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A council tax authority has warned on credit card scams. Full Article…

FICO has finally opened up a little about the number of points at stake when you are careless with your credit. The folks at FICO recently coughed up some new information about just how much a score can drop when you make a credit mistake.

Here’s what they revealed:

A late payment of 30 days can drop your score 110 points Maxing out a credit card can knock 45 points from your score Working out a debt settlement deal with a creditor can cost you 125 points Foreclosing on a property can take up to 160 points off your score Declaring bankruptcy will devastate your score, reducing it by up to 240 points

Those with higher credit scores suffer more

If you’ve got great credit (say, a score of 780) you’re going to pay more for your credit mistakes than someone with a 680. F

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A credit card expert has advised Christmas shoppers. Equifax has advised UK credit card customers to get their finances in order for the New Year by keeping track of what they owe.

Neil Munroe, the firm’s external affairs director, suggested that people should find out “exactly what they have to repay” in order to keep their credit card balances under control.

These actions could increase a borrowers’ likelihood of being accepted for 0% credit cards and other credit card deals in future.

This is because building a solid repayments record increases a consumer’s credit score, making them look more trustworthy to credit card providers and other financial services firms.

Mr Munroe added: “Now more than ever, consumers need to take stock of their finances and make sure they maintain a healthy credit file.

“After the inevitable Christmas spending spree it will be even more important for consumers to know exactly what they have to repay so that they can avoid a real New Year financial hangover.”

Figures compiled by financial charity Credit Action and released yesterday (December 1st) suggest that each UK household currently owes around £9,000 in non-mortgage debt. Full Article…

Those who are considering travelling abroad to destinations such as the US and Europe could find themselves with more holiday spending money if they use a prepaid currency card from Caxton FX.

One way in which they could save money is ATM transactions. There is no charge for overseas ATM withdrawals with the Caxton FX currency card.

This means that travellers do not have to pay to gain access to their own money.

Users of other types of credit cards may find they are charged between £1 and £1.75 for using their card for ATM transactions abroad. If several transactions are made, this could amount to a tidy sum. <

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Australia’s official “four pillars” banking policy or Big Four banks is rapidly descending into a “two pillars and two stumps” or Big Two unofficial policy,  as Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac consolidate their lead by increasing market share, grabbing 80 per cent of credit growth according to October half year figures.

According to data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), October credit data shows a mixed picture, with regional lenders continuing to retreat and lose market share.

There was a $43 billion contraction in lending by regional and international lenders during the six months ending in October, which was offset by a $53 billion expansion in lending by the Big Four.

80 per cent of the expansion in lending by the Big Four came from CBA and Westpac who accounted for $42 billion of the $55 billion in credit growth a UBS report suggests.

Westpac and CBA have emerged as the clear market leaders, taking advantage of the global financial crisis to make opportunistic acquisitions such as CBA’s takeover of Bankwest or building market share as a result of mergers engineered prior to the onset of the crisis, such as Westpac’s $12 billion takeover of St George.

In May last year, Mike Smith, chief executive of ANZ joked that the Four Pillars ban on big-bank mergers had evolved into a policy prescription for “two pillars and two stumps”.

Graeme Samuel the competition regulator said at the time that he had reservations about approving CBA’s acquisition of Bankwest and said it was “not one we had been very happy about”.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) chief said the regulators hand had been forced in the face of pressure from the central bank and APRA, who were extremely worried about the precarious state of HBOS, Bankwest’s parent.

The previous ACCC chief Allan Fels, says he is mainly concerned with the overall state of competition within the banking industry as a result of almost complete dominance of the industry by the Big Four, rather than the breakdown of market share between them.

“But having said that, banks are much more free of competition now than they were, so that puts more of a spotlight on fluctuations in market share between the majors. At this stage, though, it’s

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