Highest possible credit score

Have They Run Out of Places to Sell Credit Cards By Mail?

Credit-card issuers who inundate mailboxes with "pre-approved" invitations for credit cards have to alter their strategies. Primarily they have targeted consumers with the highest levels of credit histories, by pre-screening their lists through Fair Isaac Co., the company that provides credit ratings ("FICO scores"). But persons in these groups receive so many solicitations that they tend to ignore them. These preapproved solicitations now account for only two percent of the new business for credit-card companies, according to The Nilson Report, a monthly newsletter on the credit-card business.

The credit card companies get their lists of consumers from Acxiom, the major list database, located in Arkansas; Equifax, the pioneer in credit reporting and insurance investigations, headquartered in Atlanta; Experian, another of the Big Three national credit bureaus; Fair Isaac itself; and Trans Union, the privately held national credit bureau and list supplier based in Chicago.

Now issuers will have to mail to sub-prime prospects, as defined by FICO scores. But are there many candidates left? Seventy-two percent of all consumers with FICO scores are in the prime and super-prime categories, with a FICO score of approximately 660 or higher. That leaves 28 percent of the 161 million with FICO scores left for targeting.

"But there are 59 million U.S. adults for whom no FICO score exists due to any of the following reasons: their files are incomplete or too 'thin,' they have previous credit behavior but their accounts have been inactive for years, they are credit averse and have never opened an account, they have only debit-card accounts, or they have no banking relationship whatsoever, as is true for many living in immigrant communities or in prison," reports The Nilson Report in its August issue (info@nilsonreport.com). "Among these 59 million, there are between 32 and 36 million with enough information on file with other sources to construct a predictive model and a risk management score equivalent to a FICO score. And among this group are perhaps six million people who could be offered a general purpose card account." And those are the people who will be getting the invitations to apply for a credit card.

New Database of Homeless Persons

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is finalizing the data and technical standards for a national Homeless Management Information System, which will collect and store data about homeless individuals and fami lies using residential or other assistance services.

Among other things, the database would provide identifying information for the secret Service and other law enforcement agencies if they thought a homeless person constituted a threat, or the agencies could search the whole database by geographical areas to discover the presence of possible threats.

Organizations that provide services to homeless persons are expected to begin implementing the reporting system by next month.

The HMIS network will take data from local service providers about each person served, with the intention of understanding homelessness as well as coordinating delivery of housing and services to specific groups, such as veterans, families, and the chronically homeless. The national system will collect client information such as date of birth, gender, race, veteran status and any disability. Local providers of services may collect other information if needed. www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/hmis/index.cfm.

The department promised that there will be "no federal effort to track homeless people and their identifying information beyond the local level." Local care providers are supposed to report homeless data only in the aggregate.

But the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) formally asked HUD to reconsider a provision in its final rule for the database, which was released July 30. The group said that the final rule omits "a life-saving exemption for victims of domestic violence from large databases that will track and share a victim's exact location and private information for seven years. The final standards remove a previously granted exemption to protect the lives of victims of domestic violence."

Privacy Buffs Pay More

It just got more expensive to preserve your privacy and autonomy in moving from place to place. At least in Illinois. The state government announced last month that drivers who pay cash on toll roads will have to pay double tolls. Cash tolls will increase from 40 cents to 80 cents or $1. Drivers who decide to use the state's I-Pass electronic toll tag will continue to pay 40 to 50 cent tolls. I-Pass users allow an electronic link to their bank accounts so that tolls may be deducted automatically. Automated toll systems also preserve a record of when a particular vehicle passes through designated toll-collection points. Truck drivers would see no discount for using I-Pass.