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Check this out According to TransUnion, which is one of the big three credit bureaus, credit card delinquencies are currently at their lowest level in 17 years.

Surprised? I am. Given all the tight job market, stagnant wages, and increasing food prices (among other thing), I wouldnt have expected it.

At the same time, however, more Americans are falling behind on their mortgages. According to Charlie Wise, TransUnions director of research and consulting, Consumers are protecting their credit cards. It gives them financial flexibility.

Back in 2008, 4.3% of consumers were current on their credit cards but behind on their mortgages. Fast forward to 2010, when that number climbed to 7.4%. On the flip side, the number of consumers that are delinquent on their credit cards but current on their mortgages dropped from 4.1% to 3.0%.

So the numbers here arent huge, but theres a definite pattern and the relative changes are quite large.

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Tags: Credit, Credit Cards

I was sitting in a briefing recently, where I heard how US GDP would be measurably affected by the floods in Thailand –- specifically through the shutdown of production of key auto parts. [0] That reminded me of the supply-chain-propagated impact of events nine months earlier, following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Here’s the trade-related part of the assessment from my colleague Isao Kamata’s article in the La Follette Policy Report, “The Great East Japan Earthquake: A View on Its Implication for Japan’s Economy”:

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Impacts of Disruption of Supply Chains

The Tohoku and northern Kanto regions severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake had been populated by many firms that produce materials (such as metals and chemicals) and parts of motor vehicles and electronics. The disaste

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Celent’s Creative Disruption event last week was very well received. For those of you who couldn’t make it, I thought you might like to see the video that set the tone for the event. Special thanks to National Western Life’s CIO, Mike Hydanus, and Oregon Mutual’s CIO, Bryan Fowler, who shared their views on creative disruption on camera.

Creative Disruption

Tags: Creative Disruption, Video

In times past, one of the best ways to take a well-defended city was with a good old fashioned siege, essentially, starving the city of either food or water. Now many people want to lay siege to the big-boy bailout banks but to do so, you’ll have to starve them of cash … something the “Occupy” protestors obviously don’t understand.

To starve the big banks, it’s essential to understand how a bank makes money. Banks primarily make money through:

1. Fees
2. Interest charged to borrowers

Some fees I understand like overdraft fees, or out-of-network ATM fees. Most other fees are beyond ridiculous. For example, some banks (like Chase) charge a fee if you cash a check drawn on a Chase account if YOU don’t have an account there. Then there’s monthly “service” fees, minimum balance fees, and the infamous “debit card usage fee” that most banks had to rescind once the outrage bubbled to the surface.

Most online banks don’t have these ridiculous fees. One of the best banks for

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Tags: Fashioned Siege, Old Fashioned, Old Fashioned Siege, Siege

According to new research by Americas leading credit scoring agency, a consumers credit card payment history can be a good indicator for doctors regarding whether or not that individual will take medication on time.

FICO have launched several new consumer ratings which are based on information collected by credit card companies, retailers and insurance providers along with other companies.

One example is the new Medication Adherence Score which promises to do do for health care what FICO credit scoring has done for the finance industry. FICO have developed the algorithm to examine factors which include the length of employment and vehicle ownership and decide the statistical likelihood of the patient following doctors orders.

It has also been suggested that doctors would be able to use the scoring system to pinpoint which patients will require more aggressive follow up because they are likely to neglect their treatment or forget to take medication.

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Tags: New, New Medical