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The Basics of Stocks Stocks make up an important part of any investor's portfolio. These are shares in publicly-traded company that trade on an exchange. The percentage of stocks you hold, what kind of industries in which you invest, and how long you hold them depend on your age, risk tolerance...

The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) has named Dr. Marty Makary’s The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care – and How to Fix It as the winner of its inaugural Best in Business Book Award.1 SABEW’s award, sponsored this year by Investopedia, celebrates a...

Understanding Credit Repair Credit repair is the process of removing unfavorable information from your credit reports, which can, in turn, raise your credit score. The first step is to obtain your credit reports. By law, you’re entitled to a free credit report from each of the three major...

Understanding Credit Repair Consumers' credit scores are based on a number of factors, including whether they pay their bills on a timely basis. Missing payments can hurt their credit score and, in turn, make it more difficult for them to obtain other credit, such as a mortgage or car loan, in...

Freezing your credit report is one way to potentially keep identity thieves from stealing your information. A credit freeze restricts access to your credit to your existing creditors and can only be lifted at your request, making it harder for someone obtain credit in your name fraudulently...

Credit Freezes vs. Monitoring “Think of a credit freeze as a state-of-the-art home security system that helps keep the bad guys out, versus credit monitoring, which is more like that text message you got from a neighbor after someone already smashed through your living room window and walked off...

What Is a Charge-Off? When a creditor gives you a loan or line of credit, it assumes you're going to pay back what you borrow. If you fall behind or stop making payments altogether, your account can become delinquent. Once an account has been delinquent for an extended period of time—typically...

How Does a HELOC Work? If you understand how credit cards work, you already have a basic understanding of how HELOCs do too. With a credit card, the bank establishes a credit limit based on your household income, assets, and credit score. In each billing cycle, you can spend as much or as little...

Identity Theft Identity theft occurs when someone steals your personal information—which can include your name, Social Security number, bank account number, and credit card information—often through data mining. The goal of the thieves is to use your personal information to assume your identity...

When to Provide Your Social Security Number Not everyone who requests your SSN actually needs it. Generally speaking, if an entity reports information about you to the Internal Revenue Service, you probably have to supply your Social Security number. This includes your employer, banks/lenders...

How HELOCs Work A HELOC is a type of revolving credit in which homeowners borrow against the amount of home equity—their ownership stake as a mortgage gets paid down—in a residence. Homeowners are approved for a specific amount, which becomes their credit limit, and it may have some restrictions...

What Is a Credit Freeze? A credit freeze or security freeze allows you to restrict access to your credit reports. Freezing your credit can help prevent identity thieves from applying for new credit in your name if that requires a hard inquiry of your credit reports. Freezing your credit doesn't...

KEY TAKEAWAYS A credit lock can be a simpler way to control access to your credit report than a credit freeze. Unlike a credit freeze, you can initiate a credit lock from your mobile device. All three of the major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—allow you to lock your credit...

Whether you're just opening your first bank account—or your first American bank account—or have had one for years, you may never have thought about why it makes sense to have a bank account. You just opened one. Now that there are alternatives for getting cash and paying bills, that question...

There are several scenarios when it makes sense to use a cashier’s check in place of a personal check because of the benefits and protections it offers that you may not enjoy with personal checks. Here’s what you need to know about using cashier’s checks and how to get one. A cashier’s check...

Website: https://itch.io/

Xoom, which is headquartered in San Francisco, enables customers to send this money using their mobile phone, tablet, or computer. How Does It Work? Customers can transfer money to friends and family by completing the following five steps on Xoom.com:4 Sign up for a free account. Select money...

What Is Venmo? Venmo has emerged as one of the most popular apps for electronically transferring funds from one party to another. Its explosive growth is largely driven by millennials, who even use its name as a verb, as in: "I'll Venmo you for the food." Venmo was originally created by Iqram...

Nevertheless, you need a deeper understanding how eBay can weed out bad actors compared to good ones, and disguise yourself as a good actor in order to successfully card them for larger amounts for a longer time, like we have done. First of all, they are fully capable of cross-referencing your...

The United States on Monday announced the sentencing of a Russian national for his role in a scheme involving the theft and trading of personal and financial information. The man, Aleksandr Brovko, 36, admitted in February to conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud. Documents presented in...