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Best Credit Cards
Choosing the best credit cards to meet your personal credit needs is an important step to take. Credit cards are the best for short-term credit borrowing, and if you choose the best credit cards wisely, you won't be struggling with unmanageable...
Get A Credit Card Merchant Account
A card merchant account can put your business on the road to
financial success. If your company is not yet accepting credit
card payments, you are missing out on the powerful potential of
this income stream. Many business owners who started...
Home Equity Loan or Home Equity Line of Credit – Which is right for you?
The most common type of home equity loan is the term loan. This loan is set for a fixed amount of time, anywhere from five to fifteen years. Such loans are typically granted for up to 80% of the value of the home, but some lenders will lend up to...
Need Credit Repair Help? Try Doing It Yourself!
No matter what many credit counseling scam artists may try to
tell you, no one can legally remove any information that is
up-to-date and accurate from your credit report. They can't do
it, and you can't do it yourself. However, you CAN request...
Rebuilding Your Credit: Path to Cheaper Borrowing
Rebuilding your credit can be a great technique to take control of your future. Face it - to live in today's world, you need access to credit, and you need it cheap. Unfortunately, lots of people have ruined their credit because of hard times or bad...
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Consumer Action: Putting The “Freeze” On Credit Files
In the wake of 40 million MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express accounts recently being breached, consumers and legislators are scrambling for ways to protect their personal and financial information from being hijacked and used fraudulently by hackers and ID thieves.
One type of privacy protection being widely debated is the option to “freeze” your individual credit reports. Californians have been protected by such a law since 2002. Vermont, Texas, and Louisiana have also passed “freeze laws” and other states are taking a closer look at enacting similar types of consumer protection.
Placing a freeze on your credit files with the three major credit reporting agencies - Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax - effectively shuts out potential lenders from accessing your credit files in order to make you an offer for credit. It would also protect your data from being used by identity thieves. When applying for new credit accounts or loans, consumers would use a special password to “unfreeze” their accounts.
Consumer advocates who support such a freeze point out that this type of privacy protection “prevents the damage before it occurs.” Consumer action groups see this as one of the most effective measures available because it places the control in the hands of the consumer and not the data-collecting agencies who profit from selling consumer
information.
Companies that sell credit file data, including the credit reporting agencies, argue that freezing credit files is “overkill.” For some people, such a freeze could become a constant hassle. Before applying for a loan or opening a new bank account, they would have to contact the credit bureaus to temporarily unfreeze their files, a process that could take several days.
They also claim it would prevent consumers from taking advantage of instant credit promotions such as “10% off purchases” when applying for a new store-issued credit card. And applying for a mortgage would become “more complicated, with even more paperwork.”
Whether you feel the option of being able to freeze your credit data is a good idea or a bad idea one thing is becoming increasingly clearer - consumers want more control over who has access to their personal and financial information.
© 2005, http://www.yourfreecreditreportnow.com
About the Author
James H. Dimmitt - James is editor of "TO YOUR CREDIT", a free weekly newsletter with tips to help you manage your personal finances. Subscribe today and receive his e-book “IDENTITY THEFT- How To Avoid Becoming the Next Victim!” and other free bonuses by visiting
http://www.yourfreecreditreportnow.com
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| News and resource directory about credit unions. |
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