In recent news the Fair Isaac Corporation is rolling out an updated FICO score.  A FICO score was created back in 1989 to help consumers and businesses determine consumer’s credit worthiness.    All 3 credit reporting agencies (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian) will be implementing this new scoring.  

Some things that are changing with the newly updated FICO score:

1.  Ignoring of small collection accounts

2.  One credit problem forgiven

3.  Changes to authorized users and how it affects your credit score

Things you will want to now pay attention to with regards to your score:

1.  The more credit you use in regards to your balances versus credit limits will affect you more now.

2.  Don’t close $0 balance accounts now.  Keep them open and don’t use them.

3.  You will be penalized if the lenders close your accounts.  To prevent this, charge one time per month to keep activity going if you want to keep the account.

4.  Diversify what credit accounts you have active.  For instance, have some installment accounts (IE- CAR loans etc) AND revolving credit.  This shows you are able to maintain both types of credit.

Fair Isaac is hoping these changes will help with getting a better depiction of credit worthiness.  Lenders will like it more because there is going to be a more precise score of their credit.  Consumers will like it more because if that score is higher, that makes the cost to get more money (loans and new credit) cheaper.  The better your FICO score is, the more credit you have available and the lower your rates will potentially be to borrow money.  This seems to be a win win situation for consumers and businesses.

Leadpile Lead Exchange wants to help consumers and businesses to be connected with regards to any financial matter.  This new FICO score will most likely promote more consumers to want to take a deeper look at their scores and how they can maybe get them higher.  Credit repair companies are probably a really good option to look at to help do that.

Recently, Kiesha McFadden and myself participated in a holiday shopping spree with some that are less fortunate. Headed by John Murray and some children from The Salvation Army, we helped some AWESOME children pick out some holiday gifts for themselves and their families.

Kiesha and Lianna taking a break for a picture!

Leadpile believes giving back is so important, and something you can’t do enough of. Thanks kids for a great time! From our families to yours, Leadpile Lead Exchange wishes everyone Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year! 2009 here we come!

Interest rates have gone down, and now many are wondering if it is really that time to refinance their home. The answer is YES. Not all situations are ideal to do a refinance, however there are things to look at with regards to entertaining the idea of refinancing your home right now.

According to ABC news, here are some common questions consumers might want to know before trying to refinance their home.

1. How much will a refinance cost?
2. Will a refinance save you money?
3. What kinds of loans are out there?
4. What are some common pitfalls?
5. What is the difference between a loan modification and a refinance?
6. If I have a prepayment penalty, should I still refinance?
7. If everyone wants to refinance, is the lending industry able to handle this rush?

Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a large volume of refinance (homeowner), loan modification, debt and home purchase leads. These are all consumers that are in this process of trying to determine what their best option is. No matter what the decision is, asking questions is key to knowing what is the best option for you and YOUR situation.

Leadpile Lead Exchange is partnering up with Youtube to roll out some great new videos. Where else can you capture the attention of the online community? Take a look!

YouTube video 1

YouTube video 2

YouTube video 3

Leadpile welcomes any affiliates out there that has traffic or needs more traffic! Leadpile Lead Exchange gives you the ability to customize your campaigns to purchase leads JUST how you want them, or drive traffic to landing sites we can provide to you. It’s quick, easy and made simple for you to get started immediately. Check out some of the lead types we are working with:

Payday loan
Personal loan
Cash for gold
Auto finance
Car purchase
Car warranty
Home purchase
Home improvement
Security systems
Foreclosure
Homeowner refinance
Loan modification
Credit repair
Debt consolidation
Debt settlement
Tax debt relief
Bankruptcy
Student loan consolidation
Student loan
Insurance (home, auto, life, and health)
Home based business
Business loans
Business cash advance
Credit card processing
Equipment leasing
Internet marketing services
Web design
Web developers
Web hosting
Outsourcing
IT consultant
VOIP
Billboard advertising

Take a look at the videos, and if you are not already working with us…… we want to hear from you!

Have you ever tried to find a unique book in a store, and for one reason or another it was just not available? You then go online and that is where you end up finding that “treasure”.  Going online has become a very popular place for shoppers to find items that are far and few between.  

According to Wikipedia, Chris Anderson coined the phrase “long tail” because products in low demand or which have low overall sales, could be the big revenue generator for online stores. “Internet to consumers has revolved around lower prices, consumer benefit (a.k.a. consumer surplus) from access to increased product variety in online book stores is ten times larger than their benefit from access to lower prices online. Thus, the primary value of the internet to consumers comes from releasing new sources of value by providing access to products in the long tail, according to Wikipedia.”

Leadpile Lead Exchange feels we are the outlet for new lead types that you can’t necessarily get anywhere else.  The LeadPile Lead Exchange, while having its “hits”, also has a long tail developing. LeadPile, The World’s Largest Online Exclusive Lead Exchange has handled the buying and selling of 37 different lead types in the past 90 days.

The Leadpile Marketplace allows the actual originators of leads, and the lead buyers themselves, to decide what price they are each willing to sell, and buy, their leads at, and the way in which the lead delivery will take place.  

After going back and forth with congress, the auto bailout has been denied. According to Business Week , a major factor in this bailout not passing was the United Auto Workers (UAW) refusal to budge with regards to lowering pay and benefits.  UAW and congress could not come to an agreement with regards to this touchy subject matter.
According to Business Week, “The bill called for $14 billion to be divided between GM and Chrysler, both of which are at the financial breaking point as the recession and consumer credit crunch have crippled their finances. The companies, anticipating failure in the Senate, have hired bankruptcy law firms. Ford (F) has said it doesn’t need federal assistance now but has asked for a $9 billion line of credit in case sales deteriorate below the current level.”  Let’s see how this affects the stock market today.

Leadpile Lead Exchange is keeping a close eye on this situation.  Not only does the auto bailout situation affect us directly with our auto finance leads, but it also affects other financial related lead types that we are generating.  A bailout not passing is going to affect lots of Americans potentially who are some how linked to this industry.  What is going to happen to their financial situation and their jobs?  So is bankruptcy the next answer to this denied auto industry bailout??? We will see…… 

Everyone is still scrambling to get their shopping done, and Black Friday/Cyber Monday is officially over. These days, more and more people are looking to shop online to find the best deals, save time and energy.  To help with this cause, I researched some top retail websites listed by Hitwise.  This information is based on total internet usage through the end of last month. Maybe these are where the deals are at and we should ALL take a look.

1.  www.amazon.com

2.  www.walmart.com

3.  www.target.com

4.  www.bestbuy.com

5.  www.circuitcity.com

6.  www.jcpenny.com

7.  www.toysrus.com

8.  www.kmart.com

9.  www.khols.com

10. www.overstock.com

According to Hitwise, there is a lot of traffic being driven to these popular retail sites through email marketing.  Searching for the best deals is becoming a lot more convenient for customers because you don’t have to go physically store to store buying each store’s best deals.  While looking at these various sites myself, I will say that it looks like all of them have major deals going on and FREE shipping. My prediction is Cyber Monday is going to eventually become more and more popular than Black Friday.
I am sure companies that also work with Leadpile Lead Exchange, are currently working with online retailers to capitalize on this demand for increased traffic. This is a perfect example of how beneficial affiliate marketing can be to online companies!

There was a recent report by Channel 15, that brought up a study done by Vanderbilt University. In this study it pointed out, “Payday loan customers who are approved on their first application are more likely to file for bankruptcy than those whose initial applications are denied, according to a study out of Vanderbilt Law School. ” I am not sure I understand where this is going as far as trying to point out a bankruptcy filing rate with those that took out a payday loan. The people that could not get a payday loan probably did not qualify for the loans because of some sort of income issue or other specific requirement the payday lenders require. I would think this sort of individual had more potential of falling behind and contemplate bankruptcy, don’t you think?
Leadpile Lead Exchange has been generating payday loan leads for some time now. Blaming or relating  bankruptcy filing rates to those that have taken out a payday loan, and not those that have been approved for one, just does not make sense to me. Does this also mean that someone who took out a new auto finance loan is more likely to file bankruptcy, versus someone that applied for an auto finance loan and was denied? There are people that have a lot of outstanding past due debt that I would say is more of a correlation to filing bankruptcy, versus someone who took out a payday loan.  Those that did not manage their debts properly, had an expected loss of job, or those that had a major financial change in their life are more of a cause of someone filing bankruptcy. Payday loan = bankruptcy?  Payday loan = what else?

In the midst of banks going under and consumers struggling to survive, another bank transaction has happened. According to consumer affairs, Capitol One has purchased Chevy Chase Bank. Chevy Chase bank has a large presence in New York, New Jersey, Texas and Louisiana.

     I think the oddest thing about another bank merger happening is, that I am not sure how many more of these mergers can really happen?  What other banks are out there anymore?  Also, I am not sure about your area of the country, but there are other “new” bank branches showing up on intersections all over my city.  I thought banks had no money?  How are they building all these new locations around our towns?  Maybe Leadpile Lead Exchange should start generating leads of businesses wanting to open a new bank…. no I don’t think so.

On a serious note, it is just a little odd to me to have so many banks either going down or being purchased, to then see new banks opening up in our cities. Are they going to be able to lend to all these consumers who are not qualifying at these other “struggling” banks?  I hope so because people need help right now!

Google Search has improved the Search, and frankly they’ve done a great job. If you are using your iGoogle, now you can personalize the listings you see inside the Google SERP: add comments, pick results (which you can share publicly), or remove your “pick”. 

These tools are only available for the organic results though, which is great. I am wondering if this will be available soon for the Sponsored listings, which could be included in the formula for the Quality Score. I doubt that it would work, but you will never know. 

The bottom line is that Google has done this very nicely. 

It is official, Yahoo has released it’s 2008 top 10 searches for various industries.  The searches that probably apply the most to Leadpile Lead Exchange and it’s affiliates, are the top 10 “economy” searches.

2008 TOP 10 “economy” SEARCHES  

IRS Stimulus Checks
Oil Prices
Gold Prices
Gas Prices
Dow Jones
Sallie Mae
Stock Market
AIG
Foreclosures
Debt Consolidation

This shows that there is a great opportunity for advertisers and publishers to optimize this by matching up the people needing help in these areas, with the companies that will provide the services they are looking for. Leadpile is the place for both of these parties to come together and truly help the consumers doing all these TOP 10 SEARCHES.

Over and over I am bringing the attention to the payday loan industry, and really how it is not necessarily taking advantage of consumers.  I couldn’t resist a good post on the Payday Pundit, who brought up some good points about a payday loan.

“Let’s consider some alternatives for the working mom who is short $100 until payday, 14 days from now. She could get a $100 payday loan, pay $15, and the APR for that two week loan would be 391 percent..

She could also choose to write a bad check and pay an average of $48 in NSF and merchant fees. That would be a comparable APR of 1,251 percent!

Even if she has courtesy pay with her credit union, the average fee is $25, or an APR of 650 percent. Another option for her might be to not pay the $100 minimum balance due on her credit card, resulting in a $26 late fee—678 percent. If she chooses to not pay her $100 utility bill which may result in a $50 late or reconnect fee, that’s a comparable APR of 1,304 percent!

The argument can be made that by securing a payday loan to solve her cash flow needs, this woman is taking a proactive approach to her financial dilemma.

The Center for Responsible Lending indicates the 11 states that banned or limited payday lending saved consumers $1.4 billion in fees in 2006. But eliminating local payday lending activity does not eliminate the need for emergency cash loans. People still come up short prior to payday and the center does not address how these consumers managed their cash-flow problems. If they had to use one of the other alternatives, or had to drive to an adjoining state that made payday loans, or used the Internet to get an even higher priced loan, it is possible consumers in these states paid even more to solve their cashflow problems.”

This just keeps going back to the fact that there are bad with everything, and if you abuse the use of a payday loan you will NOT be in a better position.  However, as Credit Union National Association and the National Credit Union Foundation state there are other alternatives that could be worse for a consumer.  Education is key with payday loans and any other type of financial solution customers choose to take.

Question is, the holidays are now here and there are going to be families that need those gifts and food on their table. Is the payday loan the smartest solution for that consumer?  Leadpile Lead Exchange will be here no matter what the answer to that question is, to provide the service to the consumers that DO need this temporary loan.