Do you have a question about consumer credit? You may find an immediate answer by using the search engine. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please fill out the form, being as specific as possible.

Please note: The Ask Experian team cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience of consumers, the Experian team will include it in a future column.

Does it hurt my credit score if I settle my account?

Yes.

The term “settled” means the lender has agreed to accept a final repayment amount that is less than full repayment of the debt. The account will be shown in your credit report with a status of “settled,” indicating the debt was not paid in full, as originally agreed.

Anytime you do not repay an account in full or as agreed in the original contract it will have a negative effect on credit scores.

Thanks for asking.

• 0 Comments

Our Rubidoux foreclosure defense attorneys were interested to see yet another challenge to a bank’s right to foreclose reach the federal appeals courts. In Stein v. Chase Home Finance, Minnesotan Kenath Stein challenged the right of Chase to foreclose, arguing that it did not have both the note and the mortgage for the home in its possession when it started the foreclosure. Stein also challenged the validity of a redemption of the home by a junior lienholder, National City Bank. After removal to federal court, the two lenders successfully moved to dismiss, finding both actions valid. Stein appealed to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it upheld the district court.

Stein refinanced in October 2006 with a $484,000 loan from Chase, and took out a second loan from National City in January of 2007. Unfortunately, he started missing payments in March of 2008 and could never cure the default entirely. Chase notified him in September of that year that it would start foreclosure proceedings; a few weeks later, Chase Bank assigned the mortgage to its Chase Home Finance arm. Chase later sold the home to itself at the foreclosure sale, and National City exercised its right to redeem the property by buying it within six months.

Read more…

• 0 Comments

Brits are risking financial shock when they hit retirement, as research reveals that many people are not planning for the future sufficiently.

International research carried out by Bupa found that Brits are amongst the worst in the world when it comes to planning for retirement.

The international Bupa Health Pulse study surveyed over 13,000 people in 12 countries around the world. It found that under a third of Brits think they need to put money aside to fund care in later life – the lowest of all countries polled.

Even more shockingly, only a third of those aged over 65 said they had saved money for their old age in general.

“We know that on average, someone over 65 is likely to need around £50,000 to cover care costs such as home adaptations, meals on wheels and care home fees, but one in 10 will need double that,” said Oliver Thomas, UK Director, Bupa Care Homes.

“Most people assume all care in old age is covered by the NHS, but it’s not, so paying for care can come as a shock.”

Despite living longer on average, the research found that women were significantly less likely to have saved for retirement than men.

Experts warn that more women need to start saving, as 70% of those in Bupa Care Homes  in the UK are women.

“The majority of enquiries to Carers UK’s helpline come from women, either women seeking advice about their spouse who needs care, or sisters, daughters or nieces who look after a family member,” said Baroness Pitkeathley, Vice President of Carers UK.

“We’d urge people to talk more about what care they might want for themselves in old age so if and when the time comes, their family know their preferences for care.”

There are a number of savings and bank accounts that offer a good rate of interest. These include S

Read more…

• 0 Comments

In 2003, my list of greatest achievements was published in a personal growth and development book called Secrets of the Young and Successful.

Here it is, with a few updated “achievements” that have happened since 2003:

1.     In my second grade reading improvement class, everybody graduated but me.

2.     In grade school, I was always bullied and teased about my speech improvement, my height, and my big ears.

3.     Struggled studying, received a 1.8 GPA my freshman year of high school.

4.     Dysfunctional Household—Father and Mother divorced at age 8 without any communication within my family.

5.     I was humiliated and embarrassed at my high school graduation when, in front of 3,000 people, I froze at the podium, unable to speak as I was presenting an award to our school principal.

6.     I was denied acceptance into all but one university to which I applied; Arizona State University accepted me just under the wire.

7.     I was denied admittance into all fraternities during my freshman and sophomore years at Arizona State University.

8.     The woman I was going to marry left me, when to Colombia, met another man, and married him.

9.     Spend more than $1.5 million on a television infomercial, which failed to have a single week of profitability in the two years that it ran.

10.  Mortgage income dropped 92 percent in 12 months.

Let’s look at a couple of these personal growth and development “achievements” …

The woman I was going to marry left me, went to Colombia, met another man, and married him.

This was a personal growth and development achievement—and it was perfect—because today, I’m married to Lily, and I have three amazing kids. Thank God my college girlfriend left me. It was perfect,

Read more…

• 0 Comments

As I wrote in an article on Friday, even those who are back at work are not necessarily doing so well: only 7 percent of those who lost jobs after the financial crisis have recovered their income and standard of living. What’s more, the downturn and its aftermath have disproportionately hit people with less education. Even though the unemployment rates of high school dropouts and graduates have fallen from recent highs, they are still much higher than the rate for college graduates.

The Labor Departments jobs report for November, released Friday morning, also shows that the number of employed high school graduates actually fell by 187,000 over the last 12 months, while the number of employed college graduates has gone up 1.1 million during the same period.

Nevertheless, readers have pointed out that even among the college-educated, there is one cohort that is still feeling more pain: older workers. More than half of all unemployed workers 45 to 54 years old have been out of work for six months or more, and among unemployed 55-to-64-year-olds, close to 60 percent have been searching for work for more than six months.

People in the older of these two groups are worse off than they were a year ago. T

Read more…

• 0 Comments