What about those companies claiming to provide services to improve my credit score and fix my credit?
Before you choose to work with a service promising to improve your credit file and raise your credit score, be wary of any offers or promises that seem to good to be true. In fact, raising one’s credit [...]

What is credit monitoring or these services and solutions designed to “monitor my credit history?”
A credit monitoring service basically looks over and guards your credit history file. If there are any changes to additions to your credit file, including personal information changes, new credit accounts being opened or closed, new items of public credit [...]

What are some good practices I should adopt to help avoid identity theft risk?
Major steps in combating and minimizing the risk of identity theft involving junk credit and loan mailings, constant everyday vigilance, internet safety, protecting your social security number, monitoring your credit, and signing up for an identity theft protection service.
What is the deal [...]

Could you tell me about some special types of credit cards that I should be aware of?
Some different credit card types include prepaid credit cards, secured credit cards, business credit cards, and student credit cards. Each of these have their purposes and uses.
Could you tell me more about prepaid credit cards?
A prepaid credit card [...]

What are credits cards?
Credit cards are small pieces of plastic given to consumers with which they can make purchases as part of a payment plan. With credit cards, the credit issuing company is extending the consumer a credit line that they can use each month to make purchases. Each month, the consumer must [...]

Before I learn about getting access to free credit scores and credit history, could you clarify what credit scores and credit histories are?
A credit history contains all the relevant information about you that pertain to credit worthiness. A credit and lender will request a copy of your credit file so that they can assess [...]

What is identity theft and how is it a growing problem?
In a case of identity theft, a criminal gathers personal information about an individual and assumes their identity, using that personal information to apply for loans, credit cards, and credit accounts. These identity theft criminals can also steal someone’s banking or password information to [...]

I heard about a recent University of Missouri study about the prevalence of mistakes and errors in credit reports. Could you tell me more about that?
There was a recent study that was conducted by UMSL (University of Missouri at St. Louis) that looked into the prevalence of mistakes in credit files and credit reports. [...]

What is a credit report?
A credit report is a report of your credit file, which contains items that people such as credit bureaus, lenders, credit card companies, creditors, employers, and businesses can use to assess your credit worthiness. Credit reports contain four parts: personal identifying information, credit accounts, matters of public credit record, and [...]