Why Isn’t My Credit Score Listed On My Credit Report?

So there you are expecting your credit score to show up as you pull your credit report from one of the big credit bureaus and … it isn’t there. You are probably annoyed that you took the time and perhaps spent money in the hope of finding your credit score on that credit report. It makes sense that the credit score should appear on your credit report, so why doesn’t it and what can you do about this?

Credit score background

The first thing to understand is that credit reports and credit scores are two totally different products.

The FICO score is a proprietary credit scoring system that was created back in the 1950s. The company that developed it – Fair, Isaac and Company – then sold the scoring system. At first, there were other scoring systems that competed with it.

However, once Equifax started using it as a general purpose credit score, it pretty much caught on as the standard.

In other words, the company that invented the FICO Score was so successful with it that the entire credit industry adopted it as a standard method of determining creditworthiness. It is a product the credit bureaus subscribe to in order to evaluate you, and it is a product you buy to see where you stand.

Credit report: What’s in it?

The credit report is just that – it lists your entire credit profile so that creditors can examine it and evaluate your creditworthiness, both independent of the FICO Score and in conjunction with it. You can order your credit score though the bureaus as well, and they also have their own scoring system which will mean little to you.

Credit score: It’s not free, mostly

Your FICO score is rarely offered for free. Those sources may offer you a free FICO score, but then you’ll be signed up for a monthly recurring charge in some kind of membership program involving credit, or credit monitoring, or as a value-add by using a certain credit card (like Discover, which offers a free score on your statement every month). These might be worth it, depending on various circumstances.

However, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers access to their credit report for free – one report from each of the three big credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Transunion) once per year. This data is provided from a centralized source, http://1.usa.gov/1nbIDEH.

In addition, the FCRA entitles you to a free credit report if a company or creditor takes what’s called “adverse action” against you. This includes denying an application for credit. You may also get one if your report is inaccurate because of fraud.

You can dispute errors or you may have found a case of fraud. You want to do this not only so everything is correct, but because it will effect your FICO score.

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Preparing for Military Deployment? Get Financially Ready With These 5 Essential Steps

If you’re a member of the military gearing up for a deployment, you’re probably scrambling to tie up loose ends before you head overseas. Part of the process is making sure your finances are in order – a task that leaves a lot of soldiers feeling overwhelmed.

Luckily, the Nerds are here to help. Take a look at the details below for the 5 essential money moves you should make to get prepared for your deployment:

1. Analyze your budget – and how it will change

You probably already have a budget in place for your civilian income, but you may need to make adjustments for the money you’ll be earning while you’re deployed. In many cases, members of the military see an uptick in pay while they’re serving, so it’s important to decide before you’re away from home how the extra funds will be used.

If you have a family, you should consider allocating some of your excess pay to the home front. This will help ease the burden that managing additional household tasks will place on your spouse. For instance, if you’re usually in charge of mowing the yard, using some of your hazard pay to hire a lawn care service will go a long way toward making your partner’s life at home a little smoother.

The important thing is to figure out how your income and expenses will change while you’re deployed and put a plan in place. Doing so will mean one less thing to worry about when you’re thousands of miles from home.

2. Make a plan for how every bill will get paid

Our financial lives are complex – there are so many bills to pay! Before you’re out of your usual routine, make a list of every monthly bill you have and make a plan for how it will get paid.

One option is to automate your payments. But if this isn’t possible, create detailed payment instructions for someone else to follow and go over it with him or her while you’re still at home. This person should be someone you really, really trust and have given certain legal power to (see No. 5 below).

Even if you expect to manage your bills online while you’re gone, writing out payment directions and handing them off to someone you trust is a good idea. This way, if you find yourself without an Internet connection, you won’t have to worry about missing a payment.

3. Start allocating extra to savings

Unfortunately, many members of the military experience a stretch of unemployment when they return home from deployment. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s helpful to have some extra funds in the bank to tide you over.

One way to make this happen is to start allocating extra to savings before you’re deployed. As you rethink your monthly budget (see No. 1 above), bump up your savings a bit so that you and your family will be protected if you have a hard time finding work when you get home.

4. Know (and exercise) your rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

If you’re dealing with debt, it pays to exercise your rights under a piece of legislation known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). According to Curtis Sheldon, president and lead planner at C.L. Sheldon and Co., a financial planning agency located in Alexandria, Va.:

“If a reservist is called to Active Duty, contact your creditors and apply for relief under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The act limits the interest charged on debt entered into prior to entering active duty to 6%.”

The provisions of the SCRA can make your payments much more manageable while you’re serving overseas. Reduced interest rates are also a good opportunity to work on paying debts off for good, which will make the financial transition to civilian life easier.

5. Get your legal affairs in order

A deployment means you’ll be away from your safe, regular home life for quite a while. As a result, having your legal affairs in order before you head out will put your mind at ease.

At bare minimum, you should have a will and power of attorney in place. Most people are familiar with wills, but power of attorney is commonly overlooked. This legal document gives someone else the authority to make certain decisions for you for a specified period of time; financial decisions are included here, so choosing someone who will act in your best interest is essential.

If you’re having a hard time with the logistics of getting your legal affairs squared away, reach out to resources available on base. Help is out there if you know where to look!

Military image via Shutterstock

Source Article :http://bit.ly/YUvWtw

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Preparing for Military Deployment? Get Financially Ready With These 5 Essential Steps

If you’re a member of the military gearing up for a deployment, you’re probably scrambling to tie up loose ends before you head overseas. Part of the process is making sure your finances are in order – a task that leaves a lot of soldiers feeling overwhelmed.

Luckily, the Nerds are here to help. Take a look at the details below for the 5 essential money moves you should make to get prepared for your deployment:

1. Analyze your budget – and how it will change

You probably already have a budget in place for your civilian income, but you may need to make adjustments for the money you’ll be earning while you’re deployed. In many cases, members of the military see an uptick in pay while they’re serving, so it’s important to decide before you’re away from home how the extra funds will be used.

If you have a family, you should consider allocating some of your excess pay to the home front. This will help ease the burden that managing additional household tasks will place on your spouse. For instance, if you’re usually in charge of mowing the yard, using some of your hazard pay to hire a lawn care service will go a long way toward making your partner’s life at home a little smoother.

The important thing is to figure out how your income and expenses will change while you’re deployed and put a plan in place. Doing so will mean one less thing to worry about when you’re thousands of miles from home.

2. Make a plan for how every bill will get paid

Our financial lives are complex – there are so many bills to pay! Before you’re out of your usual routine, make a list of every monthly bill you have and make a plan for how it will get paid.

One option is to automate your payments. But if this isn’t possible, create detailed payment instructions for someone else to follow and go over it with him or her while you’re still at home. This person should be someone you really, really trust and have given certain legal power to (see No. 5 below).

Even if you expect to manage your bills online while you’re gone, writing out payment directions and handing them off to someone you trust is a good idea. This way, if you find yourself without an Internet connection, you won’t have to worry about missing a payment.

3. Start allocating extra to savings

Unfortunately, many members of the military experience a stretch of unemployment when they return home from deployment. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s helpful to have some extra funds in the bank to tide you over.

One way to make this happen is to start allocating extra to savings before you’re deployed. As you rethink your monthly budget (see No. 1 above), bump up your savings a bit so that you and your family will be protected if you have a hard time finding work when you get home.

4. Know (and exercise) your rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

If you’re dealing with debt, it pays to exercise your rights under a piece of legislation known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). According to Curtis Sheldon, president and lead planner at C.L. Sheldon and Co., a financial planning agency located in Alexandria, Va.:

“If a reservist is called to Active Duty, contact your creditors and apply for relief under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The act limits the interest charged on debt entered into prior to entering active duty to 6%.”

The provisions of the SCRA can make your payments much more manageable while you’re serving overseas. Reduced interest rates are also a good opportunity to work on paying debts off for good, which will make the financial transition to civilian life easier.

5. Get your legal affairs in order

A deployment means you’ll be away from your safe, regular home life for quite a while. As a result, having your legal affairs in order before you head out will put your mind at ease.

At bare minimum, you should have a will and power of attorney in place. Most people are familiar with wills, but power of attorney is commonly overlooked. This legal document gives someone else the authority to make certain decisions for you for a specified period of time; financial decisions are included here, so choosing someone who will act in your best interest is essential.

If you’re having a hard time with the logistics of getting your legal affairs squared away, reach out to resources available on base. Help is out there if you know where to look!

Military image via Shutterstock

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Apply for a Business Credit Card? Here Are 5 Things You Need to Know

Did you just apply for a business credit card? Nice work! You’ve taken an important step in your career as an entrepreneur.

But if you’ve never used business plastic before, you’re entering new and unknown territory. Take a look at the details below for five things you should know about your new card.

1. You’re now in a good position to keep business and personal expenses separate

As your company grows, it’s important to start separating personal and business finances. Here’s why: An expanding business is going to incur lots of expenses, and you’ll need to diligently track them to keep your venture profitable. If you mingle personal and business purchases, this task becomes nearly impossible.

But keeping a credit card just for business purchases makes it much easier to keep tabs on your company’s spending. Plus, when tax time rolls around, you’ll have a handy backup record of exactly what can be written off (you should also be keeping detailed notes about this, of course). Win-win!

2. You’ll probably get a bevy of business perks – use them!

If you shopped around carefully for a business credit card, you probably applied for one that offers a host of perks that will benefit your business. These often include:

• High spending limits


• Ability to issue cards to employees (see below)


• Extra rewards on office supplies and services


• Expense tracking features


• Travel benefits, such as priority boarding and extra rewards on travel spending

Be sure to take advantage of the great extras your card offers. If you find that you’re not getting a lot of value out of them, don’t hesitate to shop around for a different business credit card. With so many on the market these days, there’s bound to be one that’s a better fit!

3. You don’t have the same protections as with your consumer card

The CARD Act of 2009 put an end to a lot of questionable issuer practices, such as jacking up interest rates without warning and charging excessive late fees. However, it’s important to remember that the new protections we’re enjoying only apply to consumer credit cards – they won’t apply to your new business credit card.

Assuming that you pay your bills on time and in full every month, you probably won’t notice that your business credit card isn’t subject to the rules laid out in the CARD Act. But it’s something to be aware of; keep a close watch on your account and contact your issuer if you see something about your card’s terms (such as the interest rate) suddenly changes.

4. You probably made a personal guarantee to pay the bill

Getting a credit card in your business’s name and using it for company purchases establishes an important boundary between your personal and professional finances. But it’s crucial to recognize that you probably made what’s known as a “personal guarantee” when you signed on to your business credit card. This means that if the company flounders and you can’t pay the bill from its profits, you’ll be expected to use your personal funds to do so.

Again, assuming that you’re careful with your spending and your business’s finances, this probably won’t be something you’ll ever have to worry about. But in the event that your business goes under, you won’t necessarily be off the hook for the credit card bill.

5. You can now issue cards to employees

One of the best things about getting a business credit card is that you can easily issue additional cards to your employees. This makes tracking their spending on purchases and travel a breeze, and frees up some of your time. Now you don’t have to be the only one doing the business purchasing!

Choosing which employees to give a card to is a decision that should be taken very seriously. Although you’ll be able to see what they’re charging, it could still cause a lot of headaches to give a card to a worker who’s not totally trustworthy.

And once you’ve carefully selected who gets a card, it’s a good idea to explicitly lay out your rules about what employees are permitted to charge to the company and what they’re not. Being clear from the outset will help prevent misunderstandings before they arise.

Business credit card image via Shutterstock

Source Article http://ift.tt/1y39EC7

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Apply for a Business Credit Card? Here Are 5 Things You Need to Know

Did you just apply for a business credit card? Nice work! You’ve taken an important step in your career as an entrepreneur.

But if you’ve never used business plastic before, you’re entering new and unknown territory. Take a look at the details below for five things you should know about your new card.

1. You’re now in a good position to keep business and personal expenses separate

As your company grows, it’s important to start separating personal and business finances. Here’s why: An expanding business is going to incur lots of expenses, and you’ll need to diligently track them to keep your venture profitable. If you mingle personal and business purchases, this task becomes nearly impossible.

But keeping a credit card just for business purchases makes it much easier to keep tabs on your company’s spending. Plus, when tax time rolls around, you’ll have a handy backup record of exactly what can be written off (you should also be keeping detailed notes about this, of course). Win-win!

2. You’ll probably get a bevy of business perks – use them!

If you shopped around carefully for a business credit card, you probably applied for one that offers a host of perks that will benefit your business. These often include:

• High spending limits


• Ability to issue cards to employees (see below)


• Extra rewards on office supplies and services


• Expense tracking features


• Travel benefits, such as priority boarding and extra rewards on travel spending

Be sure to take advantage of the great extras your card offers. If you find that you’re not getting a lot of value out of them, don’t hesitate to shop around for a different business credit card. With so many on the market these days, there’s bound to be one that’s a better fit!

3. You don’t have the same protections as with your consumer card

The CARD Act of 2009 put an end to a lot of questionable issuer practices, such as jacking up interest rates without warning and charging excessive late fees. However, it’s important to remember that the new protections we’re enjoying only apply to consumer credit cards – they won’t apply to your new business credit card.

Assuming that you pay your bills on time and in full every month, you probably won’t notice that your business credit card isn’t subject to the rules laid out in the CARD Act. But it’s something to be aware of; keep a close watch on your account and contact your issuer if you see something about your card’s terms (such as the interest rate) suddenly changes.

4. You probably made a personal guarantee to pay the bill

Getting a credit card in your business’s name and using it for company purchases establishes an important boundary between your personal and professional finances. But it’s crucial to recognize that you probably made what’s known as a “personal guarantee” when you signed on to your business credit card. This means that if the company flounders and you can’t pay the bill from its profits, you’ll be expected to use your personal funds to do so.

Again, assuming that you’re careful with your spending and your business’s finances, this probably won’t be something you’ll ever have to worry about. But in the event that your business goes under, you won’t necessarily be off the hook for the credit card bill.

5. You can now issue cards to employees

One of the best things about getting a business credit card is that you can easily issue additional cards to your employees. This makes tracking their spending on purchases and travel a breeze, and frees up some of your time. Now you don’t have to be the only one doing the business purchasing!

Choosing which employees to give a card to is a decision that should be taken very seriously. Although you’ll be able to see what they’re charging, it could still cause a lot of headaches to give a card to a worker who’s not totally trustworthy.

And once you’ve carefully selected who gets a card, it’s a good idea to explicitly lay out your rules about what employees are permitted to charge to the company and what they’re not. Being clear from the outset will help prevent misunderstandings before they arise.

Business credit card image via Shutterstock

Source Article :http://bit.ly/YKmtVx

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`Masquerading’ Wire Fraud Targets Gullible Executives

Financial fraud is constantly evolving and becoming a more and more difficult to fight, whether companies or consumers are targeted. Recently, a relatively sophisticated scheme has emerged that uses “spoofing,” a type of identity theft, to trick business people into telling their bankers to send corporate cash to scammers.

These new email and wire-fraud techniques, dubbed “masquerading” by David Pollino, the fraud prevention officer at San Francisco-based Bank of the West, usually siphon money from the victimized business’s account and have it sent electronically (by wire) to a phony offshore firm. Often, the thief poses as a high-level officer – such as the chief executive or the chief financial officer – of the targeted company.

Wire fraud incidents rose last year, affecting 14% of businesses in a payments fraud survey by the Association of Financial Professionals, up from 11% in 2012. Losses for some victims topped $800,000, according to federal authorities. Pollino says businesses can take steps to prevent such schemes from succeeding. But first they need to understand how they work.

The masquerade

Typically, fraudsters must do some homework first.

“For example, criminals might go through social media to figure out who the CEO is of a construction company,” Pollino says.

Then they hack into the business’s email system. After gaining access, the scammer, using the name of a high-level executive, sends an authentic-looking message through the company’s computers to a subordinate with access to the cash, such as the controller or a financial manager, ordering a wire transfer from the firm’s bank to a third-party account. Even if the bank raises questions, it is often ignored because the email that prompted the order is regarded as genuine, Pollino says.

The fraudsters “try to scam or fool the person internal to the company,” Pollino says. Often, the order is marked confidential, making it harder for the recipient to raise questions, he says.

The scammer will create a fake email address that is only slightly different from the CEO or CFO’s real e-mail address – perhaps just a character changed or added – so the employee doesn’t notice that it’s phony. Typically, the bogus message will include an attachment with the wire transfer instructions. Moving funds this way tends to work well for thieves because custody of the money changes in an instant, putting the cash out of the victim’s reach before the scheme is discovered.

On average, businesses have lost about $55,000 when these and similar schemes succeed, but some have reported losing more than $800,000, according to the federal Internet Crime Complaint Center. The scams appear to be Nigerian-based, and most of the victims are from the U.S., U.K. and Canada, according to a recent fraud alert.

Whether there’s any chance for the business to recoup such a loss may depend on its insurance and/or any agreements it has with the financial services provider regarding the handling of wire transfers.

“Each case is unique and if a loss is incurred, it might be up to the individual arrangement that the business has with the bank” to determine who is liable, Pollino says.

Masquerade prevention

With spoofing attacks like these on the rise, companies should put together a strong business process to ensure all wire transfers are legitimate, Pollino says.

“An e-mail should not be enough for a large financial transaction to take place – or even a phone call claiming to be from the CEO,” Pollino says. “There should be additional processes in place to ensure the details of the transaction – the amount, the timing and its legitimacy – are authorized.”

Other good preventive measures to take include verifying the source of the email ordering the transfer, double or even triple-checking email addresses, and establishing a multi-person approval process for transactions above a certain amount, Pollino says. Be suspicious of confidentiality, he adds, as it often masks a fraud attempt.

“With good supplemental business processes, it should be easier for companies to detect this type of masquerading,” Pollino says. Strengthening procedures should also help prevent mistakes and errors, like sending an incorrect amount or addressing it to the wrong account, and internal fraud.

If your business has been victimized, the Federal Trade Commission says to call the money transfer company immediately to report it, then file an online complaint with the agency.

Wire fraud image via Shutterstock

Source Article http://ift.tt/1y39EC7

Read More

`Masquerading’ Wire Fraud Targets Gullible Executives

Financial fraud is constantly evolving and becoming a more and more difficult to fight, whether companies or consumers are targeted. Recently, a relatively sophisticated scheme has emerged that uses “spoofing,” a type of identity theft, to trick business people into telling their bankers to send corporate cash to scammers.

These new email and wire-fraud techniques, dubbed “masquerading” by David Pollino, the fraud prevention officer at San Francisco-based Bank of the West, usually siphon money from the victimized business’s account and have it sent electronically (by wire) to a phony offshore firm. Often, the thief poses as a high-level officer – such as the chief executive or the chief financial officer – of the targeted company.

Wire fraud incidents rose last year, affecting 14% of businesses in a payments fraud survey by the Association of Financial Professionals, up from 11% in 2012. Losses for some victims topped $800,000, according to federal authorities. Pollino says businesses can take steps to prevent such schemes from succeeding. But first they need to understand how they work.

The masquerade

Typically, fraudsters must do some homework first.

“For example, criminals might go through social media to figure out who the CEO is of a construction company,” Pollino says.

Then they hack into the business’s email system. After gaining access, the scammer, using the name of a high-level executive, sends an authentic-looking message through the company’s computers to a subordinate with access to the cash, such as the controller or a financial manager, ordering a wire transfer from the firm’s bank to a third-party account. Even if the bank raises questions, it is often ignored because the email that prompted the order is regarded as genuine, Pollino says.

The fraudsters “try to scam or fool the person internal to the company,” Pollino says. Often, the order is marked confidential, making it harder for the recipient to raise questions, he says.

The scammer will create a fake email address that is only slightly different from the CEO or CFO’s real e-mail address – perhaps just a character changed or added – so the employee doesn’t notice that it’s phony. Typically, the bogus message will include an attachment with the wire transfer instructions. Moving funds this way tends to work well for thieves because custody of the money changes in an instant, putting the cash out of the victim’s reach before the scheme is discovered.

On average, businesses have lost about $55,000 when these and similar schemes succeed, but some have reported losing more than $800,000, according to the federal Internet Crime Complaint Center. The scams appear to be Nigerian-based, and most of the victims are from the U.S., U.K. and Canada, according to a recent fraud alert.

Whether there’s any chance for the business to recoup such a loss may depend on its insurance and/or any agreements it has with the financial services provider regarding the handling of wire transfers.

“Each case is unique and if a loss is incurred, it might be up to the individual arrangement that the business has with the bank” to determine who is liable, Pollino says.

Masquerade prevention

With spoofing attacks like these on the rise, companies should put together a strong business process to ensure all wire transfers are legitimate, Pollino says.

“An e-mail should not be enough for a large financial transaction to take place – or even a phone call claiming to be from the CEO,” Pollino says. “There should be additional processes in place to ensure the details of the transaction – the amount, the timing and its legitimacy – are authorized.”

Other good preventive measures to take include verifying the source of the email ordering the transfer, double or even triple-checking email addresses, and establishing a multi-person approval process for transactions above a certain amount, Pollino says. Be suspicious of confidentiality, he adds, as it often masks a fraud attempt.

“With good supplemental business processes, it should be easier for companies to detect this type of masquerading,” Pollino says. Strengthening procedures should also help prevent mistakes and errors, like sending an incorrect amount or addressing it to the wrong account, and internal fraud.

If your business has been victimized, the Federal Trade Commission says to call the money transfer company immediately to report it, then file an online complaint with the agency.

Wire fraud image via Shutterstock

Source Article :http://bit.ly/1tzV6qC

Read More