Get a free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com. You can get one free credit report from each of the three major credit reports, once a year. You do not have to pay for a credit report. Make sure to check all three credit reports for any mistakes. The three reports may contain different information. When disputing  … Read More

Thieves are increasingly stealing children’s Social Security numbers and using them to create phony identities under which they take out loans or credit cards. In 2017 the Federal Trade Commission received 14,000 complaints of identity theft targeting people age 19 and younger. The fraud can go unnoticed for years unless parents check their children’s credit  … Read More

Always read the fine print. Low-interest rates may not be as low as advertised when the ad says “as low as”. The consumer may be charged the higher rate. Cards labeled as gold or platinum are designed to make the consumer believe they have more value. That is not always true- don’t choose a card  … Read More

The government has begun mailing to participants new Medicare cards with individual identifying numbers and without Social Security numbers. These cards are free. Beware of scammers posing as Medicare representatives who have been calling and emailing seniors to try to get them to pay a processing fee for the cards. Other scammers are saying beneficiaries  … Read More

A credit freeze blocks credit bureaus from sharing your credit reports with lenders, and lenders won’t open new accounts when they cannot access these reports. Starting September 21, 2018 it will be free to freeze or unfreeze your credit reports under a new federal rule. Previously, each of the three major credit bureaus-Equifax, Experian and  … Read More