These are the states that participated in the agreement with Dell: AZ, AR, CA, CT, DE, FL, IL, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, UT, WA, WV, VT, and WI.

If your state is on this list and you bought Dell goods or services between April 1, 2005 and April 13, 2009, you may want to see if you are eligible for part of the settlement.  Go to your state’s Attorney General’s website and search for “dell settlement”. 

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GOOD CREDIT?
Great question.  The answer is: nothing directly. 

However, if you are able to get some extra money, it may help your family’s budget and avoid late payments, which are the biggest part of your credit score.  Or you may be able to pay down a credit card balance, helping your Utilization Ratio which could help your scores grow.  It may be the cash you need for the new tires so you don’t have to charge them on a credit card.  Or it may be the starter money for your Smart Fund, to help with unexpected expenses in the future.  All of these actions can help you get better credit scores.

Check out the claim info and submit yours BEFORE April 13, 2009.  For more credit building information, you can subscribe to updates with the link on the right under Sites.

More and more frequently, credit card companies are looking for ways to reduce their risk of loss.  This includes reducing credit limits on credit card accounts, even on customers with a good payment history on the account. 

They are also sending out letters notifying long time customers that their credit card account is being closed due to inactivity or dormancy.  This means that if there is an account that has not been used in a while, the credit card company might close it rather than risk a consumer maxing out the account and then being unable to pay it back.

WHAT TO DO
Keep your revolving accounts, such as major credit cards, retail store and gasoline accounts, active by using them at least twice a year.  NOTE: This does not mean that you should go out and charge big ticket items and use up your credit card limit.

HOW TO DO IT
Use your card for a small purchase of something you were going to buy anyway, perhaps a tank of gas or a pair of pants.  When the credit card bill comes the following month, pay it in full early, before the due date.  This should keep it reported as active and open to the credit bureaus where it will be included in your Utilization Ratio.  And you won’t pay any finance charges or interest fees by paying the account in full.

Mark your calendar or planner to schedule regular use of the cards as CREDIT BUILDING TOOLS.  Remember, this strategy is only to help grow your scores, NOT to increase your credit card debt.  You can get more details on this and other credit building strategies, specifically tailored to your accounts, with your Credit Check Up.

According to ITRC, only 2.4% of the 2008 breaches had encryption and only 8.5% of them had password protection.  Obviously, businesses and government have a long way to go to protect sensitive consumer information.

That leaves us, as consumers, to try and protect our information as much as possible.  It is important because inaccurate and fraudulent information on your credit report can lead to lower credit scores. 

WHAT TO DO

Include Credit Monitoring as part of your regular Financial Fitness routine.  Look on your credit  report for accounts, names and addresses that you don’t recognize.  Report the errors to ALL THREE credit bureaus, even if you only looked at one report.  You should receive updated credit reports from all three in response to your letter.

Be proactive with Identity Theft Prevention.  This includes limiting the number of times you give out your Social Security number and regularly shredding all financial and personal statements that are going into the trash.

Take the Identity Theft Quiz provided by ITRC and start using the additional preventative measures that they list.

Respond quickly to any data breach letters you may receive in the mail and follow the instructions completely.  They usually include credit report monitoring which gives an opportunity to check immediately, and into the future, for signs of fraudulent activity.  Be sure to keep copies of everything, especially the initial letter about the breach, as they may be important tools to remove inaccurate accounts from your credit reports in the future.

Be proactive with the businesses your frequently use.  Take the ITRC’s Consumer Risk Test to the places you do business with to find out how much they are doing to protect your personal information.

Better credit scores are part of a good Financial Fitness program and protecting yourself from identity thieves is imperative.  Your information is out there; doing as much as you can to protect it is just plain smart.

How does this help you get a better credit score?  By relying on your cash stash for unexpected expenses you are less likely to increase your credit card balances.   Having balances under 30% of the account credit limit can help your scores.  Remember that the second largest factor in your FICO score is your debt-to-available-credit on your revolving accounts.  When those balances are over half of the credit limit, credit scores typically go down.  And if they are close to being maxed out, scores can tank.

Even though you may use the cash in an emergency, we call it a Smart Fund.  Just start saving your coins or put aside $5 or $10 each week and designate that as your Smart Fund.  If it is in a savings account at the bank, you won’t be tempted to use it for daily expenses such as fuel or groceries.  You may be surprised by how quickly the little deposits add up and it sure is a good feeling to know that you can rely on your own money when the unexpected happens instead of paying high interest and going into debt with a credit card. 

And you’ll help your credit scores grow by keeping those credit card balances down.  For more Financial Fitness tips, visit the You and Your Money section of our site.

Whenever you authorize someone to check your credit as part of a loan or account application, it results in an Inquiry on your credit report.  These Inquiries are figured into the “New Credit” part of your score which accounts for 10% of the total.  Many factors determine the exact amount each Inquiry takes from your score, but typically, a single Inquiry can count from 1 to 12 points against it.  And they stay on the report for TWO years.

RATE SHOPPING
The FICO scoring system allows for rate shopping when you are applying for mortgages or auto loans.  All of the credit pulls or checks for real estate or automobiles that are done within a TWO WEEK period will only count as ONE against your score.  This is only for real estate and autos, NOT credit cards or other loan applications.

This is because most lenders send your application to several different funding sources to see which one gives an approval and what the best terms available are.  So even though they will all show up on your credit report, they will all be treated as one single Inquiry reflected against your score.

NOTE: Some of the newer FICO scoring models allow for all mortgage and auto Inquiries within a 45 day period to only count as one against your score. 

WHAT TO DO
Limit the number of credit applications you sign for.  If you are doing real estate or automobile shopping, keep it all within a 14 day period to insure minimal impact on your credit rating. 

You can indicate in writing that you are authorizing the lender to apply for credit on your behalf from this date to that date.  If they keep shopping the loan around after that, and you are hit with credit Inquiries on your reports, you have a better chance of getting them corrected with the proof that you only authorized applications for so many days.

You can get a Credit Check-Up from us that includes more information with strategies to get a better credit score.