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When it comes to big business, high-level politics and professional sports, it's becoming less and less about how you play the game, and more about whether you get just mildly wealthy or obscenely rich. That certainly seems to be the case if this year's cast of winners and losers is any indication. But while a fat paycheck may get you that house in the Hamptons and the envy of your peers, it won't necessarily garner you the much-coveted MarketWatch "winner" status. And it might even land you the dreaded "loser" tag, depending on the events leading to the payday.
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It's resolution time again. Instead of making the same old difficult-to-stick-to promises, like losing weight or quitting smoking, use the New Year to take stock of your career. Addressing career concerns might make you more fulfilled on a daily basis. If you make the resolutions wisely by setting small, achievable goals, you're likely to feel particularly rewarded.
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Here's a statistic you probably don't want to hear: More than 70 percent of credit reports contain mistakes. These mistakes can range from misspelling of your name to accounts you never opened. While it maybe tempting to ignore small errors such as inaccurate spellings or addresses, don't. Even these make you more vulnerable to fraud if someone is using a misspelled version of your name or a former address where you never lived. The bottomline: Whatever is wrong on your credit report must be corrected.
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Spooked by the possibility of identity theft, increasing numbers of people are taking a radical approach to thwart criminals: They are putting their credit reports on permanent freeze. A frozen credit report prevents almost anyone from using your name to take out a loan or sign up for credit, such as a credit card, a bank account or cellphone service. That is because, with a freeze in place, potential new creditors can't get access to your credit record kept on file by the three main credit-reporting bureaus without your explicit permission.
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One in four identity-theft victims say crime takes years to resolve: report SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Even as law-enforcement agencies, creditors and consumers become more savvy about the problem of identity theft, it can still take years for identity-theft victims to get their financial houses in order again after the crime, according to a new survey.
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When it comes to establishing credit for the first time or rebuilding damaged credit scores, I like to keep this image in mind: A phoenix rising from the ashes. To a large extent credit is an equal-opportunity evaluation process. Your credit scores do not reflect your income, age, education, or job title. They indicate how you use credit that's extended to you. I've seen a couple who have two teenage daughters and who work seasonal jobs earning a combined income of less than $30,000 a year with credit scores in the low 800s. And I've known a few executives, earning more than $200,000 a year, with credit scores in the subprime 500 range.
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In a recent survey, 43% of people said they'd do more than half their holiday shopping this year online. Yet, 80% of those big online shoppers fear having their identity stolen, says the study by security company Guard ID Systems. It's one of several firms recently out with improved safety-enhancing gizmos.
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If you're among the legions of people who game a wallet full of credit cards for maximum rewards, card issuers are onto you -- and they're coming up with ways they hope will persuade you to stick with them. A bank wants you to use its card as your primary card -- known in the industry as getting to the top of a customer's wallet -- because the bank makes more money that way. That's what cash-back and other rewards were supposed to achieve. But cardholders quickly learned that they could maximize benefits by, for example, using one card at the grocery store and another at the gasoline pump, depending on which card earned the most rewards at a particular merchant.
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The National Retail Federation expects $475 billion in sales during the holiday period this year and, if you're like many shoppers, you'll be using credit cards for a chunk of that spending. So whatever your relationship with the plastic fantastic -- whether you're carrying hefty debt balances or are an occasional borrower or always pay your monthly bills in full -- you want to make sure the card you pull out of your wallet makes the most sense for you.
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Three big credit dangers that can trip up your shopping BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- I got to spend a little time shopping the other day and what I noticed was that the gift-buying rush was just ramping up but the consumer credit mistakes were already rampant.
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