Your credit report contains important information about your financial history and ultimately paints a picture of your financial habits, both good and bad. Unfortunately, this makes it vulnerable to potential errors that can negatively affect you. A poor or inaccurate credit report can make it difficult to borrow money, qualify for a loan, get a…
Yes, debt collectors can now resort to social media. According to the Washington Post, recent decisions related to debt have permitted collection agencies to use social media for overdue payments. This recent development may indicate that millions of people could be surprised by debt collectors sending them friend requests, emails, direct messages, and text messages…
Online identity theft refers to the act of stealing personal information to perform fraudulent activities. The most common of these occurs when someone makes fraudulent purchases under your name. When this happens, debt builds up, and debt collectors call you regarding purchases you never made; this can severely damage your credit rating. Identity theft is…
What does “dismissal with or without prejudice” really mean? To ordinary people, hearing anything “with prejudice” may sound vaguely bad – after all, no one likes to be called “prejudiced.” But the expression has a special legal meaning. In plain language, a dismissal “with prejudice” means that the case’s outcome is final, and the same…
Robocalls Robocalls are autodialed or prerecorded messages made to your phone. If you answer the phone to a recorded message instead of a real person, it’s a robocall. Often made by telemarketers, they’re usually done without permission and interrupt your day. While robocalls can seem like a minor annoyance at times, they can also be…
Being a victim of credit fraud is a stressful and extremely inconvenient experience. It feels very invasive to have your personal information available to strangers and subject to abuse. Credit reporting errors are one of the clear indicators that someone has or had access to your information and has potentially abused credit in your name….
For many people, their credit score is an important part of their life, and for others, they don’t realize how much a poor credit score can affect their daily lives. Sadly, any significant change in one’s credit score can have devastating consequences. Mistakes on a credit report could lead to denial of a loan, increased…
Medical identity theft occurs when people use your personal information to make unwarranted claims to Medicare or other health insurers. Left unchecked, medical identity theft can wreak havoc on your medical care, deplete taxpayer dollars, and hurt your credit. Sadly, medical identity theft has become one of the more common forms of identity theft, as…
Child identity theft? Yes, that can happen. Your child can have their identity stolen. We tend to think of identity theft as something that only happens to adults with something to lose, such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and other financial resources criminals would be after. However, your child’s identity is at risk…
It’s Emanwel Turnbull, attorney at the Holland Law Firm, P.C. – I’m writing this special blog post to tell you about my encounter with a little-known consumer reporting agency: Telecheck. If you’ve heard of Telecheck, you know it’s a service that scans and deposits checks for businesses. Some businesses that accept personal checks will scan…