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Accept Credit Card In Your Business
Should you accept credit card in your business transactions?
Many small companies or home-based businesses avoid doing so
because of their concern over fees and expenses that may drain
away potential profits. Yet the actual cost of...
Credit Scoring: What it is, and How It Affects You
If you have applied for a mortgage in the past five years, you’ve probably heard of credit scoring by now. Perhaps you were told that your credit scoring was wonderful, or needed work. Or maybe your mortgage would have been lowered by several...
Five Tips To Build Your Credit Today
If you’ve recently paid off a lot of debt, you may be wondering where to go from here. Maybe you went through a divorce and got stuck with a lot of high interest credit card debt, or got behind on your payments after a job layoff. Whatever the...
How To Get The Best Rates On Your Current Credit Cards
How to Get the Best Rates on Your Current Credit Cards
So you've got a few credit cards, and you're quite happy with them overall. Still, wouldn't it be nice to save a little money on interest? It all adds up over time, and more quickly than...
Why Consumers Need A Nationwide Credit Freeze NOW
What do a shoe retailer, an online discount broker, and a popular clothing retailer all have in common? All three - DSW Shoe Warehouse, Ameritrade, and Polo Ralph Lauren - sustained breaches to their customers’ accounts. Unfortunately, these three...
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Credit Report – Look Out for Your Debit Report, Too
Most consumers are aware that there are companies that keep track of their personal financial transactions – installment loans, mortgages, credit card accounts, bankruptcies and judgements. These items are assembled by the three main credit bureaus into a credit report, which is available upon request by lenders, employers and anyone else with whom a consumer might do business. The credit report tells these people, in a simple, summarized form, whether or not a consumer is worthy of more credit or another loan. What few people realize is that there is another firm that keeps track of the banking transactions by American consumers, and that information is available only to banks in the form of a debit report. You may not have heard of a debit report, but it can affect you in ways you may not even realize and can prevent you from opening a bank account.
The debit reports are compiled and maintained by a company called ChexSystems. ChexSystems maintains a database of banking transactions by consumers, and creates a “debit score” based on deposits, withdrawals, overdrafts, and whether or not an account has been forcibly closed. Generally speaking, you probably won’t have an entry in ChexSystems’ database unless you have a history of writing bad checks, overdrawing your account too much, or having your account closed by your bank. On the other hand, people sometimes have entries put in the database by error and don’t find out about their entries in the database until their request to open
a checking account is denied by their bank. Most banks now use this system, and while some provide a little latitude, most will refuse to do business with anyone who has a negative entry in the database.
The system was originally designed simply to keep track of people who wrote bad checks, but over the last three decades it has evolved into something much more elaborate. Consumers are entitled to receive a copy of their report from ChexSystems, but few people request one, as most people have never heard of the company or their product. The debit score for an individual is only available to banks.
Since few people can make do without a bank account these days, it’s worthwhile to at least be aware of this system. We couldn’t find a Website for ChexSystems, but they can be reached by phone at 800-428-9623. In addition, there are numerous third party Websites devoted to helping people who have had problems establishing bank accounts due to problems with their debit report. Just type “ChexSystems help” into your favorite search engine.
About the Author
©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to personal bankruptcy, debt consolidation and credit counseling, and HomeEquityHelp.com, a site devoted to information regarding mortgages and home equity loans .
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| News and resource directory about credit unions. |
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| Credit/Debt Management - Tools and Advice for Managing Credit and Debt |
| Drowning in debt? Trying to improve your credit score? This is the place for you. Get real world information and tips, as well as the legal low down, ... |
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