Equifax was founded as Retail Credit Company in 1899. The company grew quickly and by 1920 had offices throughout the US and Canada. By the 1960s, Retail Credit Company was one of the nation’s largest credit bureaus, holding files on millions of American citizens. Unlike the two other bureaus, the company was formed to […]

Popularity: 26% [?]

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TransUnion was created in 1968 by Union Tank Car Company as their holding company. According to Wikipedia, Union Tank Car Company is a railway equipment leasing company (and car maintenance / manufacturing) headquartered in metro Chicago, Illinois. As the name says, they specialize in tank cars, and covered hopper cars. It was founded […]

Popularity: 24% [?]

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Experian has only been around since 1980 as a data collection company founded by John Peace in Nottingham, England as CCN systems, an information services business owned by GUS plc. The company was formed to collect information on people, businesses, motor vehicles and insurance. It also collects ‘lifestyle’ data from on- and off-line […]

Popularity: 34% [?]

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So I decided that perhaps I could kill two birds with one stone and reduce my food expenditures and waistline at the same time. It makes sense, I can alter my food choices and (maybe) even eat less altogether; it was time to go on my annual “diet” and I needed some kind of incentive […]

Popularity: 16% [?]

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Market analyst Jon Najarian at options research firm OptionMonster Inc. in a research note Friday morning said that, although he believes government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will continue doing business, “their shares in my opinion are likely worthless,” according to an entry on MarketWatch. The New York Times reports today […]

Popularity: 16% [?]

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The Consumerist is reporting a reader received an offer from the debt collector who is offering “debt reduction” in the form of a pre-approved Visa card in which his $1,364 debt would be reduced to a $1,200 balance if he accepts the card. He would need only to to pay off the balance under the […]

Popularity: 20% [?]

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Retail and Department Store cards are credit cards which can only be used at the store which issues them, even if there is a Visa® or Mastercard® symbol on the credit card.  Almost everyone has been offered one of the cards when making  a department store by the sales clerk: “Would you like to open […]

Popularity: 17% [?]

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TransUnion is taking sign ups for a Free Credit Monitoring Service.  We first posted the news of the free service on June 2, but it was not available at the time.  As of June 25, you may now sign up for it. Recap of the why they are offering this free service:
The credit […]

Popularity: 22% [?]

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Tired of dirty little tricks by the credit card companies like that unexpected interest-rate increase on your credit card and confusing grace period? The Federal Reserve is accepting public comments through Aug. 4 on new credit-card rules it proposed in May.  If the Fed decides to adopt them, card-issuers will need to follow them.  […]

Popularity: 18% [?]

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Ever wonder how employment background checks are done so easily or even why some financial institutions don’t ask you to prove past employment when applying for credit? That’s right - they already have access to that information. For a fee, your work history can be obtained by anyone asking for it (your salary […]

Popularity: 19% [?]

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