Topic: Credit Support Services

Credit card offers: five mysteries explained

Credit-card companies often say you are "pre-approved," "pre-screened," "pre-qualified," or "pre-selected" to receive their credit card. Here is a guide to sorting through credit-card offers:

In Gear Despite easy credit, a decline in late car payments

Americans are keeping up with their car payments even as credit once again becomes easier to find, Read writes.

Robert Reich Are US credit ratings in trouble again?

Reich writes that Moody's Investors Services may downgrade government bonds if Congress and the White House don’t reach a budget deal before $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and tax increases automatically go into effect.

Saving Money No credit history? You can still get a credit score, Experian says.

Experian announces new credit score system for those with little or no credit history. 'Extended View' credit score looks at rental data and public records to establish a credit score.

Stock market fallout from Spain downgrade? Quiet.

Stock market reaction muted in Germany, France, Britain, and US. First estimate of US GDP in first quarter could sway stock market sentiment.

Credit card hacked? Four steps to take.

Credit card hackers can send sophisticated looking e-mails and make small purchases on credit cards to test if you're watching closely. 

New consumer agency targets debt collectors. Who can argue with that?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which faces stiff GOP opposition, picks what may be politically palatable targets for regulation: debt collectors and the credit-rating industry.

Stefan Karlsson Why the Euro debt downgrade matters (even though it shouldn't)

Credit ratings of national governments shouldn't be mandatory, but they affect treasury bond yields in countries that are already hurting financially.

Credit scores will get more personal

Credit scores will include estimates of annual income. FICO is developing separate credit scores to incorporate any payday loans, evictions, and child support payments.

Credit rating: S&P is not the first to downgrade the US

Credit rating agencies, other than S&P, have downgraded the US already. One credit rating agency even rated the US just one notch above junk.

US debt deal kicks spending problems down the ... cul-de-sac

Debt deal includes no meaningful spending reductions, which signals beginning of the end for US as the world's sole economic superpower.

US debt downgrade is possible, not inevitable

Deven Sharma, president of Standard & Poor's, told a House subcommittee Wednesday that if lawmakers can work out a 'grand bargain' with $4 trillion in deficit cuts over the next decade, the US may yet keep its AAA rating.

Debt ceiling crisis: another day without resolution as the clock ticks

The political dance over the US debt ceiling crisis continued Sunday with the possibility that top lawmakers could be summoned to the White House, although no meeting had been scheduled.

Credit cards: delinquencies at 15-year low

Credit cards are being used more wisely, according to a new report. The delinquency rate on credit cards is the lowest since 1996.

Joplin tornado: Will it be one of the Top 5 costliest?

Joplin tornado, as Sunday's twister has come to be called, is blamed for more than 100 fatalities in the southwest Missouri community. It's the latest in a string of tornadoes this spring. Though hurricanes and earthquakes tend to do more financial damage per event, tornadoes and related events have been responsible for an average 57 percent of all insured catastrophe losses in the United States since 1953, according to a 2009 study by insurance credit-rating service A.M. Best. Not counting the Joplin tornado, where damage assessments have only begun, here’s a look at the five most financially devastating tornadoes in the US, according to the A.M. Best study and federal estimates (reported in 2011 dollars):

Mortgage loans paid up? No, but credit card is.

Mortgage loans vs. credit cards: A bigger share of Americans now prefer to keep current on credit card bills than mortgage loans.

Identity theft scam may have netted man $500,000

Identity theft: Prosecutors say Nigerian-born Iguosade Osahon stole names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers from more than 750 people across the United States.

The Monitor's View: As Senate takes up financial reform bill, a look inside the sausage

The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill leaves too much discretion to regulators, creating the risk of regulation uncertainty for an industry that needs less risk, not more.

Supposed to be Standard, more often just Poor

How responsible were rating agencies for the financial crisis?

Should employers be allowed to check your credit?