19,000 Children’s Identities Stolen by Thieves Last Year

Identity theft in the internet is a very common crime today. But imagine yourself as a parent checking your child’s credit account, only to find out it contains thousands of dollars’ worth of debts.

Yes, it is possible, in fact according to the Federal Trade Commission about a total of 19,000 innocent children’s identities across the United States have been stolen last year. Talk about stealing candy form a baby.

One victim of this offense is 7 year old Ian Umscheid. According to his parents, the incident started when one of the hard drives of their health care provider went missing.

Though the doubtful purchases made with the stolen identity were detected and reported immediately, the perpetrators were already able to steal an amount close to $15,000. Now, not only does the little boy have a bad credit, he also owes the Bank of America $5,400,the Ally Financial Bank $2,700 and the California jewelry store $4,500.

According to Ian, the perpetrators must have acquired the computer hard drive’s files, found his name and stolen his identity.Children are convenient targets because of their clean record from debt. Not only that, but according to authorities, the crime often gets discovered much later when the child becomes a teenager and would apply for a student financial assistance or other loaning purposes.

Simon Umscheid, Ian’s father, has been a district attorney for 12 years, but this does not exempt his family from the crisis.

If you are a parent, you never want this to happen to your child. Here are some precautions you should take in order to prevent this case. First, never carry around your child’s Social Security number unless it is very important that you do. Second, always watch over your child’s internet activities, you never know who might be taking advantage of them.

Trying to catch these perpetrators is not an easy task. In fact, you can try and trace these people for years but there is no guarantee that you would catch them.

Crime chooses no one. Criminals will strike anyone, in anytime, and in any possible way. Though parents do all they can to protect their child, there are just some dangers that even they can’t prevent.

Learn More About Financial Intelligence

Several surveys show that many consumers do not have sufficient knowledge about financial intelligence or issues.

These surveys have good intentions. The purpose is to design programs to make consumers understand the importance of financial literacy, the bad effect of having too much debt, and to avoid being trapped by scams.

The month of April has been declared as National Financial Literacy Month. According to President Obama it is very important that consumers should have time to study more about handling finances so that they could make wise financial decisions to avoid negative consequence that poor decision s may create. Due to the lack of information about financial issues from Wall Street to Washington, financial crisis resulted which greatly affected many Americans. There were so many consumers who became victim of loans which charged high interest rates and other hidden fees and penalties. Instead of helping the consumers to recover from their financial burden, their financial situations have become worse.

It would help you to observe the National Financial Literacy Month. If not, you have other options through the web site of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at www.ConsumerFinance,gov. Through its program “ask us anything” you can ask any financial question that deals with credit cards, debt collection etc.

According to CFPB Director Richard Cordray through “Ask CFPB” the consumers could have answers in plain language that they could easily understand to help them make sound financial decisions.

The Ask CFPB focus on answering questions about credit cards and mortgages but in the next coming months it is expanding its database to accommodate queries about other range of financial products like student loans, car loans and other financial issues.

There are other webs sites you could have access to deal with your financial questions. You can check www.MyMoney.gov.or call 888-MyMoney(696-6639) toll free. You can get recorded answers in English or Spanish. If you want, you can also order a MyMoney toolkit where you can have printed materials to help you become more intelligent in dealing with financial issues.

Why do College Students Decide to Drop Out of School?

Fruzsina Eordogh is a graduating journalism student at Loyola University in Chicago. But last spring she decided to drop out of school. It was a hard decision on her part but she decided to quit because of her $50,000 student loan. Instead of pursuing her studies, she quit and took the opportunity of getting a job.

Since June, Eodorgh at 26, has been working as a full time on line reporter. While her former classmates have pursued their graduate school, she is busy working at Daily Dot, a digital publication which covers culture through internet. She has to work in order to pay her student loan.

There are other cases similar to what happened to Eodorgh. In fact, some of them are Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. These drop outs made good but the majority of those who dropped out from school were not successful. According to Harvard’s analysis, the U.S. has the highest rate in dropout among industrialized countries. The data for analysis came from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

U.S. Tops In School Dropout Rates

In 2011, Harvard graduate School of Education through its study known as “Pathways to Prosperity” has recorded that 56 percent of college students taking up four-year course could make it in six years and only 29 percent of those who are enrolled in a two-year course could finish their course in three years.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in its report at “Education at a Glance” supports the analysis of Harvard that among the 18 countries with dropout rates the United States tops the list. In Japan 89 percent of students finished college, Slovakia’s record is 63 percent, Poland 61 percent while U.S has only 46 percent.

Student Loans Create The Financial Hole

“Is College worth it?” This is the question commonly asked by students according to Pew Research Center report in 2011.

The cost of college has tripled for the past two decades, from 1980 to 2010. The study shows that the average student loan on the average is $23,000. This is the reason why many students decide to drop out from school and instead pursue a job to pay their loan.

How to Get Student Loans When You Have Bad Credit

Having a degree is a high guarantee that you can have a better future, and money will be the least of your problems. However, the decision of going to college rests heavily on your current financial standing.

Attending college is more of a privilege for students rather than a right. Lucky enough for some high school graduates because they come from well-off families, or they are intelligent enough to be granted academic scholarships or they are scouted for sports scholarships. These individuals are spared the headache of finding financial assistance for their schooling. But what about those who are not very bright and have bad credit in school who also want to go to college?

Finishing with a degree is so important for some students that they sometimes stop going to the university to work and save for the tuition. Scholarships and financial aids are a great help in financing your college tuition, and sometimes, you don’t even have to pay them back until after graduation. However, often times, they are not enough to suffice your whole college application.

Banks can provide you with private loans to pay for college; however they give you a credit check first. The key to getting a student loan if you have a bad credit is to sign with someone who has a very good academic credit. But this is only easy if this someone is a close friend or a family member.

So, how can someone with a not-so-good academic standing get a student loan? Well, thankfully, there is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid provided by the government. This does not require a credit check; you don’t have to worry about your credentials. All you have to do is to file your application each year.

This student loan is called a Stafford loan which is allotted by the government through colleges. This money will pay for your matriculation fees and other fees and the extra amount will be given to you to pay for your books.

The requirements to get the FAFSA are the student’s income tax if he is financing his schooling or his parents’ financial tax returns if he is under his parents’ custody. This scholarship grant makes going to college a dream come true for many.

Understanding Credit and Credit Scores

Bad credit creates many difficulties to get a mortgage, credit card, student loan or car loan. When you have a bad credit record, it creates an impression on the mind of creditors that you are not paying your financial obligation on time and they label you as a high risk borrower.

Bad credit is simply the result of poor or wrong financial choices. Basically, it is the result of delayed payments in any type of loan like a car loan, housing loan or student loan. Most often, these delayed payments are caused by the mishandling of finances. But even those who are good in handling their finances can incur debt because of loss of job.

Whatever is the cause of your bad credit record, the important thing is the realization of the many negative effects that it creates on your credibility when you want to get future loans. It is only after this bad situation that consumers learn to make better decisions.

Credit Scores are numbers. They are calculated based on how well the consumers are paying their financial obligations. Consumers get high scores by paying their loans on time. Conversely, the scores go down when payments are delayed or default. All your payments whether on time or delayed are regularly reported to the three big national credit bureaus for the calculation of your credit scores. The three big credit bureaus are TransUnion: Precision, Experian:FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) and Equifax: Pinnacle.

The most commonly used credit score reference is FICO. In this model the score ranges from 300 to 850. The worst score is 300 and the best score is 850.

Only a very few have excellent credit scores and these belong to a few elite who qualify easily to get loans with the best interest rates.

A score of 600 is still considered as low APR. A score of 500 puts a consumer in trouble and may require higher interest rate for a loan. Creditors or lenders will always do investigation especially on your credit scores before granting loans. Therefore, consumers should handle their finances properly to protect their credit scores. This is how important credit scores are.