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Impatient people have lower credit scores according to a study released in December 2011. But, new data shows a correlation between rudeness and high credit scores. According to a Huffington Post article, some of the rudest cities in the nation are also homes to consumers with the highest credit scores.

Based on an annual survey from Travel + Leisure magazine, New York, Miami, D.C., Los Angeles, and Boston are the top 5 rudest cities in the nation. And, Huffington Post says, 4 of those 5 cities also have credit scores higher than the national average: D.C. 686, Los Angeles 684, Boston 687, and New York 682.

What do people in these cities have that residents of other cities don’t? Huffington Post suggests their aggressive nature keeps them on top of their accounts and paying on time. HP also points out that cities with diversity may encourage consumers to diversity their financial accounts. The mix of your credit accounts is 10% of your credit score, so having different kinds of accounts, credit card and loans, helps your credit score.

In addition, Travel + Leisure says that big cities are known for being direct. Directness can be interpreted as rude, but it might also help you get negative details removed from your credit report or convince a creditor to lower your interest rate or remove a late penalty. Read more…

The Federal Reserve released its monthly report for December outlining the use of consumer credit. It appears the percentage of consumers borrowing outside of mortgages has actually gone up for the month. The month of November also showed an increase making the two month span the highest rise in consumer credit borrowing in the past 11 years.

It appears more consumers are feeling confident enough to borrow on credit. The increase is mostly contributed to student loans, vehicle loans, and credit cards. This information may indicate the United States economy is rebounding and consumers are gaining their confidence back.

The data may also be due in part to banks and lenders lessening their strict lending standards. Consumer debt is also said to be falling since 2008 but the amount consumers have borrowed currently sits at $2.5 trillion which is about the same level as it was prior to the recession hitting. Read more…

There have been a lot of news headlines over the recently released card by Suze Orman, personal finance expert. Many consumers believe using debit cards keeps them out of debt and avoids high interest rates. However, if you are intent on repairing your credit score, using a card is a wiser move to make but you must do it responsibly.

Fraud is one reason consumers should consider when avoiding cards, especially when making online purchases. Debit cards do not protect you like credit cards can. If someone accesses your bank card information, they literally can access all of the cash you have in your account. Since many consumers do not notice until it is too late, this can be detrimental to your overall finances.

Another concern of personal finance experts is the lack of credit rebuilding power associated with a debit card. When you make purchases on a debit card linked to your bank, you are doing nothing to increase your own score. This can be dangerous, especially now when many industries are relying on your score to make decisions. Read more…

There are several news stories this week pertaining to a consumer’s quest to achieve the best credit score. Currently, lenders have set their standards for good credit scores around 730. Those that hold a score of 730 or higher are assured in getting the best options when it comes to financing a loan, obtaining car insurance, or other financial services.

While it is good news that consumers are taking a more proactive interest in their credit scores, the quest to achieve a score of 800 or more may not be as achievable as one would think. Personal finance experts are now saying that once a consumer has achieved a FICO score of 760, efforts to increase that score any higher may be ‘futile’.

Once a 760 score is achieved, consumers are not likely to find any better interest rates or financial service offers that are better than that. However, some consumers are not to be swayed. They continue their quest to achieve an 800 or better for their credit profile despite the difficulty in increasing scores after they hit 760. Read more…

Following precedent set in Illinois, Washington and Maryland among others, California has enacted a law prohibiting employers from rejecting job applicants based on their credit profiles.

Taking effect on Jan. 1, Assembly Bill 22 took more than three years to come to fruition, with the two prior attempts being vetoed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The bill was authored by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza of Artesia who said he was inspired to write this law after his constituents expressed concern that they were being treated unfairly by the practice of screening credit reports as part of pre-employment background checks.

Companies that utilized the practice have claimed that it helps determine how reliable and trustworthy a candidate is, which has largely been refuted and disproven by recent studies. In this economy, it’s not uncommon for a person or family to rely on cards to help make it through the month, which can quickly raise their credit utilization percentage and thus bring down their credit score, regardless of whether they pay the card off in full by the end of the billing cycle. Read more…

Facebook users beware: your social media actions and even friends list could start affecting your credit score.

According to an article by New York Observer’s BetaBeat, new startup companies are formulating algorithms that integrate information from websites like Facebook and Twitter, which they refer to as “the social graph,” where people are recognized as “nodes,” and are connected by “edges.” In essence, the companies hope to further expand on qualifying factors for obtaining loans and also intend on shopping out loans to people in a consumer’s friends list.

Critics have already started lambasting the idea, citing that banks could use social media to obtain information they are not legally allowed to inquire about, including marital status, race, religion and a plethora of others. Read more…

A new credit scoring system is being developed that aims to create a more complete depiction of a consumers financial standing, which will include payday loan applications, rental payments in collection and judgments for child support, phone bills, property tax liens, and utility bills, among many others.

CoreLogic, which was founded 1991, introduced the CoreScore credit report earlier this month as a means of giving lenders an opportunity to make better informed lending decisions, with the actual score coming in March of 2012.

All of the information included in CoreScore is publicly available which the major credit bureaus typically overlook as trivial or too complicated to track. Critics are saying that this new scoring could adversely affect low-to-mid income consumers’ ability to borrow and even find a job. Read more…

Though only five years old, Mint.com has quickly established itself as a highly recognized personal finance management web-service. For the uninitiated, Mint.com has been listed by Time Magazine as a top-50 website for the last three consecutive years and is the winner of the Webby Award for Excellence on the Internet for Best Financial Service in 2009, 2010, and 2011, beating out financial news giants CNNMoney, NY Times Dealbook, Nerdwallet and Yahoo! Finance.

Mint.com allows its users to aggregate their banking accounts, investments, insurance policies, IRAs and mortgages into its management system which automatically provides up-to-date categorization, support and tools for budgeting analysis and bill reminder services. Their services are essential for those wanting to take control of their financial lives and improve their credit scores. Best of all, Mint.com is completely free.

The site was conceived by Aaron Patzer in 2006 after quitting his day job as a software architect to develop a method for analyzing numerous financial documents with high accuracy. After gaining the interest of First Round Capital, Mint.com received the seed capital to further develop their concept. Patzer’s ideas ambitions became so popular that grabbed the attention of Intuit, a financial software company and maker of Quicken, which extended an offer to purchase Mint.com for $170 million in late 2009.

CreditRepair.org was granted an opportunity to gain some insight into the company from Aaron Forth, Inuit’s Vice President and General Manager of Personal Finance Group. Read more…

Following precedent set by the recent “Bank Transfer Day” movement, consumers who are fed up with their credit cards are encouraged to participate in “Balance Transfer Day” on Dec. 11.

Spearheaded by Music for Change: Financial Literacy Initiative — an organization that has previously preached financial awareness via musical performances —has decided to take a more proactive approach to influencing people to reconsider who they are willing to give their assets to.

Prospective participants are encouraged to transfer their high interest credit card balances to new cards with a zero percent introductory interest rate, saving them substantial amounts of money.

“The goal is to bring newborn light onto the unethical practices and regulations that the credit card industry performs on a daily basis. 29.99% on late payments is brutal in this economy,” Ellina Graypel, a spokesperson for Music for Change told Attiyya Anthony of Credit-Land.com. Read more…

Technology created to prevent credit card fraud from ruining a consumer’s credit is coming to JP Morgan Chase & Co to help protect card holders.

The bank, headquartered in New York is producing their new British Airways Visa card with a computer chip inside that contains account information. These computer chip cards are meant to provide more security and protection from hackers than the normal magnetized strips.

The credit card technology is becoming a standard in the overseas market and it is part of the industry standards referred to as EMV. While other countries have been utilizing the technology, American credit cards are starting to take notice. There are some considerations, however, that should be made concerning the technology. US merchants must make necessary upgrades to their credit card processing systems in order for the cards to be functional. The costs of those upgrades have made many Read more…