Right now many people are looking at purchasing a home, especially with the extension and expansion of the home buyer’s tax credit.    Sometimes they are unable to qualify for the home loan because of credit scores that are too low.  Christy Miller, a mortgage advisor with American Home Mortgage, said that a minimum score of [...]

We’re into what has traditionally been the busiest shopping time of the year and identity thieves know it and want to take advantage of it.  ID theft prevention is important year round and as the holiday season approaches we want to give you a few precautionary reminders.
Beware of ‘Skimming’
Skimming occurs when your card that is [...]

I had a wonderful opportunity to share credit education last night at a church in northwest Tucson as part of our company’s community outreach.  One of the topics we covered was identity theft prevention and one of our attendees asked about the back of credit cards.
There is a place for your signature on the back [...]

Many people are facing layoffs or job elimination due to their company closing its doors.  Some of these former employees were issued company credit cards with both their name and the company’s name on them for use with their job.  One person who lost their job started getting calls from a collection agency about the former employer’s [...]

As we’ve said before, these are not usual times.  While the credit scoring formula remains pretty much the same, based on five distinct components, the financial industry has changed drastically.  Therefore, credit building information is subject to the whims of the credit card companies and their reactions to the current financial market and to the [...]

With the approaching February date for credit card regulations to go into effect, many credit card companies are taking steps now to reduce their risk of consumer defaults.  You may already have experienced this: accounts closed for no activity, credit limits reduced even though you always paid your bill on time, interest rate hikes on [...]