Why are the credit scores that I get from the three major credit report agencies different from the score that a financial institution uses when I apply for a loan? Why are the scores different on all three bureaus' reports even when pulled on exactly the same day? ? Curtis S.
The three major credit reporting agencies?Equifax, Experian and TransUnion?use proprietary algorithms to generate your credit score. And your lender may have its own way of crunching credit scores. So even though each credit rating is based on the same information, the numbers from each agency or lender may be slightly different.
"Each agency feels that they have the best way to score and provide risk assessment," says Norm Magnuson, vice president of public affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association, the credit bureau trade association in Washington, D.C.
Other differences in credit score may arise from discrepancies in your report. Banks and credit bureaus may update that information at different times, although they are required by law to do so once every 30 days. Magnuson says that the difference in timing of an update can lead to variations in your credit score.
? Austin Kilham
Got a question for the Help Desk? Send it to?helpdesk@cnnmoney.com.
Jailhouse phone calls reveal when domestic abusers most likely to attackPublic release date: 1-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Julianna Nemeth Nemeth.37@osu.edu Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio An analysis of jailhouse phone calls between men charged with felony domestic violence and their victims allowed researchers for the first time to see exactly what triggered episodes of violent abuse.
The findings showed that violence often immediately followed accusations of sexual infidelity made by one or both of the partners. Drug or alcohol use was often involved.
Researchers have long known that sexual jealousy played a general role in abuse, but this is the first time it was shown that it was a specific form of jealousy infidelity concerns that tended to initiate the violence, said Julianna Nemeth, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in public health at Ohio State University.
"What we were looking for was the immediate precursor what was the one thing that happened right before the violence that was the catalyst," Nemeth said.
"I have worked in domestic violence intervention for many years, but still the findings shocked me. We never knew that it was the accusation of infidelity that tended to trigger the violence."
The findings are powerful because they come directly from conversations of the couples involved in domestic violence, said Amy Bonomi, co-author of the study and associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State.
"What we had before was what the abuser and victim said to police, to courts, to advocates, to health care providers," said Bonomi, who is also an affiliate with the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.
"But we never before had the couple together discussing just among themselves what happened during the violent episode."
The study appears online in the Journal of Women's Health and will appear in a future print edition.
The study involved 17 heterosexual couples in which the male was in detention in a facility in the state of Washington for felony-level intimate partner violence. The victims had sustained serious injuries during the attacks, including severe head trauma requiring hospitalization, bite wounds, strangulation and lost pregnancy.
The researchers used up to four hours of recorded phone conversations between each couple.
The detention facility in the study routinely records conversations of detainees to increase jail safety. The couples were aware they were being recorded through an automated message at the beginning of each call. Such recordings have been approved by the state Supreme Court, and the researchers gained approval from the county prosecutor's office and detention facility to use the recordings. All the recordings involved cases that had already been resolved.
The researchers listened to the audiotaped recordings and wrote narrative summaries of couples describing acute triggers and chronic stressors for violence. Nemeth then created a table to summarize the themes found in the recordings.
The research team met weekly for two months to discuss the themes and develop a conceptual model to explain what they had found.
Along with the acute trigger for the violence, the researchers found a variety of other chronic stressors in the relationships of these couples that may have contributed to the abuse. One chronic stressor was the same issue that often triggered the violence.
"We found that long-term disputes regarding infidelity pervaded nearly every relationship," Nemeth said. "Even if it didn't trigger the violent event, it was an ongoing stressor in nearly all of the 17 couples we studied."
Drug and alcohol use was also a key both as a trigger to violence and a chronic problem. Alcohol or drugs helped escalate what started out as just a conversation into severe violence, she said.
Many of the couples discussed unmet mental health needs, and ongoing problems with depression and preoccupation with suicide.
Another key to understanding these violent relationships was the extent to which the couples had accepted traditional heterosexual gender roles, which were often justified through religion, Bonomi explained.
"We commonly heard the couples discuss how women are supposed to marry and have children, and how men are supposed to be strong and in control," Bonomi said. "Men tended to use these traditional gender role prescriptions to justify their use of violence."
The violence at times centered on "reproductive coercion" men who wanted to control when and if their partner became pregnant. For example, one man told his partner he was justified in raping her because she wanted to be a mother anyway.
Five of the 17 couples talked about severe violence during pregnancy and two women discussed a lost pregnancy as a result of violence.
In about half of the couples in which they had clearly internalized traditional gender roles, religion was used as a justification. In one case, the male abuser told his victim that his attack was about "cleansing your soul."
"It was very disturbing the way religion was used to justify the violence and to justify why the relationship should continue," Nemeth said.
These results should prompt several changes in procedures for victim advocates and other mental health providers, Nemeth said.
Advocates for domestic abuse victims often prepare safety plans to determine how much danger a woman may be in and what she can do to protect herself.
"A lot of safety plan tools don't ask specifically about sexual jealousy and infidelity, but it is a question we should be asking," Nemeth said. "If it is an issue that couples are discussing, it is a red flag that the relationship may be volatile."
The results also suggest there should be more coordination between health care providers helping those with drug and alcohol use, mental health issues, and domestic abuse, since all of these issues can be related.
"We need more coordination to help people on all different levels," Nemeth said.
###
Other authors of the study were Meghan Lee and Jennifer Ludwin, both graduate students at Ohio State.
The study was funded by the Criminal Justice Research Center at Ohio State and the Group Health Foundation of Seattle.
Contact:
Julianna Nemeth, Nemeth.37@osu.edu.
Amy Bonomi, (614) 292-4753; Bonomi.1@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Jailhouse phone calls reveal when domestic abusers most likely to attackPublic release date: 1-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Julianna Nemeth Nemeth.37@osu.edu Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio An analysis of jailhouse phone calls between men charged with felony domestic violence and their victims allowed researchers for the first time to see exactly what triggered episodes of violent abuse.
The findings showed that violence often immediately followed accusations of sexual infidelity made by one or both of the partners. Drug or alcohol use was often involved.
Researchers have long known that sexual jealousy played a general role in abuse, but this is the first time it was shown that it was a specific form of jealousy infidelity concerns that tended to initiate the violence, said Julianna Nemeth, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in public health at Ohio State University.
"What we were looking for was the immediate precursor what was the one thing that happened right before the violence that was the catalyst," Nemeth said.
"I have worked in domestic violence intervention for many years, but still the findings shocked me. We never knew that it was the accusation of infidelity that tended to trigger the violence."
The findings are powerful because they come directly from conversations of the couples involved in domestic violence, said Amy Bonomi, co-author of the study and associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State.
"What we had before was what the abuser and victim said to police, to courts, to advocates, to health care providers," said Bonomi, who is also an affiliate with the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.
"But we never before had the couple together discussing just among themselves what happened during the violent episode."
The study appears online in the Journal of Women's Health and will appear in a future print edition.
The study involved 17 heterosexual couples in which the male was in detention in a facility in the state of Washington for felony-level intimate partner violence. The victims had sustained serious injuries during the attacks, including severe head trauma requiring hospitalization, bite wounds, strangulation and lost pregnancy.
The researchers used up to four hours of recorded phone conversations between each couple.
The detention facility in the study routinely records conversations of detainees to increase jail safety. The couples were aware they were being recorded through an automated message at the beginning of each call. Such recordings have been approved by the state Supreme Court, and the researchers gained approval from the county prosecutor's office and detention facility to use the recordings. All the recordings involved cases that had already been resolved.
The researchers listened to the audiotaped recordings and wrote narrative summaries of couples describing acute triggers and chronic stressors for violence. Nemeth then created a table to summarize the themes found in the recordings.
The research team met weekly for two months to discuss the themes and develop a conceptual model to explain what they had found.
Along with the acute trigger for the violence, the researchers found a variety of other chronic stressors in the relationships of these couples that may have contributed to the abuse. One chronic stressor was the same issue that often triggered the violence.
"We found that long-term disputes regarding infidelity pervaded nearly every relationship," Nemeth said. "Even if it didn't trigger the violent event, it was an ongoing stressor in nearly all of the 17 couples we studied."
Drug and alcohol use was also a key both as a trigger to violence and a chronic problem. Alcohol or drugs helped escalate what started out as just a conversation into severe violence, she said.
Many of the couples discussed unmet mental health needs, and ongoing problems with depression and preoccupation with suicide.
Another key to understanding these violent relationships was the extent to which the couples had accepted traditional heterosexual gender roles, which were often justified through religion, Bonomi explained.
"We commonly heard the couples discuss how women are supposed to marry and have children, and how men are supposed to be strong and in control," Bonomi said. "Men tended to use these traditional gender role prescriptions to justify their use of violence."
The violence at times centered on "reproductive coercion" men who wanted to control when and if their partner became pregnant. For example, one man told his partner he was justified in raping her because she wanted to be a mother anyway.
Five of the 17 couples talked about severe violence during pregnancy and two women discussed a lost pregnancy as a result of violence.
In about half of the couples in which they had clearly internalized traditional gender roles, religion was used as a justification. In one case, the male abuser told his victim that his attack was about "cleansing your soul."
"It was very disturbing the way religion was used to justify the violence and to justify why the relationship should continue," Nemeth said.
These results should prompt several changes in procedures for victim advocates and other mental health providers, Nemeth said.
Advocates for domestic abuse victims often prepare safety plans to determine how much danger a woman may be in and what she can do to protect herself.
"A lot of safety plan tools don't ask specifically about sexual jealousy and infidelity, but it is a question we should be asking," Nemeth said. "If it is an issue that couples are discussing, it is a red flag that the relationship may be volatile."
The results also suggest there should be more coordination between health care providers helping those with drug and alcohol use, mental health issues, and domestic abuse, since all of these issues can be related.
"We need more coordination to help people on all different levels," Nemeth said.
###
Other authors of the study were Meghan Lee and Jennifer Ludwin, both graduate students at Ohio State.
The study was funded by the Criminal Justice Research Center at Ohio State and the Group Health Foundation of Seattle.
Contact:
Julianna Nemeth, Nemeth.37@osu.edu.
Amy Bonomi, (614) 292-4753; Bonomi.1@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Tuesday, July 31st, 2012.Author : hostarticles.6 views.
There are many reasons why used phone systems can prove to be quite handy when it comes to business communication or even personal communication. With increasing inflation, most companies are looking for cost cutting and if making good use of used telephone systems can save a lot of money, there is not any reason why it should not be adopted as a practice. It is important to rely though, on companies that offer expertise with used telecom equipment and provide a guarantee on the quality and performance of the equipment.
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Philip Rivers doesn?t need to look at last year?s record, or two straight years without the playoffs, to know the end could be near for the Chargers as we know them.
Rivers told Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com and Gil Brandt on Sirius XM NFL Radio that the retirements of former teammates LaDainian Tomlinson and Kris Dielman were a clear sign to him.
?What hit me right in the face was this doesn?t last forever,? Rivers said. ?This does come to an end.?
That could be a theme, as general manager A.J. Smith, coach Norv Turner and a lot of folks are sitting on hot seats if the Chargers don?t turn things around in 2012.
Rivers said the Chargers have taken on a ?backs-against-the-wall mentality.?
?We?re driven by not making the playoffs, not playing to our standard and not playing consistent,? safety Eric Weddle said. ?We love our coach. We love this organization. But we don?t know what the future holds. All we can worry about is each day, each meeting, each practice and getting the most out of now.?
That?s why the Chargers are doing business differently this year.
Previously uneasy about free agency in general, Smith signed 17 free agents this offseason, while keeping with his previous tack of keeping core players such as left tackle Jared Gaither?and center Nick Hardwick.
Smith described the depth additions as ?layering? as he hopes to avoid the kind of injury fueled collapse that marked last year, during a six-game losing streak. The fact their 8-8 record was still nearly enough, losing playoff tiebreakers to Denver, made it sting that much more.
?In hindsight, maybe if I had done a better job in some backup situations, instead of six (losses) we do three,? Smith said. ?You do the math.?
There were other problems, as they?ve changed defensive coordinators, added pass-rushers and made up for the loss of Vincent Jackson by buying receivers in bulk.
All those adjustments better pay off, or the more significant changes are still in the Chargers? future.
Key Equipment Finance Names David Bromage as VP, Business Development ? Healthcare
Key Equipment Finance, one of the nation?s largest bank-held equipment finance companies and an affiliate of KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), today announced it has named David Bromage as vice president of business development ? healthcare. In this role, Bromage will work with vendor finance business leaders and the healthcare team to grow the healthcare segment via the acquisition and development of major manufacturer and vendor alliances and programs.
?David has a strong and successful track record of winning new business in the leasing industry, specifically in healthcare where he has worked as the global leader of a captive financing organization in the life sciences field,? said Tim Duerr, senior vice president of business development for Key Equipment Finance. ?I look forward to working with David to deliver flexible and innovative healthcare vendor finance solutions to meet the broad range of capital equipment investment needs in this important market.?
Prior to Key Equipment Finance, Bromage was vice president ? global sales and business development for Boart Longyear Financial Services at Ecologic Leasing. Previously, Bromage held a variety of senior leadership roles with international capital equipment vendors and financing companies in the USA and Europe, including Life Technologies, Nortel, Akzo Nobel, First Asset Finance, CIT Group and ING Lease. He began his financial services career as an auditor with Ernst & Young in London.
Bromage has an MBA and an honours certificate in international business diplomacy from Georgetown University, a certificate in corporate finance from the London Business School, a master?s degree in European studies from the University of Durham, and a bachelor?s degree in history from the College of The Holy Cross. Bromage is a native of Enfield, CT and currently resides in Kansas City, MO with his wife and their two children.
FILE - In a Feb. 2, 2012 file photo Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the House Budget Committee is visible on a television screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Federal Reserve appears to be moving toward announcing some new step to try to energize the troubled U.S. economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file)
FILE - In a Feb. 2, 2012 file photo Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the House Budget Committee is visible on a television screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Federal Reserve appears to be moving toward announcing some new step to try to energize the troubled U.S. economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Federal Reserve appears to be moving toward announcing some new step to try to energize the troubled U.S. economy. The question is whether it will do so after its policy meeting this week.
Probably not, many economists say.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.5 percent from April through June, less than the 2 percent rate in the first quarter. But many analysts say the economy hasn't slowed enough to compel the Fed to announce further help immediately.
Still, Fed officials have signaled their concern about weakening job growth and consumer spending, which have brought the economy closer to a standstill. In June, Americans spent no more in June than they did in May, even though their income grew 0.5 percent, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the Fed is prepared to take further action if unemployment stays high.
What that action might be isn't clear. The Fed has already pursued two rounds of purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities to cut long-term interest rates and encourage borrowing and spending. These programs are called quantitative easing.
The Fed has also extended a program called Operation Twist. Under this program, the Fed sells short-term Treasurys and buys longer-term Treasurys.
"I think they are inching towards another round of quantitative easing, but I am not convinced they will get there at this meeting," said Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics at IHS Global Economics.
The Fed meeting is one of three big events this week that investors and economists will pay close attention to. The European Central Bank meets on Thursday, and the U.S. Labor Department releases the July jobs report on Friday.
Markets surged last week after ECB President Mario Draghi said last Thursday that central bank would do "whatever it takes" to preserve the euro. Over the following days, the leaders of Germany, France and Italy also said they would do all they can to protect the 17-country currency union. The comments raised expectations that the ECB might step in to buy Spanish and perhaps Italian government bonds to lower the countries' borrowing costs.
Economists forecast that U.S. employers added 100,000 jobs in July. That would be only slightly better than the 75,000 a month from April through June and still down from a healthy 226,000 average in the first three months of the year. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at 8.2 percent.
Even if the Fed did act, few think that further lowering long-term rates would provide much benefit to the U.S. economy. Most businesses and consumers who aren't borrowing now aren't likely to change their minds if rates slipped a bit more.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note is already just above its record low of 1.39 percent, which it touched last week. The national average rate for a new-car loan barely tops 3 percent. And the average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell below 3.5 percent last week for the first time on records dating back 60 years.
If the Fed doesn't announce any new steps this week, most economists expect it to unveil action after its next policy meeting in September. By then, the Fed will have received more data on the economy's health, especially how much hiring occurred in July and August. Bernanke will also have had more time to build support for further bond buying ? a move that isn't embraced by everyone on the Fed's policy committee.
Some regional Fed bank presidents, for example, have expressed concern that expanding the Fed's investment portfolio beyond its current record $2.9 trillion to try to lower rates more would heighten the risk of high inflation later.
"Various Fed officials have made it pretty clear they want to do something, but they still have a lot of discussion to go through before they get to a decision," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago. "How do you get the biggest bang for the dollar when the ammunition you have left is limited?"
Some analysts have also suggested that the Fed might be reluctant to act aggressively as the November election nears, out of concern it could be seen as affecting the vote.
If the Fed does announce further bond buying, some think the purchases might be divided between Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities. Though at record lows, mortgage rates are still higher than rates on some other loans. Further declines in those rates could help fuel home sales.
Bernanke has sounded most concerned about high unemployment. The reports on unemployment for July and August will help show whether the weak job creation this spring is persisting or whether employers have stepped up hiring.
As U.S. hiring as declined, so has consumer and business confidence. Worries have also intensified about Europe's debt crisis and whether the U.S. economy will fall off a "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year. That's when tax increases and deep spending cuts will take effect unless Congress reaches a budget deal. A recession could follow, Bernanke has warned.
Bernanke has noted that further bond purchases aren't the Fed's only option if it decides to do more. The Fed might choose instead, for example, to extend the timetable for keeping short-term interest rates at record lows beyond its target of late 2014. The Fed cut its benchmark federal funds rate to near zero in December 2008 and has left it there since.
Some economists said an adjustment of the Fed's target date for any rate increase is also possible as an interim step before further bond buying.
Paul Dales, senior economist at Capital Economics, said he sees a Fed decision to launch a new bond buying program as a 50-50 prospect between now and the end of 2012.
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Public release date: 1-Aug-2012
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