AMERICA runs on credit. If people stopped borrowing money in the United States, the economies of this country, China and several other nations would come to a screeching halt. Small wonder that credit card fraud and identity theft are major industries. In 2005, credit card fraud rose to $55.4 billion, the Better Business Bureau reported.

Yet less than half of Americans have checked their credit reports in the last two years. And one in four credit reports contain serious errors, the Public Interest Research Group found. Correcting errors could lead to higher credit scores, which could mean lower interest rates.

Consumers should be checking their credit reports regularly. To help make it easier, Attorney General Darrell McGraw will travel around the state in a “credit car,” which will help people get their credit reports free and help them correct any errors.

Making sure credit reporting agencies have correct information can save West Virginians money, because a higher rating number can lead to meaningfully lower interest rates. A 3 percent difference in a mortgage rate over 30 years could mean saving $72,000 in interest on a $100,000 loan. Some of the mistakes in credit reports are simple.  A survey found that 22 percent of the reports had a mortgage or loan listed twice, while 30 percent of the reports listed credit accounts that had been closed by the consumer.

Whether you’re looking for credit approval or to improve your credit rating, Credit Report Pro has a solution thats perfect for you.

Having and using credit cards helps build credit …right? In most cases this is true, obtaining credit cards helps to build your credit rating based on your ability to get and maintain credit from various sources. However, Selena Maranjian of Motley Fool fills us in on some of the details that may not be so obvious, and that may infact hurt our credit score.

Focus on the financial world, and it’s easy to learn something new every day. Here’s what I learned, thanks to a Bankrate.com article by Kristin Arnold: It seems that there are credit cards with no borrowing limits, and that using them can damage your credit rating. Yikes!

Arnold offered this eye-opening example: “Anthony Citrano, a partner in a Cambridge, Mass., public relations firm, opened a Citibank World MasterCard account in November of 2004. Within two months, his credit score dropped 50 points at Experian and 35 points at Equifax.”

So what’s going on here? Well, the main problem is tied to how credit scores are calculated. One major factor, which makes up nearly a third of your score, is “credit utilization,” which measures the percentage of available credit that you owe. If your card’s limit is $12,000 and your balance is $4,000, your credit utilization is 33%. (The lower the better, when it comes to credit utilization numbers.) Interestingly, if your card has no limit — which many card users would consider a good thing — then the metric can’t be calculated, and it isn’t there to boost your score. Some card companies are getting around the problem by using your largest recent balance as your limit, but this is an imperfect solution. For one thing, not all card companies are doing this, and for another, the numbers won’t always work in your favor. If you’re a modest charger with a highest balance of $5,000 and a current balance of $3,500, your credit utilization will be a relatively steep 70%.

Learn more in our Credit Center, which features some surprisingly interesting info about the credit card industry. Being smart about credit can save you lots of money. And speaking of credit cards, check out our Fool credit card, which is so snazzy that it often serves as a conversation piece. Use it responsibly, and it can serve you well.

Whether you’re looking for credit approval or to improve your credit rating, Credit Report Pro has a solution thats perfect for you.

Ever wonder what your Credit Score is? Ever been denied credit? Do the offers you do get come with a high interest rate? If so, you’re likely one of the more than 30 million people in the United States with credit blemishes severe enough (credit score under 620) to make obtaining loans and credit cards with reasonable terms difficult.

So what can you do to improve your credit score? The Federal Trade Commission recommends the first step you take is to request a copy of your credit report and study it carefully. A lot of times, low scores can be blamed on errors in your report.

By law, credit bureaus must keep your information accurate, which includes keeping it up-to-date. If your report says you have filed for bankruptcy when you have not, or that you failed to pay a bill and were sued for nonpayment, but fails to reflect that you eventually made good on the debt, then it is not up to date.

You have a right, and duty to yourself, to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your report. You can do this by writing a letter to the creditor that includes your name, address, account number and the nature of your dispute. But it often takes weeks to get a response.

Sign up with Credit Report Pro affiliate ConsumerInfo and get started on your free credit report today!

Free Credit Score from ConsumerInfo.com

Dear Dr. Don,
I’ve had a certain credit card company for almost 20 years and have been very happy with it. Recently, I was notified that another company bought them out. I don’t like this new company at all and, in fact, I canceled an account with them years ago.Should I cancel the card even though I’ve used it for about 18 years? Everything seems to be changing with the card. They even sent me a new credit card with the name of the company I don’t like on the front. It is a slow, systematic changeover, and already the new company is not being honest. Please tell me what to do.
Thank you,
– Switcheroo Blue

Dear Blue,
I’m a strong advocate of voting with your feet when you don’t like a company’s products or services. In other words, leave. That’s especially true when it comes to money matters and you don’t think the firm is being honest with you. Still, before you cancel the card, I’d like you to take a couple of steps to make sure that closing this account isn’t going to have a negative impact on your credit history.

Lenders use your credit score along with other factors, such as your income and banking relationships, to determine whether they want to extend you credit. Your credit score is based solely on the information in your credit report. One factor in your credit score is the length of credit history. According to myFICO.com, the length of credit history is roughly 15 percent of your credit score.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Are you monitoring your credit report on a yearly basis? If the answer is no, what are you waiting for? Thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which took effect nationwide in September 2005, you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit-reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, Trans Union) every year.

Your credit report includes information on where you live, how you pay your bills and whether you’ve had any problems with bankruptcy. Since it’s used to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment or renting a home, it’s smart to check it out each year to make sure nothing is inaccurate or if there’s activity you aren’t aware of (which could be a sign of identity theft). Most importantly, your credit report contains information that affects whether you can get a loan — and at what rate.

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Susan Routh
OSU Extension Office

Beginning January 1, 2007, consumers in Oklahoma will have the opportunity to “freeze” their credit reports. Senate Bill 1748 which was passed last May will allow consumers to place a security freeze on credit reports by requesting one in writing by certified mail to all three of the credit reporting agencies.

According to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, the credit reporting agencies, which include Experian, Trans Union and Equifax, are not allowed to charge a fee to senior citizens 65 years of age and older or identity theft victims for placing, removing for a specific time period, or removing a security freeze on a credit report.

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Tami Luhby of Newsday
Most people know that a credit score is important when it comes to getting a mortgage. But did you know that it also could affect your ability to get a job? Or rent an apartment? Or get a good rate on car insurance?

“The credit score is really the key to your financial life, and we’re not just talking about getting credit,” said Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America.

Credit scores are now used by a host of people and businesses, including lenders, employers, insurance agents, landlords and utilities. That’s why it’s so important to maintain your creditworthiness — even when you are in your 20s and 30s, have just launched a career and are still paying off student debt.

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State Rep. Rich Golick learned a decade ago that the insurance industry had discovered a new crystal ball.

By shuffling a customer’s debt and bill-paying records through a complicated computer program, insurers believed they could predict with amazing accuracy which customers were most likely to get into an auto accident and file a claim.

The computer program boiled each customer’s history down to a new version of a credit score and called it an “insurance score.” Customers with bad scores were bigger risks than customers with good scores, insurers said, so it was only fair that their policies cost more.

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This is another reminder of how important it is to be vigilant in your awareness of your credit status. Many credit report mistakes are the result of errors in reporting etc. However, credit card fraud can wreak havok on your credit report, and if left unaddressed can ruin your credit perminantantly.

This story from the Associated Press relates the recent arrests of a suspected credit card fraud ring operating out of Mardid, Spain, but perpetrating the fraud on US credit holders.

Madrid — Spanish police, working with U.S. authorities and Swiss police, arrested 23 persons on suspicion of international credit card fraud, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

Investigators believe the suspects, from Canada, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Spain, stole financial and personal information from U.S. citizens and companies and then copied it onto fake cards of “exceptional quality.”

According to police, suspected ringleaders in Singapore masterminded the theft of information — mainly from one U.S.-based company’s files — by enlisting computer hackers in Russia and Ukraine.

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