1 million credit scores lowered by Sallie Mae

Posted by Joe on May 15th, 2008

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The largest provider of student loans in the United States, Sallie Mae, made a critical reporting error which artificially lowered the Equifax credit scores of approximately one million borrowers.

Like all lenders Sallie Mae reports account history information for all their borrowers to all three of the major credit bureaus including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. In the most recent data transfer an error caused about 10% of all accounts, or about one million total borrowers, to appear delinquent.

Sallie Mae realized the issue and contacted all three credit bureaus. Equifax had already posted the information the impacted individual’s accounts which immediately lowered their credit scores. Experian or TransUnion scores were not impacted.

The issue has been resolved and the Equifax credit scores have been restored for impacted individuals. Those who believe they may have been impacted are encouraged to contact Sallie Mae directly at 1-888-2-sallie. Sallie Mae will also provide credit references to impacted consuers upon request.

“We certainly and fully understand the importance of one’s credit rating and we worked with urgency to resolve this situation,” Said Sallie Mae spokesman Tom Joyce.

Those consumers that utilize a credit report monitoring service would have received immediate alerts when these changes were posted to their Equifax credit report and score. To learn more about credit report monitoring services we suggest visiting our credit report monitoring service reviews and comparison.

• Equifax offers free 3-in-1 credit report and 3 bureau credit report monitoring
• Reader Question: Which credit report monitoring services provide ongoing credit report and score data?
• Credit piggy backing gets bucked
• Unlimited credit reports and scores from all 3 bureaus with CreditCheck Total
• Keep your credit purring like the engine of your car

Reader Question: Are credit bureau fraud alerts still available?

Posted by Joe on April 1st, 2008

This post is another in our ongoing series of “Reader Questions”. if you have a question of your own on any of the services we cover please use our contact form to let us know.

Q:With respect to the Identity Theft company comparisons that you provide, Identity Guard states the following during an enrollment process:

As of April 2, 2008, the Credit Bureau Fraud Alert feature will no longer be offered through your Identity Guard service.

It seems to me that without this important feature, they are no longer worth the higher cost of $14.99 cost per month.

Have the other services such as LifeLock also discontinued this feature?

A: You are correct in that Identity Guard is in the process of discontinuing their fraud alert feature. They are the only service that we are aware of that is planning to discontinue fraud alerts. LifeLock most certainly still allows their members to set fraud alerts as a part of their identity theft protection service.

Identity Guard will continue to provide three bureau credit report monitoring that will allow you to monitor chanegs to your credit report with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. This is a service that LifeLock does not provide, although LifeLock will give you one free credit report per year as part of the annual credit report program.

If fraud alerts are important to you, and we feel that fraud alerts are a very important part of preventative identity theft protection, then LifeLock is the best service from our perspective.

• NextAdvisor reviews Identity Truth
• Reader Question: How do I set a fraud alert on my credit report?
• Reader Question: What should I do if I think I have been a victim of identity theft?
• Identity Theft Shield from Kroll and Pre-Paid Legal Review
• Identity Guard provides extensive identity theft protection and detection

New FICO score will help some, hurt others

Posted by Joe on December 19th, 2007

Fair Isaac Corporation, otherwise known as FICO, has created a new scoring system that will change how potential lenders may view your credit history.

FICO is a household name that is synonymous with credit scores, particularly to anyone that has ever applied for a home loan, auto loan or credit card.  FICO estimates that 90% of major banks use their scoring methodology to analyze the credit worthiness of consumers.

The new FICO score, officially called FICO 08, was created to more accurately predict the credit risk of an individual.  It will be more lenient on people who may have had a few credit slip ups in the past but otherwise have had fairly responsible credit practices and much more harsh on those who repeatedly make credit mistakes.

FICO provided these very helpful examples of how the new FICO 08 score may impact differnt types of people based off of their credit history.

This is great news for consumers that are actively working to improve their credit and adopting healthy credit habits and even more reason for those people that have habitually poor credit to take moves to improve.

The FICO 08 score also makes it extremely important to have a full grasp on the contents of your credit report as inaccuracies could cost you once the new formula begins calculating scores.  The simplest and most effective way to get a full grasp of your current credit profile is to sign up for a credit report monitoring service.  These services will give you access to your credit report, credit score and alert you to any changes on your credit report.

All of the credit bureaus, including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, provide these services and we have reviewed and compared all these credit report monitoring services for the benefit of our readers.

• Reader Question: Will shopping for a mortgage hurt my credit score?
• Reader Question: How do I get my FICO score for free?
• Equifax offers free 3-in-1 credit report and 3 bureau credit report monitoring
• Reader Question: Which credit score do lenders use?
• Credit piggy backing gets bucked

Type carefully when looking for a free credit report

Posted by Joe on December 19th, 2007

A recent study by USA Today and online security company Symantec found hundreds of websites that took advantage of typos to direct consumers away from their intended destination when searching for a credit report.

These sites have domain names very similar to those of the credit bureaus. For example, freecreditrepotrt.com may accidentally be reached by consumers that are attempting to visit Experian’s FreeCreditReport.com. While most of these sites likely pose little threat to consumers, it is still important to be fully aware who is operating the website you are visiting before you engage in any business dealings.

One simple way to ensure that you are on the website you intend to be is to check the privacy policy and/or contact us links which are typically at the bottom of the web page. If these items aren’t present or seem suspicious, it is a good idea to move along.

We here at NextAdvisor deal directly with all the major credit report monitoring services and make sure that all links on our site are valid and directing to reputable service providers. You can click on any of the links below to visit the official websites of each of the credit report monitoring services that we have reviewed:

• Equifax
• CreditCheck Total
• FreeCreditReport.com
• Privacy Matter 123
• TrueCredit
• MyFICO
• TransUnion

• FreeCreditReport.com offers 30 day trial of the cheapest three bureau credit monitoring service
• Reader Question: How much do credit report monitoring services cost?
• Reader Question: Am I entitled to a free credit report each year?
• Reader Question: How do I order my free credit report?
• Reader Question: What is the best way to monitor my FICO score

Equifax simplifies online credit reports

Posted by Joe on December 19th, 2007

Equifax, our top rated provider of credit report monitoring services, has simplified their online credit report in response to consumer feedback with the goal of making personal credit monitoring easier for their customers.

The new credit report format consolidates important information upfront and more detailed information in the interior sections of the report. According to Equifax:

Under the new format, the front page of the credit report will now provide a detailed summary of a consumer’s credit history, including accounts, debt- to-credit ratios, account age, and potential negative credit histories — all on one page. Each section also contains a brief explanation for consumers to help them better understand the information.

The new easy to read format is currently available on the Equifax credit report and will be available on the Equifax 3-in-1 Credit Report, which includes information from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, in early 2008.

We encourage all of our readers to sign up for a credit report monitoring service to help keep tabs on your credit health. Fore more information on Equifax and other credit report monitoring services you can read our in-depth reviews and comparison.

• Equifax offers free 3-in-1 credit report and 3 bureau credit report monitoring
• Reader Question: Am I entitled to a free credit report each year?
• Reader Question: How do I get my FICO score for free?
• Reader Question: How do I order my free credit report?
• Reader Question: Which credit report monitoring services provide ongoing credit report and score data?