Many consumers keep old, unused credit card accounts open to boost their credit scores.  Old accounts often help your score by extending the length of your credit history as well as improving your credit to debt ratio.

However, credit card companies routinely close accounts that show no activity at all. When an account is involuntarily closed, it changes your credit to debt ratio (or utilization rate), negatively affecting your credit score. In addition, your credit report will also contain an entry noting that the account was closed by the issuer. Many lenders view this negatively and may perceive you as a credit risk.

To safeguard your credit score make sure to use your old credit cards occasionally.

 As reported by the Wall Street Journal:
Credit Card Issuers Cut Off Consumers

With the credit crunch making it difficult for consumers to obtain loans, more are turning to credit cards to meet their expenses.  As traditional low interest home equity loans and refinancing options become less accessible many are forced to rack up credit card debt at higher interest rates.

"Government and agency statistics illustrate this troubling trend. The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that Americans’ credit card debt jumped 6.7% in the first quarter of this year to $957.2 billion, This spike comes despite the fact that nearly one in three banks is tightening guidelines for credit cards."

From CNN Money:
Barely surviving on credit cards

Upward of 50 lenders have announced in the past few months that they will no longer make student loans. The nation’s credit crunch simply doesn’t make those and many other loans profitable, according to a number of lenders.

And though there are about 2,000 lenders still offering federally backed and private loans, the U.S. House sprang into action late last week, approving legislation that would allow the federal government to advance funds in the event of a shortage of financial aid for college students.

Read more here:
Credit crunch puts some student loans in jeopardy

In the United States alone, victims reported losses of $239 million to online fraud in 2007, with average losses running about $2,530. The complaints are recorded by a special Web-based hotline operated by the F.B.I. and the National White Collar Crime Center, a nonprofit corporation focusing on electronic crime.

The most common frauds were fake e-mail messages and phony Web pages, and the crimes were organized from the United States, Britain, Nigeria, Canada, Romania and Italy, according to an F.B.I. report issued last month.

Despite the increasing sophistication and elusiveness of online criminals, judges remain reluctant to order much jail time for computer crime, according to some national law enforcement officials and major companies like Microsoft.
 

Read Full Story here:

High-Tech Crime Is an Online Bubble That Hasn’t Burst

WE’VE all heard a great deal in recent months about the greedy borrowers who caused the subprime mortgage calamity. Hordes of them duped unsuspecting lenders, don’t you know, by falsifying their incomes on loan documents. Now those loans are in default and the rapacious borrowers have moved on with their riches.

People who make these claims, with a straight face no less, overlook a crucial fact. Almost all mortgage applicants had to sign a document allowing lenders to verify their incomes with the Internal Revenue Service. At least 90 percent of borrowers had to sign, seal and deliver this form, known as a 4506T, industry experts say. This includes the so-called stated income mortgages, affectionately known as “liar loans.”

So while borrowers may have misrepresented their incomes, either on their own or at the urging of their mortgage brokers, lenders had the tools to identify these fibs before making the loans. All they had to do was ask the I.R.S. The fact that in most cases they apparently didn’t do so puts the lie to the idea that cagey borrowers duped unsuspecting lenders to secure on loans that are now — surprise! — failing.

Read full story here:

A Road Not Taken by Lenders

Bass & Associates, a collection company currently under investigation by the state of Florida may now be targeting consumers in other states.

Over 300 complaints against have been filed with the Florida attorney general against Bass & Associates, a debt collection agency accused of violating both federal and state debt collection laws.

Complaints against this company include:

• Claiming or implying to be attorneys or government agents and threatening arrest or legal action
• Claiming or collecting exorbitant debt amounts
• Use of harassing or intimidation techniques such as repeated phone calls or calls to a debtor’s place of work.

When calling consumers the company usually refuses to identify itself or use a variety of aliases including:

• States Predisposition
• Bass Enterprises/Bass Pre-Litigation
• United Legal Investigations Bureau
• United Federal Bank
• Impact Business Marketing
• Ellis Crosby & Associates
• Jackson Phillips & Associates
• Kirby & Associates

Many of the harrassing calls originate from these two phone numbers:

 866-900-7694 and 800-918-3844

"Though their aliases vary, their method never does. Masquerading as bankers, attorneys, police or other government officials, these crooks call consumers and attempt to extort money with a myriad of illegal false threats. These threats are always phony and include arresting you, ruining your credit rating, serving you "papers" for a lawsuit and, yes, taking your children away from you.  In one recent phone call to a consumer, these crooks even pretended to be on a walkie talkie coordinating a police raid of the consumer’s home.  Granted, this stuff is laughably ridiculous, but, sadly, some people fall for it."

From http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-800-918-3844 (click link to read about illegal techniques reportedly used by this company).

Arizona has received $1.45 million in federal funding to help the state’s growing number of homeowners facing foreclosure.

The money is part of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program, and it’s the first federal money dedicated solely to foreclosure prevention to reach Arizona.

Last month, 2,250 families in metro Phoenix lost their homes to foreclosure. That’s the highest monthly rate for defaults in the Valley since 1990, according to the Information Market.

Read full story here:
Arizona gets foreclosure aid funding

From MSN:

Each time you give your credit card details to a phone agent or Web site, it can feel like you die a little — after all, you’ve just given away the keys to your personal kingdom.

Security experts nowadays are trying to help address this fear by developing disposable credit card numbers.

Security experts propose using numbers once to foil identity thieves

Kiplinger has posted a good article with liks to advice for young people and parents on how to start building a credit history. Student credit cards are what get many people started on the road to debt. Talking about financial responsibility with your teengae children could save them a lot of trouble in the future.

Build Credit Without a Credit Card

Increasingly, insurance companies are weighing credit histories–including late bill payments and debt balances–when assessing a consumer application or renewal and setting the associated premium. That’s because there’s a proven connection between how you’ve managed your finances over the years and how likely you are to file an insurance claim. In much the same way that lenders look over your credit scores for a loan, many insurers now review your Property and Auto "Insurance Scores" to help determine your insurability and the premiums you’ll pay. Yet most people don’t realize this practice is commonplace.

Read full article here:

Know The Score When It Comes To Insurance