Credit Summary

Here you can find a quick summary of your credit information, including your personal information (name, former names if any, social security number, current address, previous addresses, and employers), the length of your credit history, the number of accounts you own, the number of accounts in good standing, any account late or past due, the number of accounts with balance, recent inquiries, and any collections or public records on file, etc.

Accounts

The quick summary gives you an idea of your credit, so you can see right away if there is any problem. But if you want to find out all the details of each and every account, you will need to go through the Accounts section of your credit file and review accounts you own. Here you will find the issuer of the account, the status of the account and when the latest status is reported,  the time when the account is opened/closed, date of last activity, account type (Revolving, Installment, or Mortgage), credit limit, largest balance, current balance, payment terms (if it’s a loan), and up to 3 years of payment history. In addition,  you will also find the number of times your account has been late for 30+ days, 60+ days, or 90+ days.

Generally, the Accounts part of your credit report also has a snapshot of all your accounts, showing information such as issuers, date account opened, balance, status, and whether there’s any late payment or not. It allows you to see quickly whether there’s any red flag of an account before going into the details.

Credit Inquiries

An inquiry indicates when a business, usually a lender, has checked your credit. It usually appears on your report when you apply for tcredit and authorize the creditor to obtain a copy of your credit file. In general, credit inquiries have a negative impact on  your credit score, even though not much. Nonetheless, having multiple inquiries in a short period of time suggests that you are actively seeking credit, which represents a greater risk to lenders.

There are two types of credit inquiries: those can be seen only by yourself and those by every lender. These inquires are usually referred to as soft pull and hard pull, as I discussed before. Your credit re port usually shows credit inquires of the past 12 months.

Collections and Public Records

If you have any unpaid account that has been turned over to a collection agency, or any legal record such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, garnishments, and tax liens, they will appear on your credit report as Collections or Public Records. Any collection or public record can severely damage your credit score.

Dispute an Error

Finally, if you find any information that is not correct after carefully reviewing your report,  you need to contact the credit reporting agency (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) from which you obtain your report and dispute the mistake.  Remember, your credit score depends on a lot on the accuracy of all the information on your credit report and any error could seriously hurt your score (that’s why you should check your report periodically). So it’s absolutely critical to keep information on your credit report, whether it’s personal information or credit information correct and up-to-date. If you find anything wrong, do not hesitate to contact the credit bureau to get it fixed. It’s not always easy and straightforward to deal with credit agencies, sometimes it even requires a large amount of time and efforts, but the cost of leaving an error on your report far outweighs the cost of having it corrected.

So have you got your free credit report yet?

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

However, FICO score isn’t the only credit score available. If you are buying a score from one of the credit reporting agencies or getting one through a free service, chances are the score is a FAKO one. For example, the free credit score offered by Credit Karma is TransUnion’s TransRisk score, not a FICO score. So what are other different scores and what are their ranges, as compared to FICO’s 300 and 850? Following are a few FAKO scores I have used in the past.

TransUnion TransRisk Score

TransRisk is a consumer credit score that’s developed by TransUnion, one of the three credit bureaus. TransRisk score simulates FICO score, but it isn’t a FICO score. The score has a range from 300 to 850, the same as the range of the FICO score. You can get TransRisk score for free from Credit Karma. It’s also available for free when you enroll in TrueCredit credit monitoring service from TransUnion. The cost is $14.95 per month.

Experian Score PLUS

Early this year, Experian decided to pull out its agreement with Fair Isaac and stop providing FICO score to its customers. Right now, one of the scores you can get from Experian is its own Score PLUS (last month Score PLUS was offered for free for AMEX cardholders). Score PLUS has a score range from 330 to 830, a little tighter than FICO score’s range. The score is included in the Experian’s Triple Advantage service ($14.95 per month).

VantageScore

VantageScore is jointly developed by TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax as an alternative of the FICO score. VantageScore ranges from 501 to 990, even though it uses the same underlying credit information as FICO score, and the score is divided into five grades, from “A” to “F” which “A” being the best. VantageScore is available from TransUnion and Experian.

Any other FACO scores out there that I am not aware of?

photo credit: TheTruthAbout…

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

This isn’t the FICO credit score that’s widely used by lenders which you can purchase from myFICO.com. It’s in fact the PLUS Score developed by Experian. In February, Experian decided to end its 6-year relationship with FICO. As a result, you can no longer purchase FICO score through Experian and Experian credit report is not offered at myFICO.com either. Experian PLUS Score ranges from 330 to 830, different from FICO score and no many lenders use PLUS Score to evaluate borrowers’ creditworthiness.

Anyway, as long as it’s free, I am not going to complain too much whether the score itself actually means anything or not. So I went ahead and ordered my PLUS Score, which is at 802 on a scale of 330 to 830. I have used a few FAKO scores before, like the Credit Karma score and the VantageScore from TransUnion, this is the first time that my score went over the 800 mark after converting the scores to the 330 to 830 range. As you can imagine, I am pretty happy with the score, even thought isn’t not a FICO (my latest FICO is at 792 in January). The Experian credit report listed following as positive factors to my credit score:

• You have paid your bills on time and currently do not have any overdue accounts or derogatory information, such as a collection, charge-off, or bankruptcy, on your report.
• You have a good cushion of available credit between your current balance and your credit limits on all open trades. This has a positive affect on your credit score. This cushion shows lenders that you are unlikely to overextend yourself financially.
• The total balance on all your credit cards is relatively low compared to your total available credit limit. This has a positive impact on your credit score.
• Your average credit limit for your major credit cards, such as Discover, American Express, VISA, or MasterCard, is high. This tells lenders that you have enough financial experience, and they will be more likely to see you as a good credit risk.

The credit score and report is available for 30 days with no charge. After 30 days, they will both expire with no action needed from you, as indicated in the FAQ:

How much does My Credit Score & Report cost?

My Credit Score & Report is a complimentary benefit offered exclusively to American Express Cardmembers. You pay absolutely nothing. Simply sign up to gain access to your Credit Score and Report.

How long will I be enrolled in My Credit Score & Report?

Your enrollment in My Credit Score & Report will last 30 days. After 30 days, you will no longer have access to your complimentary Credit Score and Report. If you wish to continue enjoying access to your Credit Score and Report, you may enroll in CreditSecure.

If you have an AMEX card and access you account online, you can use this link to get your free Experian PLUS Score.

*Source FatWallet.com

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Credit Karma Review

After holding off for more than a year, I finally decided to give it a try last week. The process was smooth and before long I was able to see my credit score after confirming that I authorized Credit Karma to pull it for me.

The score was pretty good, but I am not satisfied with it because I think I can score higher (the FICO score I got last month was indeed much better). And when I checked why my score was so low, I was very surprised by the reasons given:

• There are not enough premium bankcard accounts on your credit report
• There are too many bankcard accounts on your credit report
• Your mortgage account balances are too high in comparison with your credit limits

I guess all the cards I own are garbage because I have too many accounts but not enough premium cards And as of the last reason, if I understand it correctly, my mortgage account balance can be considered low comparing to my combined credit limits, not too high. As you can imagine, I am not happy with the explanation. But considering that the score is free and it’s not the FICO score that lenders are using, I am not going to complain too much about it.

And unlike other credit score services, from which you only get the score  at the moment you requested it and you will have to pay again if you want an update later, Credit Karma allows its customers to update their scores, again at no cost. That’s very sweet because, in my opinion, the change of score is as important as the score itself.

In addition to credit scores, Credit Karma also let its customers compare their scores against others to see where you are and how lenders see you if they were to provide you with a loan product today.

These are pretty standard services that you can get from any credit report agency. What’s new at Credit Karma is actually is the comparison among Credit Karma users, in the same state where you live, at your age group, even in same email domain (you will need to provide your email address when registering).

Credit Karma has a credit score simulator as well to let you see how you can improve or damage your score when certain things are done, such as

• Add a new credit card to your report
• Add a new loan to your credit report
• Add credit inquires to your credit report
• Increase the credit line on one credit card
• Open a new credit card & transfer balance from existing credit cards
• Close your oldest credit card account
• Increase or decrease you credit card balances
• Pay off all credit card balances
• Allow one monthly account to become past due 30, 60, or 90 days
• Allow all monthly accounts to become past due 30, 60, or 90 days
• Have an on-time credit history
• Add public record to your account
• Have one account go into collections
• Declare bankruptcy

As you can see, there are many actions you can take to see how your score will be affected. While taking most actions listed above will certainly hurt your credit score, not improve it, it serves as a reminder that in order to maintain a good credit history and credit score, one has to be responsible.

Overall, I think as a free service, Credit Karma provides some value to its customers, even though the credit score isn’t the really the one used by lenders. Since Credit Karma allows users to update their scores (the score can also be updated automatically once every month, thus can be used as a free credit score monitoring service), users can stay on top on their credit information. Nowadays, credit score and credit history are vital for consumers.

Interview with Credit Karma CEO Ken Lin

With the help from Jessica Swain of Atomic Public Relations, I recently had an interview with Credit Karma CEO Ken Lin on some questions I have regarding the general services provided by Credit Karma. Together my review above, I hope the interview will give you a better idea about Credit Karma.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit more about Credit Karma and what Credit Karma is offering?

A: Credit Karma is a completely free pro-consumer service that offers users free access to their credit scores, a range of interactive financial resources, and tools to help track and optimize a users credit score.

Q: I first learned about Credit Karma in early 2008, but I didn’t try to get a score myself until recently. My main concern is giving out my personal information to a new company I never heard of. How does Credit Karma protect its customer’s identity?

A: Credit Karma uses the same encryption and security precautions as leading financial institutions. In addition, we proactively delete all user account information and social security numbers. Those sensitive pieces of information are never stored on our servers.

Q: Does Credit Karma calculate its own credit score? If it doesn’t, then which credit score (FICO, VantageScore) does Credit Karma use? Does Credit Karma process the score before showing it to a customer? Will a customer see different scores when he/she gets the score directly from one of the three credit reporting agencies?

A: No. Credit Karma purchases its credit scores from TransUnion, one of the three credit bureaus. This ensures that our credit score is the same model used by dozens of credit monitor sites and lenders. Our credit score is the TransUnion TransRisk score. The TransRisk score is a model developed and used by TransUnion. It is the same score used by dozens of credit monitoring sites like TrueCredit or PrivacyMatters use for their consumer credit monitoring services.

As you suggested, there are multiple scores between bureaus. We hope that one score provides a better user experience and less confusion.

Q: For people more familiar with FICO score, how can they translate their Credit Karma score to FICO score to have a better idea where they are?

A: There is no direct translation algorithm. Consumers have to understand that there are hundreds of different credit scores in use. This makes it tremendously difficult to compare and contrast scores. Even within FICO they have dozens of different scores that lenders use in the underwriting process.

That is why we use one consistent score so consumers can compare their everyday actions with their same score over time. Consumers need to be aware that all credit scores are created from the same data (credit reports) using the same mathematic process (logistic regression). Those two factors make credit scores highly correlated, meaning movement in one score is highly indicative of movement in other scores.

Q: Does getting my credit score through Credit Karma actually end up hurting my credit score? If I ask Credit Karma to update my credit score once every month, will that hurt?

A: No, and this is a very common question and often causes concern among consumer. Credit score requests from the consumer about their own score is known as a soft inquiry. Those inquiries do not affect their score.

It is hard inquiries that negatively affect scores. Hard inquiries are credit requests from lenders such as credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and banks.

Q: Another concern I have is how long Credit Karma can keep offering its customers free credit scores. We recently saw a broker almost abandoned completely its free trade offer. As a business, how does Credit Karma make money to maintain its business model? As an customer, I certainly don’t want to see what’s free now becomes fee based later.

A: We and our sponsors believe access to one’s credit score is a fundamental consumer right. As such, we have built the business to be always free. Unlike other financial services companies, we have a tight control on our expenses and don’t spend much on marketing. We grow through bloggers, journalist, and users and this helps keep us highly competitive.

Q:  How Can Credit Karma help consumers in this economic environment?

A: In this economic environment, good credit is more important than ever. Credit Karma can be a valuable resource to help manage your credit score with expert advice and interactive tools. In addition, our service helps consumers monitor their credit for identity theft, something on the rise in these bad economic times.

Q: Finally, do you have any advice for us?

A: Good credit is probably one of the most important factors of a consumers financial health. With it, consumers have many more options available for financing needs and can save thousands of dollars in interest over their lifetime. We hope consumers will embrace the value and start using credit more wisely and more to their benefit.

Thanks Ken for your time!

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

But you need to act quickly.

Equifax is offering free FICO score again through FreeFICOScore.com again is  to the first 10,000 people who request their scores.

I got my free FICO score last time when the promotion was ran in January. The process of requesting your score was quite simple, taking only a few minutes to complete and no credit card information is required (so you can be sure it’s free). However, if you have participated in the promotion last time, then you won’t be able to get an updated score this time.

Get your free FICO score using this link now before it’s gone again.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

myFICO is offering free credit score for registered myFICO Forum users. Check out details of how to get your free score at My Money Blog and see the details. Or you can simply use this link, then click the “Get your Free FICO score now” on the right as shown below to register and get your free FICO score if you are lucky enough to be one of the first 10,000 The whole process took only a few minutes. However, it seems that you have to create your account twice, once with myFICO.com and once with FreeFICOScore.com. Of course, you have to provide your personal information in order to get the score, but no credit card or any payment information is required.

What’s my score? I am at 792. The score was a little better than last time when I checked. Back then my score was 788. The score is till good, but I am a bit disappointed with only 4 points improvement in nearly two years. I thought I could finally go over 800

So what caused the smaller than expected increase in my credit score? There are a few I can definitely relate to that since my last credit score:

• I got a new Citi Driver’s Edge card early last year and transferred a big balance to pay off our car loan;
• Then I opened another account in July to buy a mattress 5-year interest free;
• One of my card got canceled due to inactivity recently.

At the same time, I still maintain a *perfect* credit record with no late payment or anything, as the free credit report I recently got from TransUnion showed.

I will have to wait next time, after I pay off the remaining $11,000 balance transfer, to see if I can cross the 800 line

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

You probably have heard a lot of commercials on the radio touting free credit reports for people who are eager to find out their creditworthiness in the eyes of creditors. If you get yours from one of the places like freecreditreport.com, which is a service from Experian, then you are likely getting more than you want. For example, you can indeed get free credit reports from freecreditreport.com, but at the same time you will have to pay for other services you don’t want: The Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring, which will cost you $14.95 per month. In fact, if you are willing to pay, then you can get your *free* report from almost anywhere.

If a free credit report is what you really want, then there’s only one place where you can get it absolutely free: AnnualCreditReport.com.

It has been more than four years since the provisions of New Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT ACT) allowed everyone to obtain a free credit report from each of the three credit agencies every 12 months. So, by law, you don’t have to pay to get your free report.

AnnualCreditReport.com, sponsored by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, is the only authorized site that can provide consumers free credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies. It was created after the amendment to the FACT ACT was passed four years ago. To maker sure you don’t go to any other bogus sites for your reports, you can access AnnualCreditReport.com directly from the Federal Trade Commission website at http://www.ftc.gov/freereports.

To begin the process of getting your free credit report, you will first select the state you are living in, then provide your personal information. The next step is to choose from which agency to get your report. You may also need to create an account with the company in order to do that. There is, however, a strict requirement on the. If you request your report from, say Experian, December 10, 2007, you have to wait exactly 12 months for your next one. If you attempt to request one again from Experian today, December 9, 2008, then you will be denied. So wait for exactly one year.

Since everybody is eligible for a free report from each of the three companies, you can get three reports in any 12-month period. Here’s what I do to use these reports more efficiently: Instead of getting all three at once, I request one every four months. It’s not as good as a monthly monitoring service, but I can catch any error in my report relatively quickly

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

The free 2-year subscription is supposed only to be available to Ocean Bank customers, but somehow it works for everyone with the promotion code, whether you are a true Ocean Bank customer or not (at least I get through without any problem):

This offer is for Ocean Bank personal deposit customers only. Credit monitoring will remain free and in effect for 2 years from the date of enrollment so long as you remain a Ocean Bank personal deposit customer.

Use this link to begin the enrollment process. First, write down the promotion code 20166369. Once you are directed to Equifax website, you will need to create an account first if you don’t have one with them already, then you will be informed that you have selected the Equifax Credit Watch Silver. Continue to the Payment page.

Enter the promotion code you just wrote down and submit your order. Then the total cost of your 2-year subscription becomes zero with this information: 24 Months FREE, then $3.45 per month. So you will have to remember to cancel the subscription before it expires in two years, otherwise you will have to pay $3.45 monthly subscription fee. The good thing is, it didn’t ask me for any credit card information. After submitting the payment information, you will get an email confirmation of your order.

That’s it.

The next screen you see is the Equifax Credit Watch screen where you can create your own credit watch alerts.

One more free product with this subscription is that you can get one free copy of your Equifax credit report every year (so you can have two free reports in total). Not that this is a big deal (because you can get one free credit report from all three credit agencies every year from AnnualCreditReport.com), but it’s still nice to have. To get your free credit report, click Equifax Credit Report, on the next screen when it asks for a promotion code, don’t enter anything. Just submit your order and you will get your free report

Get at least the free credit report before it’s gone. Nobody knows how long the promotion code is going to last.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Last year, when Fair Issac, the creator of FICO credit score, announced that it no longer considers authorized user accounts when calculating FICO score, the action generated quiet some discussions because it affected many people negatively and it’s a common practice to add family members as authorized users to an existing credit card to help them establish their credit. While the change was aimed to prevent people from “buying” other people’s good scores so they can get a favorable interest rate, it also blocked a shortcut for genuine authorized users, such as children or spouse, who have no credit history of their own.

This is about to change again, not because Fair Issac reversed its decision, but its has a new set of formula for future scoring. Fair Issac posted on its website that it has developed a new technology to restore authorized user accounts when calculating FICO 08 scores:

Fair Isaac analysts have created a way to restore authorized user accounts to the calculation of FICO® scores 08, while materially reducing any potential impact to the score from tampering. Fair Isaac is now adding the patent-pending technology advance to its FICO® score formula. Fair Isaac estimates that more than 50 million US consumers are legitimate authorized users on another person’s credit card.

Good news? Definitely, though there’s no word on when FICO 08 score will be available.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Under the settlement, which still needs court approval, TransUnion agrees to provide about 150 million Americans three options:

1. Six months of TransUnion’s credit-monitoring service for free, giving consumers unlimited access to their credit reports and scores, and email notifications when changes occur on their credit reports. The settlement values this service at $59.75.
2. Nine months of the credit-monitoring service, plus access to the credit scores used in insurance decisions, and TransUnion’s mortgage simulator service, by which consumers can see how their credit score affects their mortgage rate. Value: $115.50.

The third option lets consumers take cash instead of the free services, but no payment will be made in at least two years, according to the MarketWatch report.

But don’t get too excited about the free credit score because it isn’t the FICO score that most lenders use when assessing one’s credit worthiness. It’s TransUnion’s proprietary score, which uses a difference scale than FICO score (could it be VantageScore which ranges from 501 to 990?). But still a free service won’t hurt, especially for those who will seek a loan in the near future.

If you want to participate in the settlement, go to ListClassAction.com (looks like the site is down when I last checked it) and register before June 16, or call (866) 416-3470.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

VantageScore is NOT FICO socre. And here are how the two are different.

Every January, May, and September is free credit report time for us and we have been getting one credit report for free every four months from one of the three credit bureaus for many years, well before the law that made everybody eligible for a free report every calendar year. On January 3, I requested our annual reports from TransUnion, but this time I also ordered an extra item, a credit score, a VantageScore credit score to be exact.

Though I have purchased FICO credit score several times in the past, I always buy it through myFICO because FICO score is the standard that is widely used by lenders. Prior to January 3, I didn’t even know there exists a competitor called VantageScore, despite the *new* product has been around for more than a year Anyway, I didn’t cancel my order after being told that I will get VantageScore instead of FICO score. I wanted to see how the new score looks like. And here it is.

I was quite shocked to see my score at 916 because I usually get 700 something from FICO, then I realized that VantageScore uses a different score range than FICO’s which is normally between 300 and 850. If converted to the 300 to 850 range, my 916 score will be equivalent to 789, almost identical to the last FICO score I got in August. For VantageScore, whose score range is from 501 to 990, in addition to the score, it also assigns a grade:

• “A” credit: 901-990
• “B” credit: 801-900
• “C” credit: 701-800
• “D” credit: 601-700
• “F” credit: 501-600

Since this is the first time that I used VantageScore, I did a little research to get some background information on what exactly it is and how it is different from FICO score.

What’s VantageScore

According to Wikipedia, VantageScore was created by the three leading credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, to compete with FICO score, the dominant player in the credit score business. VantageScore was launched on March 16, 2006 and currently is offered by the three agencies. From VantageScore’s website, its features also include:

• Predicts the likelihood of future serious delinquencies (90 days late or greater) on any type of account;
• Consumer score is based primarily on a 24-month review of a consumer’s credit file;
• Includes up to four score factor codes and a fifth FACTA reason code;
• Can be accessed from all three CRCs;
• Does not consider “authorized-user” tradelines to assess credit risk.

The last feature, regarding authorized users, will actually be implemented in the latest update of FICO score formula.

Differences between VantageScore and FICO score

As a competitor to FICO score, VantageScore promises to offer “a highly predictive score with a consistent interpretation of consumer credit files across all three major credit reporting companies.” In addition to the 501 to 990 score range and 5 credit grades, VantageScore also takes a different approach in calculating credit score. According an article on Bankrate.com, VantageScore considers six factors, one more than FICO score:

From what I can see, VantageScore’s Utilization plus Balance is equivalent to FICO’s Amount owed and Types of credit uses, Depth of credit is similar to Length of credit history, and Recent credit is new credit. The only item that’s *new* is Available credit, but can’t it be part of Utilization?

What’s negative with VantageScore

As part of the credit score, VantageScore also listed what it considered as negative factors of my credit score:

1. The sum of your bank credit card account balances is too high: High credit balances may be considered by lenders to be a negative factor when determining creditworthiness. Paying down your balance may improve your score.
2. The amount paid on your open real estate accounts is too low: Having little paid down on some accounts may be considered by lenders to be a negative factor when determining creditworthiness.
3. Your average credit amount on open real estate accounts is too low: Having credit available to you is a sign that you are able to manage your finances responsibly. Lenders usually like to see that consumers have a large amount of credit available to them.
4. The balances on your open accounts are too high in comparison to their credit limits: It is a good idea to use your accounts regularly, but remember to keep your balances low in comparison to your available credit limits. Having a high ratio of balances to credit limits on open accounts may be viewed negatively by lenders.

They are quite different from those negative factors on FICO credit score reports, especially the two items related to “real estate account.” Honestly, I don’t really understand what “average credit amount on open real estate accounts” really means. If I am 5 years into a 30-year mortgage, the credit amount could still be low compared to the loan amount, though I have made on-time monthly payment from day one. Does that mean I am less “able to manage your finances responsibly”? I don’t think so!

Special Offer: Get 20% of your official FICO score.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Applying for new credit accounts may hurt less.

Having high balances on your credit cards could hurt more.

Actively using the credit accounts you have may be more important.

Having both revolving and installment accounts on your report could help you more, as the new formula is more sensitive to your ability to handle different types of credit.

Among the new changes, the one that I particularly like is getting more credit cards may not hurt my score much with the new formula, as I have been averaging 2 new cards a year for a quite long time. Though my own example has already proved to some degree that having dozens of credit cards all in good standing doesn’t hurt my credit score, it’s still a good news for someone like me who is active in the credit card arbitrage game

The article also offers some tips on how to get and maintain a good credit scores, such as lower the balance, don’t close old accounts and keep them active, etc. However, I won’t use those old cards that I haven’t used in years once every month as the article suggested just for the purpose of keeping them active. That will effectively create a nightmare when I pay the bills.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

The following are what I have found out.

What they are

“Hard pull” usually refers to credit inquiries that are initiated by you. When you, for example, apply for a credit card or a loan or sign up a new wireless service, the lender will run a credit check to determine whether to grant you the loan and at what rate. These inquiries are usually called voluntary inquiries.

However, not every voluntary credit inquiry will be treated as “hard pull.” For example, when I applied for the FNBO account last month, only “soft pull” was conducted. “Soft pull,” also known as involuntary inquiry, happens when creditors want to send you pre-approved credit applications, or when they want to verify the accuracy of the information you provide (in the FNBO case). Also when you check your own credit history, the entry will appear as a “soft pull” as well.

How they appear on credit reports

In the past year, I have obtained my credit reports from all three credit bureaus and they all report both “hard pulls” and “soft pulls”, though with slightly different terminologies.

TransUnion lists credit inquiries in two categories:

• Regularly inquiries: These are equivalent to “hard pulls” and will remain on the credit report for two years;
• Account review inquiries: These are “soft pulls” and according to TransUnion, companies use “soft pulls”

for the purpose of an account review or other business transaction with you. These inquiries are not displayed to anyone but you and will not affect any creditor’s decision or any score.

Experian shows credit checks as

• Requests viewed by others: These requests are usually “hard pulls” as they are

results of actions involving you, such as the completion of a credit application or the transfer of an account to a collection agency, application for insurance, mortgage or loan application, etc. Creditors may view these requests when evaluating your creditworthiness.

• Requests viewed only by you: These are “soft pulls” that are not available to creditors when they evaluate your credit.

Equifax displays inquiries in three parts:

• Inquiries in the last 12 months: These inquiries are

“hard” or voluntary inquiries and were generated because you authorized the companies listed to request a copy of your credit report. Most credit scores are calculated using only inquiries from the last 12 months. Your credit score is generally not affected by several inquiries that are posted at about the same time, such as when you shop for the best auto loan or mortgage rates.

• Inquiries that do not display to companies and do not impact your credit score: These are “soft” inquiries from previous definition. These inquiries are not shown to creditors and, thus, are not considered in credit evaluation.
• Companies that requested your credit file: This section is unique to Equifax as the other two don’t have a third category. What interesting is that it’s unclear whether the information under this category will affect credit score because Equifax says lenders “may view these requests when evaluating your credit worthiness.”

How they affect credit scores

From the descriptions above, we can see that “soft pulls” will not affect credit scores as those inquiries are not included in the information that is available to lenders. It’s the “hard pull” that will have an impact on credit score. According to the report I received from myFICO,

FICO scores only consider the voluntary inquiries listed on your credit report from the past twelve months.

Even that, a single inquiry is not going to have any significant impact on your credit score.

According to myFICO, the way FICO is calculating the credit score shows that new credit, which is the result of your voluntary inquiry, only counts 10% of the overall credit score.

Who performs hard pull

FatWallet.com has a list of financial institutions that perform “hard” credit inquiries when one applies for financial products other than a credit card or a loan. I consider this information useful when, for example, two banks offer similar products with same rates, but one does soft pull and one pulls a hard one, then I will choose the former over the latter. Also, if one plans to get a mortgage soon, then opening multiple checking/savings accounts or brokerage accounts from institutions that do conduct “hard” inquiries will affect the credit scores and, thus, the interest rates.

I edited the list (shortened it) to it only contains entries that are of general interests. Use the link above to access the complete list.

• American Express – for a One Financial account
• Ameriprise Insurance – for car insurance quote
• AT&T – for wireless phone account
• Bank of America – for checking/savings/MM/CD accounts
• Bank of New York – for checking/savings account
• Brown & Co. – for every account
• Chase Manhattan Bank – for checking account
• Cingular Wireless – for wireless phone account
• Citibank – for checking/savings/ e-Savings/CD account
• Comcast cable – for TV/high speed internet account
• Ebank – for checking account
• Everbank – for checking/money market account
• GMAC Bank – for money market account
• ING Direct – for Electric Orange checking account
• Presidential Bank – for checking account
• Schwab – for checking account
• Scottrade – hard pull on Equifax
• State Farm Auto Insurance – for auto insurance quote
• T-Mobile – for wireless phone account
• TD Ameritrade – for IRA account
• UFBDirect.com – for money market savings account
• Verizon – for phone/DSL/VoIP/wireless phone account
• Wachovia – for checking account
• Wells Fargo – for changing address or adding additional account holder on existing account

Special Offer: Earn hundreds of dollars of bonuses from banks and brokers.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

To get your free credit report, be aware that the only authorized website for free credit report is AnnualCreditReport.com, which you can find on FTC’s website (click Consumer Protection -> Credit & Loans -> Credit Reports, or use this link, then you will find the Annual Credit Report link on the right). Also it has to be exactly 12 months since you obtained your last report from the same credit agency, not even one day earlier; otherwise your request will be denied.

With Annual Credit Report, you can only get a report for free, without a credit score. To get a credit score, you will have to use paid services. I usually get my credit score through myFico.com and use information from Equifax instead of from just any credit bureau so I can compare the changes over time. If you prefer to have both the credit report and credit score at the same time when getting your Annual Credit Report, you will have the option to add the credit score to your purchase with extra fees. For example, when I ordered my Equifax credit score from myFICO.com three months ago, I paid $15.95 for the report plus the score. If, however, you want to get your score at the same time you order your Annual Credit Report, you just need to pay $7.95 extra for the Equifax score. Seems to be quite a good deal.

There are many other places where you can purchase credit report, credit score and credit monitoring services. The following is a list of fee-based credit service providers I collected.

TrueCredit fro TransUnion

• Trial period: None
• What are offered:
  • Unlimited access to all three credit reports and credit scores
  • Notification within 24 hours of critical changes to all 3 reports
  • $25,000 ID Theft Insurance at no additional cost
  • No obligation, cancel anytime.
• Regular:
  • $14.95 per month

ScoreWatch from Equifax [Affiliate link]

• Trial period: 30 days free
• What are offered:
  • Continuous score monitoring and notification when a change in FICO score impacts the interest rate you are likely to receive
  • Daily monitoring of Equifax credit report with email notification of key changes
  • Two Free Score Power reports plus discounts on additional Score Power reports
• Regular:
  • $8.95 per month

CreditExpert from Experian

• Trial period: 30 days free
• What are offered:
  • Daily monitoring of your credit report and alerts of key changes alert you of potential fraudulent activity.
  • Unlimited access to Experian Credit Report and PLUS Score with paid membership.
  • Receive instantly personal credit report and credit score online
• Regular:
  • $9.95 per month
  • One-time purchase: 3-bureau credit report and a credit score for $34.95, Experian credit report and PLUS Score for $14.50

ScoreWatch from myFICO [Affiliate link]

• Trial period: 30 days free
• What are offered:
  • Credit monitors important changes to your FICO score and Equifax credit report
  • Alerts when important changes are detected
• Regular:
  • $89.95 annual fee

IdentityMonitoring from Citi

• Trial period: 30 days free
• What are offered:
  • Credit Monitoring every business day to keep track of your credit file activity
  • Alerts when there’s certain activity, allowing you to detect fraud
  • Credit report and score free with enrollment
  • 3-in-1 credit Report, score and monitoring access at no additional cost
  • Reimburse up to $25,000 of eligible identity theft recovery expenses
• Regular:
  • $12.95 per month

CreditKeeper from HSBC

• Trial period: 30 days free
• What are offered:
  • Unlimited access to your credit reports and score
  • Daily automated credit monitoring to alert you to changes on your credit reports
• Regular:
  • $9.95 per month

CreditSecure from American Express

• Trial period: 30 days free, for AMEX cardmembers only
• What are offered:
  • Unlimited access to 3-bureau credit report and Credit Scores from all 3 bureaus after the trial period
  • Daily monitoring of all three credit reports with an e-mail alert when critical changes are detected
  • Identity Theft coverage policy for up to $5,000 per occurrence
  • Track your score each month with Experian PLUS Score Trending
• Regular:
  • $11.99 per month

IdentityGuard from Costco

• Trial period: None
• What are offered:
  • 3-in-1 credit report & 3 credit scores
  • 3-bureau credit monitoring & alerts
  • Monthly credit report & score
• Regular:
  • $9.49 per month for Gold Star members and $7.49 per month for Executive members

PrivacyGuard

• Trial period: $1 for the first 2 months
• What are offered:
  • Credit report from 3 credit reporting agencies
  • Credit score instant access from 3 credit reporting agencies
  • Daily monitoring of credit
  • Up to $10,000 reimbursement for certain expenses you incur if your identity is stolen
• Regular
  • $129.99 annual fee
  • Single-bureau credit report for $9.99, three-bureau $34.99

PrivacyMatters

• Trial period: 7 days free
• What are offered:
  • Unlimited to 3-in-1 credit report
  • Triple credit scores, showing all three credit scores from the national credit reporting bureaus
  • Triple bureau credit monitoring with automated e-mail alert whenever new activity that may affect your credit report or credit score occurs
• Regular:
  • $29.95 per month
  • One-time purchase of 3-bureau credit report for $29.95

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

You may be eligible to receive a benefit from a class action settlement if you purchased, paid for and received a credit score or credit monitoring offering from an Equifax website (Equifax.com), Equifax entity, Fair Isaac website (myFICO.com) or a reseller of the Suze Orman FICO® Kit between November 19, 1999 and February 8, 2007.

A federal court has directed that this notice be sent to inform you of a proposed class action settlement. Records show that you entered into an agreement with an Equifax and/or Fair Isaac entity (including through a website) between November 19, 1999 and February 8, 2007 to purchase one or more of the following “Offerings”: Score Power®; Credit Watch^TM; Score Watch^TM; 3-in-1 Monitoring; Credit Rankings^TM with Score Power®; Credit Rankings^TM with 3-in-1 with Score Power®; Credit Rankings^TM with Credit Report; Credit Rankings^TM with 3-in-1; 3-in-1 with Score Power®; Score Power® by mail; Credit Watch^TM by mail; FICO® Score (with Equifax, TransUnion or Experian reports); FICO® Deluxe; Suze Orman FICO® Kit; CreditSync; and Credit Advantage. If so, you may be eligible to receive a benefit under the proposed Settlement.

The Settlement will resolve two lawsuits in which claims are made that Equifax Consumer Services, Inc. (”Equifax”) and Fair Isaac Corporation (”Fair Isaac”) (collectively, the “Defendants”) violated the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act and similar state laws. Under the Settlement, the Defendants deny that they are liable, but have agreed to make certain changes to the Offerings and to the advertising and marketing of the Offerings. In addition, a Settlement Class member who purchased an Offering from one of the Defendants will receive 3 free months of Score Watch from that Defendant. A Settlement Class member who purchased an Offering from both of the Defendants will receive 3 free months of Score Watch from each of the Defendants for a total of 6 months of Score Watch. You will not be required to purchase anything. These benefits are truly free. All that is necessary is for you to fill out an Authentication Form to protect your privacy rights. Score Watch is a valuable benefit.

I have purchased two Equifax FICO scores from myFICO.com in the past year and that’s the reason why I received this notice. If you also have purchased any above mentioned product(s) from the defendents and like to participate in the settlement, here’s what you can do:

In order to receive the free months of Score Watch, you need only submit an Authentication Form either on-line or by mail. An Authentication Form may be obtained on-line at www.hillisslacksettlement.com, by calling 1-800-262-0454 or by sending a written request to the Settlement Administrator at Hillis Slack Settlement, c/o The Garden City Group, Inc., P.O. Box 9114, Dublin, OH 43017-4114. Your Authentication Form must be submitted on-line or postmarked (if sent by mail) not later than 75 days after the Effective Date. For more information on these deadlines, the Effective Date of the Settlement, the Authentication procedure, and the settlement benefits, you may visit www.hillisslacksettlement.com.

If you are eligible, the deadline to make a decision is May 4, 2007.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

For ID theft, the 18 to 39 age group is especially vulnerable, accounting for 52% of all the ID theft complaints in 2006:

One way to fight ID theft is to stay on top of your credit information by checking your credit reports regularly for FREE, but make sure you get them from the ONLY authorized source, annualcreditreport.com. To prevent mis-spelling that could lead to places like freecreditreport.com (if you Google “free credit report,” you will find freecreditreport.com tops the search returns), go directly to FTC website, ftc.gov, and find the blue FREE Annual Credit Reports button on the left side. I order a report for both of us every four months from one of the three credit agencies instead of getting them all at once to maximize the benefit.

If you enjoyed reading this post, subscribe to the RSS feed or get it via email delivery.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

To order yours, you should not try to Google "free credit report." The only authorized website for free credit report is AnnualCreditReport.com, which you can find on FTC’s website (on the left, there is a Free Annual Credit Reports button). Also it has to be exactly 12 months, not one day earlier.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Since I have accessed my Paypal account for a while, I don't know exactly when this new service is available. But this does sound a good service if it's really free. Following the link, I went to a new page with little more information for what is being offered:

Registration process

After clicking the Sign Up button, I was brought to Equifax registration page. The registration process has four steps:

1. I provided my name and address,
2. I gave my social security number, date of birth and selected user name and password
3. Equifax used the information I provided to verify my identity (in my case, it asked who's my mortgage provider and the monthly payment)
4. After verifying my identity, Equifax showed the final payment page

which shows that the total cost for this service is indeed free. After I submitted the order, I also received an email from Equifax which again confirmed that I don't have to pay anything for it. Logging into the newly created account, I found the following credit alerts are included in this free service:

• Balance Amount Change
• Balance Percent Change
• New credit inquiries

and I can modify the balance amount change and percent change thresholds to my desired level.

Summary

Overall, the free service is not as advanced as other fee-based services that Equifax offers. But for the purpose of monitoring credit inquires and credit cards usages, it seems to be enough. And since it is only an alert, you can't really prevent the fraud from happening as it doesn't put a stop when, for example, a higher than threshold amount is about to be charged on your credit cards. The registration process is also quite simple. The only concerned I had was when I was asked to provided my SSN and DoB, though I went to the page through a link in my Paypal account. The order confirmation email was sent from Member.Benefits@equifax.com.

If you want to try this free service, you may find the link on the left hand side of you My Account page. 

If you enjoyed reading this post, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Starting this year, when the free credit reports became available for New Jersey residents, I set up an alart (use Yahoo Calendar) on January 1st, May 1st, and September 1st, to remind me to get a free report. Instead of getting all three reports at once, I request of a copy every four months from one of the agencies. In this way I can continuously monitor my credit throughout the year. Should there be any error, I don’t have to wait for a year to catch it.

Since there are tons of “free credit report” offers out there, you have to make sure that you get the real stuff you intend to get instead of some commercial products that are not free at all. Don’t try to Google anything like

"free credit report"

"free credit score"

"free credit check"

"one free credit report"

"free credit report online"

"free credit monitoring"

"free credit rating"

"free credit history"

because if you do, it’s likely you will end up in those dirty hands. The only authorized website for free credit report is AnnualCreditReport.com, which you can find on FTC’s website (on the left, there is a Free Annual Credit Reports button).

Enjoy your free credit reports!

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus

Here’s what happened.

Early this month, I filled the paper work to move part of my Roth IRA assets from Scottrade to Vanguard. At the same time, my wife also submitted her application for transferring two Vanguard funds as well. Both applications were mailed on the same day.

Last Saturday, four prospects of four funds that I wanted to transfer out of Scottrade arrived, mailed directly by Vanguard instead of by Scottrade as before. I took that as a sign that they already received and processed my application. But what about my wife's? Since both applications were mailed on the same day from the same location, they should also have received it. However, there was no mail or email about my wife's application. Could it be lost in the mail? And the form has all her personal information, name, DOB, SSN, and bank account number, on it.

So I called Vanguard the first thing this morning and what I feared most had indeed happened: there was no any information about my wife’s application! Checked with name, SSN, address, and nothing showed up. I had sent mutual fund applications by regular mail dozens of times in the past, and all went through without any incident. Actually, when I was at the post office the other day, I thought about getting a delivery confirmation for the application (I wanted to make sure Vanguard, not somebody else, receives it), but that only applies to priority mail or parcel, not regular mail. And certified mail wouldn’t serve what I wanted either. In the end, I decided to go with regular mail instead of priority mail since there was no mishap before. And I just wanted to save a couple of bucks!

If I had spent four dollars more, I could have been assured that the mail reached its destination, instead of sitting here and worrying about what could happen with all my wife’s personal information. The damage may not as severe if the application was simply lost in the mail, but what if it gets into somebody else’s hands? Could she become a victim of identity theft? Should I start a credit monitoring service for her?

I just couldn't imagine the worst case.

Original Post on The Sun's Financial Diary

Special bonus offers

• OptionsHouse 100 Commission Free Trades
• Lending Club $25 Sign Up Bonus
• TradeKing $50 New Account Bonus in November
• CollegeAdvantage $50 Bonus