Fiserv Goal: Find At-Risk Mortgages Before Default

Fiserv Inc. developed its newest suite of services on the theory that lenders might be able to stem mortgage defaults if they can identify troubled borrowers before they fall behind on their payments.

The Fiserv Prism and Home Retention Solutions suite is aimed at parsing financial databases to determine which borrowers are making payments but may run into trouble.

"The foreclosure problem is going to get worse. It's not going to get better anytime soon," James L. Smith, the executive vice president of portfolio services at Fiserv Lending Solutions, said in an interview. He said he expects a "tidal wave" of foreclosures next year, because more adjustable-rate mortgages will reset this year.

Lenders are making a bad situation worse by pursuing foreclosure instead of restructuring troubled loans, Mr. Smith said.

The Brookfield, Wis., vendor's Prism tool set is meant to predict the likelihood that a borrower will fall behind on payments. (Prism stands for "Predictive Risk Index Score Modeling.")
For example, he said, the software can track consumers' credit ratings to measure "FICO drift," where a credit score is falling but the borrower remains current on the mortgage.
The software also looks at Fiserv's Case Shiller Home Price Index, which monitors market conditions to show where home prices may be falling, as a risk factor for borrowers. Even customers with good credit might be at risk of default if property values in their region fall so much that their houses are now worth less than they owe, Mr. Smith said. "It's not a mortgage type that makes them delinquent. It's an equity issue."

Other factors that play a role in Prism's analysis include property type and price, geographic area (in some cases at the ZIP code level), and various forms of risk scoring.

The suite lets Fiserv default management experts offer the lender alternatives to foreclosure, such as a loan restructuring, which can be customized according to the loan type and the borrower's state.

Also, Fiserv's call center can reach out to borrowers to discuss the terms of their loans, Mr. Smith said. "Everyone we had doing [back-office] origination work has been retasked to do this work."

source : http://news.google.com/news?

Denenberg Answers Questions On Glaucoma, Credit Scores, BBQ Sauce And Himself

Question: I'm concerned about developing glaucoma due to my family history. Are there any dietary measures or other steps I can take to reduce my risk of developing that disease? Also, I know you can measure blood pressure and blood sugar levels at home. Is there a device to measure eye pressure at home, an indicator of glaucoma?

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Answer: A study reported by an organization called Research to Prevent Blindness, in its 2007 Annual Report, notes, "In a study of women aged 65 and older, Research to Prevent Blindness investigators found that higher intake of carrots, collard greens or kale, and canned or dried peaches (which are rich in vitamins A, B2 and C, respectively) may be associated with a decreased risk of glaucoma. The authors noted that the exact mechanism by which fruits, vegetables and antioxidants may affect glaucoma is not yet understood."

Of course, maintaining good health, by diet, exercise, weight control, stress control, adequate sleep, and all the rest will decrease your risk of glaucoma. That's because glaucoma is more likely in those with certain chronic diseases such as diabetes.

On your second question, Research to Prevent Blindness investigators have developed a prototype of a miniaturized eye pressure measuring device, but it is not yet available for home monitoring.



Question: In a recent column, you called on the real Sen.Barack Obama to stand up. Maybe there isn't a real Mr. Obama to stand up because the real Mr. Obama just isn't a stand-up kind of guy. Would you agree?

Answer: Yes, I've written several dozen columns on how Mr. Obama is many things, but honest, trustworthy, patriotic, and a lot more. I would agree with you he is not a stand-up guy.



Question: I went to a laundry with my sheets, and it wanted $19.50 a sheet. Is that for real? Do I have any alternatives?

Answer: In my opinion, that price is excessive. You can buy new sheets for around $9 to $24 so that would be cheaper than sending them to the laundry. You might consider doing them yourself at home. You may also want to do some more comparative shopping, as there has to be a laundry that will come in below that $19.50 a sheet, the number you mentioned.



Question: When your oil heater gets its annual tune-up, does the serviceman check out the chimney?

Answer: I put that question to Steve Updyke, a 22-year service veteran with F.C. Haab Heating Oils. He said the serviceman in the process of checking the heater should look into the chimney and is likely to spot any trouble. However, that would not include a complete inspection of the chimney. One form used for annual tune-ups includes a check box entitled "check chimney base."



Question: How thick are the needles used for acupuncture?

Answer: Healthy Years, a publication of the UCLA School of Medicine, reports, "The needles used for acupuncture are only as thick as a single human hair. You may feel a tiny prick as the needles are inserted, but it should not be painful. The needles usually stay in place for five to 20 minutes depending on your illness." The publication also cautions, "The FDA requires that sterile, nontoxic needles be used - and used only once. Make sure your acupuncturist follows these rules."

For more information on acupuncture, you might visit the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine's Web site, www.cewm.med.ucla.edu.



Question: I've seen enough wildfires on television to last a lifetime. Are there any precautions I should take as a homeowner?

Answer: That's a good question as experts say that wildfires can and do happen in every part of the country. Here are the precautions recommended by USAA, an insurance company that is a leader in loss prevention:

"Walk around your property and remove anything in the immediate 3-5 feet that might pose a potential fire hazard, such as woodpiles and dried leaves.

"Take special care trees are trimmed so no limb reaches below 6 feet off the ground. And make sure no tree branches touch your home.

source : http://www.thebulletin.us/site/

High credit score is a lot of hard work

The man at the credit union was blown away.

"You've knocked out the high point credit score," he said. "I've never seen one this high."

I smiled modestly and ruefully. It was nice to know but it's an honor that was hard won.

Did he have any idea how many phone calls to India I've made to make that happen?

Does he appreciate the time I've spent waiting to get through phone menus and customer service lines to maintain my good reputation?

I think my accounts are red flagged all over America and in off-site billing houses. ("If that obnoxious lady calls again, do whatever it takes to make her go away!")

I consider it a good day when I can bring in the mail, go through the bills and not have any new battles to wage.

You see, I learned long ago that banks and credit card companies and title companies and Internet and Dish Network services make honest mistakes.

They'll own up to the mistakes if they are pointed out, but you have to point them out.

Late fees and service charges go away if you are willing to put in the time it takes to get to a live person and make your case.

Over the years, I've probably saved us several hundred dollars by catching mistakes and refusing to give away our money.

The escrow money from a recent refinance came in $600 short. Three phone calls and some serious research later, we're good.

Double charges have been refunded.

The money I spent online for train tickets to nowhere on a Sunday was returned.

Charges for magazines I did not order have been waived.

Here's some of what I've learned:

• Payments left in drop boxes don't always get credited that same day or even the next day. It's better to pay at a service desk or cashier so you have a receipt.

• Always read your bills and the little letters they sometimes send. Credit card companies change due dates and due times and interest rates a lot. A bill due on the 15th may now be due at 8 a.m. on the 15th.

• Policies change — stay on the alert, especially as stressed-out businesses try to get you to change over to automatic payment plans or Internet billing.

• Don't assume you made the mistake or paid late. Computers and people add wrong, miss a line, sometimes even try to get away with something.

It's a never-ending fight, but I've fought on. To me, it's the principle of the thing.

As a result I have six kids who read their bank statements and bills carefully and double check their receipts from the grocery store.

They take no guff.

And I have a husband who hides if I find an error. He can't bear to watch the battles.

He just doesn't see the sense in worrying about it.

But then, he doesn't have a credit score on the wall of honor either.

source : http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700236769,00.html

Jelmoli Bonus Card And Swiss Federal Railways Launch Free Visa Card

Jelmoli (JMLIF.PK) Corporate news announcement processed and transmitted by Hugin ASA. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- In cooperation with Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) Jelmoli Bonus Card will be issuing this coming autumn a Half-Fare Card that is also a free Visa credit card. Jelmoli Bonus Card look back on a long and successful experience in the customer retention and credit card business and will now offer SBB customers additional services that make the Half-Fare Card even more attractive.



SBB have over 3 million regular customers; more than 350000 of them own a General Abonnement. Furthermore, well over 2 million use a Half-Fare railpass, which makes the Half-Fare Card the most popular discount card in Switzerland. Now, SBB are offering their customers additional services in order to make these railpasses even more appealing both for existing and for new customers. In autumn this year, SBB are launching a new Half-Fare Card for 125 Swiss francs combined with a free Visa credit card.

About half the adults in Switzerland already own a Half-Fare railpass. Therefore, this popular discount card enables to travel for half the fare practically throughout the whole public transport network. Based on its success, the Half-Fare Card product line is to be further expanded: in addition to the 1, 2 and 3-year railpasses, a Half-Fare Card on a subscription basis will be launched this coming autumn.

Free-of-charge credit card and Half-Fare Card in one This offer is very attractive: the Half-Fare Card on a subscription basis costs 125 Swiss francs per year - 25 Swiss francs less than the 1-year railpass. And customers must no longer buy a new one each year, because their Half-Fare Card is also a Visa credit card to which the annual fee is charged. Furthermore, this integrated credit card costs nothing. That makes the new 2-in-1 Half-Fare Card double attractive: free-of-charge credit card and Half-Fare Card in one.

Those who do not require a credit card or are still underage, but want to take advantage of this convenient Half-Fare Card, can apply for a prepaid card. This is a fully-fledged Visa card that is however chargeable only up to the amount prepaid by the cardholder. By introducing a Half-Fare Card on a subscription basis, SBB reduces processing expenses - a cost saving that is passed on to the customers, only 125 Swiss francs per year. The new Half-Fare Card presents itself in an elegant SBB/Visa credit card look.

Jelmoli Bonus Card: the ideal partner for SBB Jelmoli Bonus Card already issues credit and prepaid cards in the Swiss market, and per end of 2007 well over 300000 Bonus Cards and Visa Bonus Cards were in circulation. Thanks to this accumulated expertise in the customer retention and credit card business, Jelmoli Bonus Card Ltd is an ideal partner for SBB to launch this new combined product.

The Jelmoli Bonus Card Ltd team of specialists takes responsibility for processing all credit card transactions in Switzerland and is being supported in this area by Valartis Bank Ltd. With this new partnership, Jelmoli Bonus Card Ltd will further strengthen its positioning in the Swiss credit card business.

source : http://www.google.com/news?

TransUnion settlement makes services available to consumers

Credit bureau TransUnion's recent settlement of a class-action suit offers several options for consumers, two of which include free credit-monitoring services for a limited time.

Whichever option you choose, don't sign up for an extension when the free-use period is over because most of what's being offered you can do yourself.

The settlement arose from a suit filed in federal court in Chicago that claimed that TransUnion – one of the nation's three major credit bureaus – violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it sold consumer information to businesses for their targeted marketing efforts. The law allows selling publicly available information, but not private data.

In its settlement, TransUnion denied wrongdoing and said it discontinued the sales practice in 2001.

More details will become available June 16, but the settlement allows any consumer who had a credit card, mortgage, auto or student loan or other open credit account or credit line in the U.S. anytime from 1987 to May 28 to choose from two free TransUnion services:

•Six months of TransUnion's credit-monitoring service for free, giving consumers unlimited access to their credit reports and credit scores, and e-mail notifications when changes occur on their credit reports. The settlement values this service at $59.75.

If you choose this option, you give up your right to file a post-settlement class-action claim against TransUnion, though you could still bring an individual case.

•Nine months of the credit-monitoring service, plus access to the credit scores used in insurance decisions, and TransUnion's mortgage simulator service, which allows consumers to see how their credit score affects their mortgage rate. Value: $115.50.

Those who choose this option sacrifice any further legal claims of any kind in the matter.

Under a third option, consumers can sign up for a cash payment – but payments won't be made for two years and will be paid only if there's money left after any other "post-settlement claims" have been paid out of a $75 million fund set up by free.

source : http://www.google.com/news

Get your credit score for free

The Saving You Money Team has told you how to get your free credit report. Now you will be able to get your actual credit score for free.

It's all thanks to a class action settlement involving a credit reporting agency, Transunion. The settlement affects anyone who's had a credit card or taken out a loan in the past twenty one years. That's about 160 million Americans.

Under the agreement you'll be entitled to six months of Transunion monitoring service. Plus, consumers will get access to their credit reports and scores.

The deal will be finalized in September, but you can join the class settlement beginning the 16th of this month. You can start filing claims on June 16 at the settlement Website www.listclassaction.com or by calling (866) 416-3470.

source : http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8420291&nav=15MV

Keep your medical records out of thieves' hands

When someone steals your identity, obtains loans in your name and then stiffs the lenders, the effects on your credit report can be devastating.

It can take weeks, months or sometimes years – as well as plenty of frustration – to restore your good name.

But there's another kind of identity theft that not only can ruin your financial health but also endanger your life: medical identity theft.

Medical ID theft occurs when a thief uses someone's personal information – such as health insurance information – without the individual's consent to obtain medical services or goods, or to make false claims for medical services or goods.

Getting stuck with the bill for a medical procedure you never had is bad enough, but medical identity theft also has far more serious implications.

"Unlike purely financial forms of identity theft, medical identity theft may also harm its victims by creating false entries in their health records at hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies and insurance companies," said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit privacy-rights organization in Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.

Changes made to victims' medical files and histories can remain for years and may not ever be corrected, or even discovered, which can have deadly consequences.

"Victims of medical identity theft may receive the wrong medical treatment, find their health insurance exhausted, and could become uninsurable for both life and health insurance coverage," Ms. Dixon said. "They may fail physical exams for employment due to the presence of diseases in their health record that do not belong to them."

Of the 8.3 million Americans who were victims of identity theft in 2005, 3 percent, or 249,000, said someone had obtained medical treatment and services using their personal information, according to the Federal Trade Commission's 2006 Identity Theft Survey Report, the most recent.

Now that medical ID theft is recognized as a type of identity theft, it is being reported more often, said Linda Foley, co-executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego.

One North Texas hospital executive has seen evidence of that.

"Over the last three to four years, this has been something that's been coming to my attention more frequently," said Elaine Anderson, senior vice president of compliance at Texas Health Resources. "We've taken it really seriously. Identity theft has become a real problem for our society."

The most common way for consumers to discover that their personal information has been hijacked for medical services is when they receive a bill for a procedure they never received.

If this happens to you, contact the hospital, clinic or doctor that sent the bill and inform them of the error. Also contact your health-insurance company because the health-care provider may have already billed the insurer.

To help prevent medical identity theft, carefully study the "explanation of benefits" document that your health-insurance company sends you detailing health services you obtained and their reimbursements.

Check to see that the dates and types of services match your records. If you spot anything suspicious – whether you owe money or not – call your insurer and health-care provider immediately.

Guard your health-insurance card as you would a credit card.

If you're checking in for an appointment and are asked for your Social Security number, address and other personal information, make sure no one is lingering suspiciously near you.

news source : http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/