Everyone probably knows what a credit score is, but most have no idea why they have the score they do.

It’s pretty intuitive that if you don’t pay your bills on time or find yourself in bankruptcy, foreclosure, or in other serious default with your creditors, your credit score will plummet. However, there are millions of Americans who pay all of their bills on time (and always have) and still have a crummy credit score.

If this is you, it could be the result of high credit utilization.

Wait, wait… I know what you’re going to say. I get it all the time.

What the heck is credit utilization?

Definition of Credit Utilization

Here’s a simple definition: Credit utilization is how much credit you are using (i.e. balance)

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Let’s start out with this: Economists were expecting a soft jobs number for April. Somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 jobs. We got 268,000 private sector jobs and hiring for previous months was revised upwards. Hours were up, a good sign that employers might have some incentive to bring on new workers.

But! There are two sides to an employment report. The government surveys employers to figure out how many people are hiring. And then the government surveys people to figure out how many are looking for work, how have given up looking for work, and how many say they have a job. Divide the number of people who say they are unemployed by the number of people in the labor force and you get the unemployment rate.

If the economy is creating jobs, why did the unemployment rate tick up to 9%? Some of this appears to be statistical noise.

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If the economy can continue to nudge forward for a while longer without some new or already-known catastrophe to derail it, we just might have ourselves a housing market worth talking about when spring rolls around.

4 signs housing is on the upswing

1. Mortgage rates: Granted, mortgage rates overall did rise modestly last week, but a three-basis-point increase off record lows is nothing to worry about.

According to HSH.com’s broad-market mortgage trackerour weekly Fixed-Rate Mortgage Indicator (FRMI)the overall average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (conforming, nonconforming and jumbos) rose by three basis points (.03 percent) last week, climbing to an average 4.22 percent, for the week ending Jan. 20.

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On January 5, 2012, the Ninth Circuit asked the California Supreme Court to decide two insurance law issues that arose in a flood coverage dispute. In the matter of Sierra Pacific Power Company v. Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, the Ninth Circuit reached conflicting conclusions on two distinct issues.

These issues are:

1. Whether, under California insurance law, a building ordinance or law exclusion, found in the Perils Exclusions section of a property insurance policy, effectively excludes coverage for increased costs caused by complying with ordinances and regulations if the underlying loss was caused by a covered peril.
2. Whether, under California insurance law, the costs of obtaining building permits or conducting required environmental impact studies are considered costs excluded by a building ordinance or law exclusion, or whether these costs are better considered as part of the replacement cost under the policy.

This case arises from a dam break on New Year’s Day in 1997. A

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Identity theft happens all too frequently. A few careless mistakes with your personal information and you could be in the clutches of a ID thief.

Within minutes, someone could have your social security number, date of birth, and your mothers maiden nameall the crucial information needed to begin opening new credit in your name and placing fraudulent charges on your existing credit accounts.

How do you prevent identity theft and fraud from happening to you? Here are 10 steps to safeguarding your personal information and make sure ne’er do wells don’t snatch your credit identity.

1. Be Alert Whenever you’re using your debit or credit card, make sure that no one can see you put in your pin number or get a close look at your card. Debt

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The Medicare and Social Security Trustees released their 2011 report today and the outlook is marginally worse. Social Security will run a cash deficit of $110 billion between 2010 and 2014. And Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Fund will run out of money five years earlier than expected.

One surprise was the change in life expectancy in the Social Security report. The actuaries now assume men will live six months longer and that women will live about three months longer. That’s good news for older Americans, but it also means Social Security has to write more checks to beneficiaries. The change in life expectancy accounted for half of the change in the forecast.

Other than that, the big news was in the Disability Insurance program. That program has a separate trust fund that is now projected to run out in 2018. 10 million people get disability benefits from Social Security.

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