Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued guidance to consumer reporting companies about their obligation to screen for and eliminate obviously false “junk data” from consumers’ credit reports. Companies need to take steps to reliably detect and remove inconsistent or impossible information from consumers’ credit profiles. For example, many children in foster care have …
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has just released this list of consumer reporting companies that can be held accountable. The list identifies dozens of specialty reporting companies that collect and sell access to people’s data, including individuals’ finances, employment, check writing histories, or rental history records, often without their knowledge. Using the list, people …
When you start to use credit cards and take out loans, you build a credit score that demonstrates your creditworthiness. Does that number stay static a day, a week, a month? In truth, it’s changing all the time. Most of your accounts probably report information to the credit bureaus every 30 to 45 days. One …
Question: Dear Steve, Query about the question a reader sent to you that I read and that you answered Clarification, please, if a credit card debt is SOLD by a creditor not put into the hands of a debt collection agency to COLLECT the debt on their behalf. I note the answer you gave to …
Question: Dear Steve, I went to college in 2013. My Mom got very sick with lupus and I had to go back home to care for her. I tried to clear all my accounts but couldn’t finalize housing. They charged me for a semester when I wasn’t living there. They sent it to collections. And …
Americans are struggling with record levels of credit card debt – currently more than $1 trillion. Interest rates on that debt hovers around 16 percent. One popular solution is a “zero-percent balance transfer.” This is where a person transfers high-interest credit card balances to a new credit card – which charges no interest. These deals …
Question: Dear Steve, I was previously in default on multiple student loans, both federal and private. I have since rehabilitated my federal loans, and am on a .01% interest rate for my private loan (owned by navient, serviced by asset recovery?), paying on time each month. Even prior to being on this low interest rate …
Question: Dear Steve, I am getting calls and letters about loans that were signed for in 2003 and 2004. Wouldn’t these loans be passed the SOL. How does bankruptcy affect statute of limitations? Does it start the clock back at zero in regards to time you have to pay it? What if I am getting …
Question: Dear Steve, Mistakingly while researching refinancing my mortgage, getting a HELOC, refinancing my car lease payment. Because my credit is mediocre I truly was just looking, however, I inadvertently seem to have authorized credit report pulls. Now I have numerous hard inquiries approximately 18-20. None of those, not surprisingly, did not get me a …
Question: Dear Steve, Completed BK CH 7 and my credit scores were on the rise.Then I received a bill from T-mobile for service I NEVER had. Now my credit is tanked again just when I was starting to recover. T-Mobile fraud is investigating but I don’t know how to find if this T-mobile fraud is …