Update on the Equifax Data Breach

by John Koehler Comment Closed
**This post contains affiliate links and the publisher may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.**   On July 22, 2019 the civil settlement of the Equifax data breach in 2017 was announced.  As was reported in the fall of 2017, including in our article here, Equifax, one of the major 3 credit bureaus, suffered a data breach that exposed personal information on over 140 million Americans.  This is more than half the adults in the United States, so if you're not sure if you've one of those affected, odds are slightly better than not that your data was exposed, but there is now a definitive way to know if your personal information was exposed.   Key Things to Know The first thing to determine is whether you're eligible for a remedy in the settlement, because your data was exposed in the breach.  To find out, you can go to this website: https://eligibility.equifaxbreachsettlement.com/en/eligibility.  You will need to enter your last name...
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Understanding the Loan Shark Prevention Act

by John Koehler Comment Closed
**This post contains affiliate links and the publisher may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.** Senator Bernie Sanders and House of Representatives member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made some news earlier in May with the introduction of the "Loan Shark Prevention Act", a new policy proposal they co-wrote, and which Senator Sanders has introduced in the Senate (where it is unlikely to gain much traction to move towards a vote).  The bill text can be found here, and you're not missing anything - it only takes up 2 pages, as the proposal itself is both simple, and is also simply an extension/revision of the existing Truth in Lending Act to add a new sub-section, so it doesn't require a couple of thousand pages like some recent examples of "major" legislation did. The basics of the proposal is to set a national maximum interest rate of 15%.  Since this proposal would build on the Truth in Lending Act, which...
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A New Years Resolution to Keep

by John Koehler Comment Closed
**This post contains affiliate links and the publisher may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.** With 2018 coming on quick you may be making some new years resolutions - things you're planning to do to be healthier, to be more successful in your work, or to improve your personal relationships.  All of those are great, and we wish you good luck in achieving your goals.  But the new year is also a great time to resolve to improve your credit profile, and your personal financial situation in the new year. When January arrives so does the season of paperwork: your employer will send your W-2, your mortgage lender will send a 1098, any business (or person) you've earned income from (that doesn't employ you) may send you a 1099.  Other assorted entities may need to send you paperwork too so you can complete your federal, and potentially state, tax return, and you may be using this...
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Equifax Data Breach – Explainer

by John Koehler Comment Closed
**This post contains affiliate links and the publisher may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.** News came out on September 7th that Equifax, one of the three major credit reporting agencies (AKA "credit bureaus") in the United States suffered a data breach between May and July, and that the personal information of around 143 million Americans was potentially compromised, which is slightly under half of all Americans, but over half the adult population.  With those sorts of numbers, Credit Wizard is in agreement with many other experts that believe it is best to believe your information was exposed while Equifax still works to provide a definitive method for checking if your personal information was potentially exposed.  Equifax put together this webpage here about the incident and their response. As explained in our overview page on credit reporting, individuals don't generally maintain a direct relationship with the credit bureaus; instead the credit bureaus collect information from consumer...
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