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Friday, February 25, 2005

Pay interest to “build credit?”

Another reader mail:

“i wanted to see if you can help me with some questions.
i recently heard from people that if you pay your balances off completely (mostly on credit cards) it doesnt build your credit. they say that in order to build credit you need to pay some type of interest. they tell me that paying off a credit card balance in 3 to 4 payments its the best way to build credit (paying more than the minimum of course). is this true?

thank you for your time and help,”

What exactly is “building credit”?

You get by far the best credit rating when you pay your credit cards in full every month.

Don’t listen to the creditors!  Of course they want you to pay interest.

If you carry a balance you’ll only lower your credit scores due to a higher balance/limit ratio, one of the most important score factors.

If your definition of “building credit” is increasing limits, you may get faster increases if you carry balances.  Every creditor has different policies, they change frequently and are sometimes rather absurd.

I have 4 Capital One cards, one with around 10% interest, another at 20%.  They won’t lower the 20% interest rate - it’s their policy for that card.  Does that make sense?

You might want to take advantage of special offers such as 0% balance transfers or checks, but watch for tiny print fees.

It is important that you do use each card at least once or twice a year.  Some creditors close accounts that aren’t used or lower the limits.

Matt Drudge financial problems or Firefox malfunction or new popups?

I’ve been checking out http://drudgereport.com/ fairly regularly and the last few days I’ve been inundated with obnoxious popups. 

Ironically, I just set the Firefox start page to Drudge from their default after reinstalling everything on the new drive - it was nice to pick up all these LowerMyBills.com advertisements at Drudge for the DRE complaint.

I noticed that Drudge went from one ad to two ads, did he add the popups now?  Why doesn’t Firefox block them?

Whatever the reason for the popups, I can’t stand it and just changed the default page to the blog.

B of A “lost” backup tapes with customer credit card, Pentagon and possibly “black project” data

A New Cyber-Security Breach

“In the financial world’s latest cyber-identity crisis, Bank of America today is warning the holders of at least 1.2 million of its federal employee credit card accounts that a major security breach may have left their account information exposed to theft or hacking, according to a senior U.S. official and Bank spokeswoman.”

I don’t know what’s with the “cyber” - is the Times implying that this isn’t real or not important or what?

“.... The U.S. official said that federal law enforcement is investigating the loss of several Bank of America data backup tapes that were being transferred across country by air when they disappeared in December. ...”

“...The U.S. official said a large percentage of the accounts are for the Pentagon but that some 40 federal agencies and other entities are affected. Some of the tapes related to non-federal card-holders, the official added. Trower would not comment on which agencies are affected, referring questions to the General Services Administration. A GSA spokesperson had no immediate response to an inquiry about the matter, including whether any of the Pentagon’s billions of dollars in secret “black” programs could be affected. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the data loss includes files on 900,000 of the Pentagon’s three million or so military and civilian workers. “It is a significant number of the Department’s employees,” he said, declining to say whether it affected any who are working undercover.”

I’d like to have a look those tapes, but not to steal peoples’ identity.

Legal threats from Larry Smith, Krohn & Moss

Here’s my reply to his e-mail:

“… At this time, you are on notice of the believability and credibility of your source, so that you do not recklessly continue the posting of untrue information that may cause economic damage to our firm. ...”

Please send me each posting with content you object to and strike-out the words you want me to delete.

Also, have you litigated any cases worth listing such as Len Bennett’s Johnson v. MBNA and Michael Baxter’s Thomas v. Trans Union?

I just looked at your website, but didn’t find anything. Did I miss the link with rulings such as at Edelman, Combs, Latturner & Goodwin, LLC?

Thank you,

Christine

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Why is Larry Smith referring to my “source”? I’m not sure what he wants.

Since he seems to want to talk about sources, I do have a few things to say:

NOBODY has ever sent me a positive review of Krohn & Moss. In addition to postings in the Krohn & Moss thread at CreditForum.org and at other sites, I received several private reports from K & M clients who were extremely unhappy and were even threatened to be sued by K & M and therefore were too afraid to post. Several consumers reported that they lost their cases and K & M apparently even testified for the defense. That’s what my “sources” tell me.

As to my personal experiences with Krohn & Moss:

1) The K & M marketing department contacted me and requested a listing at my sites.

2) I did so - I’ve never charged a penny. I also never received a donation from K & M or any lawyer listed at my sites.

3) After K & M got business from my sites, Larry Smith contacted me to thank me. We talked on the phone and he told me how great my work here is.

4) When I filed my first federal suit in 2003 and I needed some help. I called Larry Smith and he had NOTHING to offer. ZERO. NADA. He gave me the phone number for their AZ office and I talked to a guy into auto related suits who could not possibly have cared less about me and my case against the CRAs.

So, my assessment of Krohn & Moss:

Scum sucking bottom feeding incompetent greedy scumbag lawyers.

I wouldn’t do business with K & M if they were the last lawyer on the planet.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Claria (Gator) adware executive on Homeland Security Privacy Advisory Board

I don’t even know what the “Homeland Security privacy advisory board” does.

FTC staff attorneys become execs for scummy marketers, engaging in criminal activities.  Unbelievable.

Now I understand why the FTC hasn’t done anything about the Gator illegal marketing. I had that Gator crap on my computer once.

It all makes sense now.

Adware maker joins federal privacy board

“The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a “parasite,” to a federal privacy advisory board. ”

“… In the past, Claria’s pop-up ad software has riled some users who claimed it was annoying, installed without permission, and not easy to delete. Publishers also were irked about pop-up ads for a rival’s product appearing next to their own Web sites. Catalog retailer L.L. Bean sued Gator for alleged trademark infringement.

Claria’s representative on the Homeland Security privacy board is company Vice President D. Reed Freeman, a former Federal Trade Commission staff attorney. Other members include executives from Intel, Computer Associates International, IBM, Oracle and the Cato Institute.

Kelly said Freeman will “bring his courage and conviction to the board, and will contribute productively--and constructively--to the board’s and the public’s dialogue on privacy and homeland security.”

...”