1.5 Million Credit Blunder by Global Payments

One of credit cards’ worst histories of security breach has occurred this year. Visa and MasterCard users are facing the possibility of having their personal information stolen and according to sources Global Payments was the one to blame.

No records of credit card accounts, Social security numbers, house address and much other information were said to be taken from the archives of the company. However, Global Payments admit that they have been the mishap of the system and they estimated that about 1.5 million of their subscriber’s records have been tapped.

According to the company, though personal info was not taken, the possibility of identity theft and fraud may happen. In 2007, Heartland Payment Systems a company that manufactures swipe machines for credit cards also had their system hacked and 130 million credit cards were affected. For this weakness in their security, they had to pay a $139 million worth of legal charges in 2009, and it is very likely that Global Payments will suffer the same fate.

Visa has already removed the company’s name from its official list of providers; this is until they fix their security system. This does not prohibit Global Payment from delivering its job;though the move momentarily marks them for potential danger. The company expects to be restored in the list after they have updated their safety measures.

Last year, Global Payments had over 2.44 billion dealings with its 800,000 merchants all over the United States, making it rank seventh in the business.

Though investors may become hesitant in investing to the company after the incident, this does not mean that it will run out of business. Heartland, which had its blunders, was able to regain its loss. If Global Payments handles this fine, they will get their name reinstated in Visa’s list in no time.

Dealer, Buyer Argue About Failed Car Financing Plan

At the Texas Truck Headquarters located in San Pedro, Rafael Diaz wanted to buy a 2004 Mazda RX8.

According to Diaz, he gave a down payment of $2,000 on the car. Then, someone told him paying for the balance of the purchase amount would be granted. With that, Diaz drove off with the car.

After a few weeks, someone told him to bring in the car for license plates.

George Alejos of the League of United Latin American Citizens was requested by Diaz to represent him, since he cannot converse well using the English language. Alejos said that a person took the keys and drove off. After 15 minutes of waiting, the same person comes back and says to Diaz that he can already leave because the car was just reposed.

According to Alejos, something went wrong with initial financing plan. The car dealer did not want to return both the car and the down payment.

Moreover, Alejos said that in order to protect the public, these kinds of dealerships must be discontinued.

Jorge Martinez, the General Manager of Texas Truck, settled to meet up with Alejos and Diaz so that they can fix the problem and added that Diaz was only telling a part of the whole story.

According to Martinez, in order to get financing, Diaz presented paycheck stubs that appeared to be printed at home, that the year to date totals was the same in all the paycheck stubs, and that Diaz disliked the condition of being charged higher interest rates because of poor credit.

Also, Martinez said Diaz thought the interest rate was too high for him because it was greater than what he actually intended.

Martinez took the car back because Diaz would not answer calls to redo the financing plan. As a defense, he decided to keep the deposit. They also attempted to let him pay for repossess fees.

Ultimately, the down payment was returned to Diaz and he learned something in car financing.

Normally, dealers allow buyers to take the vehicles if they are sure of the approval of the financing. Still, experts recommend buyers not to take the vehicles unless the financing is completed.

Consumer Protection Law Defends Oregon Collection Agency

In the previous time, if, for instance, you were an Oregonian consumer, with a number of poor credit card balances but were able to withstand until the statute of limitations passed, you were more or less sure of success. However, this may be an unethical way of managing poor debt.

Now, for the month of March, a few changes might have been made to those things.

There are three cases in Oregon that looks as if it indicates a means to a restored option to collect for collection agencies. After incurring credit card charges, delinquent credit card owners can be sued by debt collectors for a maximum of six years. This is in opposition to a preceding decree proposed that in order to be considered off the hook, as you might say, Oregonians had to wait for a maximum of three years.

This latest rule was brought about by three independent consumer cases, all concerning Chase Bank, which is based in Delaware. In Delaware, credit card debt is in a three-year statute of limitations, so when collection agencies purchased the delinquent accounts from Chase, the customers assumed they could sue due to their out-of-stat debts.

Nonetheless, the Court of Appeals in Oregon decided to sustain the six-year statute, despite the signed contract stating the three-year statute of Delaware would be standard.

The change can be seen in the fact that a third-party collection agency purchased the debt. As a result, it initiated a condition in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that hinders collectors from taking legal action from a long distance. The added condition also insists that consumers can be sued by collection agencies in the state in which the consumer lives in.

At the end of the day, it seems weird and appropriate at the same time that a protection law intended for consumers was utilized to defend the rights of a collection agency.

Middletown Registers Good Fiscal Rating Despite Poor Economy

Good news for tax payers of Middletown. The town has earned a good credit rating. According to Mayor Fiore, if the credit rating of a town is good, it will get a favorable interest when it borrows money. In addition to a favorable interest, the credit can be readily availed of because of the lower risk involved. The good credit standing of Middletown also indicates that its debt is low or relatively small.

According to Moody’s Investor Service, Middletown has an Aa2 bond rating. But Moody has lowered the ratings of 24 other municipalities according to the report made by Bloomberg News on NJ.com. Moody does research and provides risk analysis. It is an accredited premier credit rating provider, according to Fiore.

The affirmation by Moody of Middletown’s good credit rating is a big deal for us, Fiore said. It simply shows that the town has a relatively low debt, and the implementation of austere policies for the past years which include budget cuts have paid off. Despite the bad economy, the town has managed to stabilize its financial position by doing the right thing. Opposition claims that the town’s debt is extremely high and it is headed toward bankruptcy. But what is happening is just the opposite. The good credit rating affirms that Middletown is in a strong fiscal shape. While our town has earned top credit rating, other towns nearby have lower credit ratings, Fiore said.

The Aa2 bond rating of Middletown means that the town has a wide tax base, low debt, and more than enough liquidity reserve.

According to Mayor Fiore and Administrator Anthony Mercanatante, the main factors that contribute to the strong financial position of Middletown are the effective management and fiscal strategies. The fiscal strategies include property evaluation reassessment, budget cuts and staff reduction, wide tax base, speedy payment of amortization lowering debt burden, increased surplus resulting to sufficient liquidity.

Children are the Targets of Identity Thieves

An adult is very much aware of the importance of good credit rating. Credit rating determines the rate of interest of a new loan. It can even determine your chances of getting a job or not.

But most adults do not give much time in monitoring their children’s credit. Because of this, many children have become victims of thieves by using the identities of these children.

One of the victims of an identity theft was Ian Umscheid. He has a credit report which records the following accounts: $5,400 on a credit card from Bank of America; $2,500 from Ally Financial Bank and $4,500 to a jewelry store in California.

According to his father, Simon Umscheid, this happened when Ian was about 6. It showed that he had six or seven accounts with total purchases of about $15,000.This theft began when the family’s health care provider from California lost a computer hard disk drive. Sadly, thousands of dollars had already been racked up before credit monitoring service discovered the suspicious purchases.

Ian said that the computer was stolen and they found his name and used his identity in a card. According to the Federal Trade Commission, more than 19,000 children were victims of stolen identity. They are the best targets because of no debt record.

The children discover that their identities were stolen when they turn 16 or 17. It is at this time that they usually apply for student loan or car loan, according to Atty. Steven Toporoff of Federal Trade Commission. Thieves know that if they get Social Security Number of a child, it would take many years before parents will discover the credit record of their child.

Here are some tips on how to avoid children to become victims of identity theft.

Trey Loughman of Equifax recommends that parents’ should keep safely their child’s social security number. Do not put it in their wallet unless it is needed. Monitor regularly the credit record of their child, Trey further said.

According to D.A. Simon Umscheid , the father of Ian, his home was hit by identity theft despite of his being a district attorney and prosecutor for 12 years. In other words this thing can happen to anybody. Therefore, parents should be very careful in keeping the social security number of their children.

To make it hard for thieves to get or guess the Social Security numbers, the Social Security Administration has made changes in issuing new numbers. Instead of basing it on when and where a child is born, the number is now issued randomly.