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 1.
Feature
Story
/ TVI MoneySideStories - 'Limit Your Applications
For Credit -- It Can Hurt Credit Scores' /
Who,
Where and What is a FICO score - and why all the
Power?
•••
"There's a way around the problem: First, find out
what your credit score is. You can pay Fair Isaac
or one of the major credit bureaus to find out, or,
if you have Internet access, you can go to
http://www.eloan.com. This free service does not
use the Fair Isaac model, but it's similar enough
to approximate your FICO credit score.
•••
Knowing your credit score can tell you whether
you're likely to qualify for the lowest-rate loans.
You can then shop for a loan more casually, simply
asking lenders for their mortgage rates for good
borrowers or by checking newspaper and
Internet-based advertisements and rate
comparisons."
•••
•
FICO®
is an abbreviation for Fair Isaac and Company,
which pioneered the development of credit scoring
models for credit grantors. There are many types of
credit scores in use today, some of which
incorporate rules and methods developed by Fair
Isaac; others developed by third-party companies or
by credit grantors themselves. The FICO score is
one of the most recognized scores and it is often
used by credit grantors in their decision
process.
•••
•
The FICO
score attempts to summarize in a single number and
at a particular point in time the level of credit
risk associated with a particular consumer. FICO
scores range from 300 to 900, with higher scores
being associated with low credit
risk.
•••
•
For a
complete explanation of FICO scores and how they
are created and used, visit the Fair Isaac Web site
located at www.myfico.com.
FICO
and Fair Issac and Company are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in
the United States and/or in other countries.
Fair Isaac and Company, located at
www.myfico.com
•••
The Fair
Isaac company (a company located in San Rafael,
California) is the developer of the models for the
credit bureaus and though each credit bureaus model
differs slightly and have different names at the
beginning: (TRW-FICA, Transunion-Emperica,
Equifax-Beacon) they have become commonly known as
FICO SCORES.
•••
Fair Isaac
Corporation (NYSE: FIC), founded in 1956 by
engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Isaac,
provides consulting services and decision
management systems. They developed the FICO scores,
a measure of credit risk, that are the most used
credit scores in the world. FICO scores are
available through all of the major consumer
reporting agencies in the United States and Canada:
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. (FICO is a
registered trademark of Fair Isaac
Corporation).
•••
Fair Isaac's
current corporate headquarters are located in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA with offices in North
America, South America, Europe, Australia, and
Asia. The company employs about 3000 people (2006)
with revenue of about $800 million
(2005).
 Part
02 /
It's a fact reported the
Associated Press. U.S is the number ONE source
of Credit infomation fraud, and FICO of Texas is
part of the money making problem, firm says, the
government sezure study group, NBS100.com
•
•
The United States generates
more malicious computer activity than any other
country, and sophisticated hackers worldwide are
banding together in highly efficient crime rings,
according to a new report.
•
•
Researchers at Cupertino,
Calif.-based Symantec Corp. also found that fierce
competition in the criminal underworld was driving
down prices for stolen financial information.
•
•
Criminals can buy verified
credit card numbers for as little as $1, and they
can buy a complete identity -- a date of birth and
U.S. bank account, credit card and
government-issued identification numbers -- for
$14, according to Symantec's twice-yearly Internet
Security Threat Report, to be released today.
•
•
Researchers at the security
software company found that about a third of all
computer attacks worldwide in the second half of
2006 originated from machines in the U.S.
•
•
As a breeding ground for
threats such as spam and malicious code, the U.S.
easily surpasses runners-up China, which generates
10% of attacks, and Germany, which generates
7%.
•
•
The U.S. also leads in "bot
network activity." Bots are compromised computers
controlled remotely and operating in concert to
pump out spam or perform other nefarious acts.
•
•
The legitimate owner of the
computer typically doesn't know the machine has
been taken over. The phenomenon is largely
responsible for the increase in junk e-mail in the
last six months.
•
•
SpamAds promoting Credit
Cards and clean-us, made up 59% of all e-mail
traffic Symantec monitored. That's up 5 percentage
points from the previous period. Much of the spam
was related to stock picks and other financial
scams.
•
•
The U.S. is also home to
more than half of the world's "underground-economy
servers" &emdash; typically corporate computers
that have been commandeered to facilitate
clandestine transactions involving stolen data and
may be compromised for as little as two hours or as
long as two weeks, according to the report.
•
•
The study marks the first
time Symantec researchers have studied the national
origins of computer attacks. The report focused on
attacks during the last half of 2006 on more than
120 million computers running Symantec antivirus
software. The company operates more than 2 million
decoy e-mail accounts designed to attract messages
from around the world to identify spam and phishing
activity.
 Part
03 /
More
Than One Credit Card Could Be Bad--for Fair
Issacs!
•••
Question:
I have obtained quite a few credit cards over the
years. Most of the accounts have zero balances and
I don't use them. What should I do?
•••
Answer:
Your question is common enough, and the answer
complicated enough, that the rest of Part 03 will
be devoted toanswering it.
Here
are the secrets to boosting your credit score:
•••
* Check your
credit report for errors. If there are eroneous
items, write to the credit reporting company and
have those items removed.
•••
* Close
unused credit card accounts, but only if they were
opened recently.
•••
* Leave old
credit accounts open, even if you're not using
them, because part of your score is based on how
long you've had credit.
•••
* Apply for
credit only when necessary. New credit applications
can lower your score.
•••
* Pay your
bills on time, every time.
•••
There are
two opinions about owning too many credit cards.
One says your credit rating will be affected by
having so many credit cards. The other says you
have a better rating because you have a very high
total credit line combined from all the accounts
and you use only a small portion. Which is correct?
Should I close all these unused
accounts?
•••
But if
you're in a hurry, here's the short version: Both
opinions may be correct, and you may or may not
want to close those extra accounts. Your ability to
get credit is based on many factors, some of which
are used to compute a three-digit figure known as
your credit score. Your credit score incorporates
information such as how long you've had credit, the
total credit available to you, how much of that
credit you use and whether you've had trouble
making payments, among other factors, said Craig
Watts, head of consumer affairs for Fair, Isaac
& Co., the leading credit scoring company.
•••
If your
balances are small and your total credit limit is
high, that indeed could help your score.
•••
But that's
not the whole picture. Your credit score does not
include information about your income . . . so . .
. many lenders ask how much you earn when you apply
for a loan so they can determine your ability to
repay.
•••
Fair Isaac
advises consumers to protect their credit score by
applying for credit sparingly. (That's good advice
for protecting your financial health, as well.)
••••
You also can
do damage by closing an account you've had for a
long time. A lengthy history of credit helps your
score, so you may want to hang on to that credit
card you had in college, even if you never use
it.
•••
That doesn't
mean you should never close a credit card account,
however. Having too many cards can be an invitation
to disaster in other ways.
•••
For one
thing, it's hard to keep track of more than two or
three credit card accounts. Credit card companies
are constantly changing their terms, and a moment's
inattention could lead you into paying more in
interest charges or fees.
•••
More
accounts mean more of your financial information is
floating around in the mail as well. Credit thieves
love to steal statements and those pesky
"convenience checks" from mailboxes and use them to
run up charges in your name.
•••
Having a lot
of department store charge cards may not help your
score much either. These cards tend to be easier to
get, which is why they're a good starter card for
people who are building or rebuilding credit. But
they don't help your credit rating as much as
harder-to-get credit cards issued by major
lenders.
•••
Finally,
having a lot of credit cards could be catastrophic
for someone who has trouble controlling his or her
spending. Shutting those accounts could be the best
solution in the long run, even if it does
temporarily ding your credit score.
•••
Thanks To: Liz
Pulliam Weston, LA Times for this Q&A
report.
 4.
Related Stories /
•
Here
are some things to keep in mind when closing
accounts:
•••
* Your best
strategy, both for your credit score and your
financial health, is not to carry a balance on any
of your credit cards. If you don't carry a balance
on any card, you can close as many accounts as
you'd like without hurting your score.
•••
* If you do
carry a balance on any of your cards, make sure you
don't start closing accounts right before you want
to apply for a major loan such as a mortgage or car
financing. Wait until after you're approved.
•••
* Don't
cancel an account that still has a balance. Pay it
off first, or transfer it to another card. Wait a
month or two to make sure you get a statement that
reports a zero balance to ensure that you've paid
all the interest charges and fees.
•••
* Don't shut
off longtime accounts. Opt to close department
store cards and more recent unused lines of credit
first.
•••
* Call each
credit card company to find out how they want you
to close the account. If you're a good customer,
expect the companies to give you the hard sell in
an effort to keep you. You might wind up with
better terms or perks, such as extra frequent-flier
miles, that could change your mind about closing a
particular account.
•••
* If you
want to go ahead with the cancellation, ask the
company to report to credit bureaus that the
account was closed at your request. Check your
credit report in a few months to make sure that was
done.
•••
* After
you've closed an account, keep the paperwork the
company sends you showing the account has been
shut. You might need it if there are disputes over
the account.
 What
is a FICO
score?
•••
• The FICO score attempts to
summarize in a single number and at a particular
point in time the level of credit risk associated
with a particular consumer. FICO scores range from
300 to 900, with higher scores being associated
with low credit risk. MORE
STORY ON FICO - Money Side Stories
Who,
Where and What is a FICO score - and why was the
power of financing given and by
whom?
Collateralized debt obligations
with a home mortgage, or CDOs, have been a hot
product with many big investors for many years:
says Troy Cory-Stubblefield, co-author of "BOA, The
Tortfeasors".
"In fact, in
recent years Hedge Funds Collateralized by China
U.S. Treasury Bonds have been used to help
monitized the mortagage pools, and why not? It's
their money. --SEE
MORE ABOUT The Tortfeassors, AND MELVIN BELLI
STORY.
•••
The California Public Employees' Retirement System,
for example, has steered clear of CDOs in recent
years, said Curtis Ishi, a senior investment
officer at the pension fund.
•••
"We need to understand the management and how they
produce returns," Ishi said. CDOs, he said, require
"quite a bit of analysis."
•••
CDOs - "Collateralized Debt
Obligations", or MORTGAGE POOLS are home mortgages
used as collateral, and in the 80s created a
$600million dollar fiasco, which sent many mortage
heads to prison. "Getting a handle on CDOs is a
complex challenge," reports the LA
Times.
MORE
CDO MORTGAGE POOL STORY.
 •
SPRING
MADNESS -
CDOS
•
SPRING
MADNESS - 01 /
FICO
•
SPRING
MADNESS - 02 /
Tricks
More
Articles • Converging
News APRIL 2007 / TeleCom BuyOuts,
Spinoffs
and Asset Seizure Boom
Respectfully
Submitted
Josie
Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI Magazine
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• TVI
Magazine, tviNews.net, YES90, Your Easy Search,
Associated Press, Reuters, BBC, LA Times, NY Times,
VRA's D-Diaries, Industry Press Releases, They Said
It and SmartSearch were used in compiling and
ascertaining this Yes90 news
report.
•
• ©1956-2007.
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Six Media Entertainments. Tel/Fax: 323
462.1099.
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