When we meet up with Margaret Mikitka at the home she and her family now rent, she walks us to a pair of french doors that lead out to a small patio and describes, "In my old house, this would have been a fireplace, but now I don't have one."...
A new credit scoring system that rivals the traditional FICO score is now available to consumers. For $5.95, Internet users now are able to check their VantageScores online through Experian, one of three U.S. credit-reporting bureaus that jointly developed the system. The site also includes a simulation showing how potential actions, such as closing a credit-card account or making a...
You've sent for your credit report and paid extra for your credit score. Now what? You probably sent for it because you want to know one thing: How good (or bad) is your credit? But instead of a straight answer for your trouble, your report consists of a list of current and past debts plus a number. And what that number means can vary widely. "Every company sets its own criteria,"...
