Here’s a refresher on a credit score’s components:

1. Payment history. Do you make your payments on time or are you late? If you’re late, how late are those payments? Are you paying in full or only making minimum payments? The answers to these questions will be reflected in your credit score.
2. Amounts owed and available credit balances. Creditors look at how much installment and revolving debt you owe. They also want to know what percentage of your available credit balance you are using.
3. Length of credit history. How long have your credit accounts been open? Which accounts have been closed and why? These answers will also be factored into your credit score.
4. New credit accounts. Opening several new accounts can affect the length of your credit history and your available balances, and doing so may negatively impact your credit score.
5. Types of credit. Creditors like to see a variety of types of credit, including installment loans (such as auto loans), revolving loans (such as a mortgage or home equity loan), and open credit accounts (such as credit cards).

The credit scores of older consumers vs. younger consumers

As you keep these components in mind, it will become apparent that older people are more likely to have a longer credit history upon which to build a score. If you’re younger, it doesn’t mean you will have a low score, but you might have less information on which to base your score.

• Older consumers, especially retirees, have an established credit history—the what, how long, and how much of a credit score. These are consumers who may have paid off mortgages and car loans, and they probably are able to handle some credit card debt. Their budget and spending habits may not include a mortgage or car loans.
• Younger consumers are just starting their financial life. They’re taking out their first loans and establishing their first credit accounts. They have a shorter payment history. Younger consumers, as a group, tend to have lower credit scores because they have less information available for calculation. They’re trying to build a credit history, but lower incomes sometimes cap payment abilities. That can translate into late payments and a harder time handling debt.  Younger consumers are also more likely to be victims of fraud. They may not know how to protect against identity theft and how to guard their personal information. These consumer fraud issues can be hard to overcome for someone just entering into the financial world.

The bottom line is that age is not directly calculated into your credit score, but it can play a factor in some of your score’s components. The best thing anyone, young or old, can do for a credit score is to be responsible with taking out credit and to make all payments on time.

As complaints are on the rise, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has become more involved in tracking identity theft complaints. It has compiled a database that aids law enforcement, and the FTC and the IRS have worked together on outreach efforts such as OnGuardOnline.gov.

“Child identity theft is often more difficult to detect because parents typically have no reason to be suspicious,” says Steven Toporoff, an attorney with the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.

“The long-term consequences can be significant,” he adds. “Child identity theft victims can be denied employment, housing, student or car loans, or other types of credit. They may also have problems with the IRS, such as unreported income. In some instances, they may be victims of criminal identity theft, in which case the police think the child has committed some kind of crime because the true suspect has used the child’s identity.”

“Parents should determine whether a child has a credit report when the child turns 16,” Toporoff advises. “If there are problems, that will provide the time needed to clean up the credit history before the child needs credit, such as taking out a car loan.”

“Part of the problem in determining the prevalence of child identity theft is the crime is largely unknown,” he says. “If you surveyed parents about their children, most parents would not know whether their child have been victimized.”

Steps you can take to recover from identity theft

It’s important to minimize the potential damage from identity theft. If you are a victim, the IRS advises you to:

• Contact the Identity Protection Specialized Unit at (800) 908-4490 and visit irs.gov/identitytheft.
• Put a fraud alert on your credit reports.
• Review your credit reports.
• Create an identity theft report by filing an identity theft complaint with the FTC and filing a police report.
• Avoid phishing scams. The IRS generally does not contact taxpayers by email. If you get an email that claims to be from the IRS, do not reply or click on any links. Instead, forward it to phishing@irs.gov.

For more information about Child ID theft and how to protect your family, visit Equifax’s Family Plan.

Getting a big tax refund isn’t necessarily something to brag about—it means you gave Uncle Sam a tax-free loan for the last year. But until you adjust your withholding and are receiving more of that money in your paycheck every month, you can make some smart decisions with your tax refund.

How are you planning to spend your refund? Vacation? New TV? Socking it away in your savings account? This year, instead of blowing it on luxuries or new gadgets, pay off debt with your tax refund and get a better return on your investment.

The best debt to pay down with your tax refund is non-deductible debt with high interest rates—in other words, credit card debt. If you have several credit cards, pay off the one with the highest interest rate first, and then work your way down. Next, start paying off your auto loans, school loans, and other loans.

If you don’t have debt to pay off, consider a better savings avenue than a traditional savings account. These days you’re lucky to earn any interest on a savings account, but a college fund for your children (or yourself) is a great investment in the future. Check out 529 savings plan options in your state.

You can also maximize the benefits of your tax refund by funding your Roth IRA. You can put up to $5,000 a year into a Roth IRA and let it grow tax-free until retirement. You can’t beat that kind of return.

Another option to consider is starting or adding to a house fund. With home prices still dropping, a few thousand dollars will go a long way for your down payment. You could also use the money for closing costs or moving expenses. On the other hand, if you’re staying put for a while, you can use your tax return for some home renovation or regular maintenance.

Leave your comments below with how you’ll be spending your tax refund.

How can child identity theft involve tax fraud?

Identity theft occurs when someone, without your permission, uses your or your child’s personal information such as name, Social Security number, or other identifier to commit fraud or other crimes.

Identity theft, and child identity theft in particular, can cause a host of problems in the credit and financial worlds. One growing concern is government document fraud, including tax fraud.

A thief can take a stolen Social Security number and create a fraudulent tax return with a false employer and income. A thief can also use stolen Social Security numbers to falsely claim children as dependents on his or her own tax return in attempt to get the Earned Income Tax Credit or other credits.

Identity thieves often attempt to submit a fraudulent tax refund early in the filing season. Once the thief receives the refund check, he or she can quickly turn it into cash at a check-cashing store. When the identity theft victim goes to file taxes, the IRS assumes that the taxes were already filed and that the victim has already received both the tax credits and refund.

A thief can even look up the names and Social Security numbers of recently deceased children in the Social Security Death Master File. The thief then can claim those children as dependents on his or her fraudulent tax returns. When the parent files a tax return claiming the child as a dependent in the year that the child died, he or she is unable to do so, piling injustice on top of grief.

Uncovering tax-related identity theft

You usually won’t even realize you are victim of tax-related identity theft until you get a notice from the IRS. That notice might tell you that someone has already filed using your, or your child’s, Social Security number.

The IRS also might say that:

• More than one tax return was filed in your name.
• Your children were already claimed as dependents on a different tax return.
• You have a balance due or a refund offset, or you have had collection actions taken against you for a year in which you did not file a tax return.
• You received wages from an employer for which you have not worked.

How to respond to tax identity theft

If you receive a notice from the IRS, open it and respond immediately to the name, address, or phone number on the notice. Often, people see a letter from the IRS and get nervous about it, so they delay opening it, an IRS spokesperson says.

If you have lost personal information or had it stolen from you and you think you are at risk of identity theft, contact the IRS immediately so it can secure your tax account. Call the IRS’s Identity Protection Specialized Unit toll-free at 1-800-908-4490 or visit irs.gov/identitytheft. You will also need to fill out the IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, Form 14039; follow the instructions provided on the form.

If you have an unresolved issue related to identity theft, or if you have suffered a significant hardship as a result of the administration of the tax laws, you can also contact the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service.

How can you minimize the chance of becoming an identity theft victim?

• Don’t carry your Social Security card or any document with your Social Security number on it. Only disclose your Social Security number to a business when it is required.
• Protect your financial information.
• Check your credit report every 12 months.
• Secure personal information in your home.
• Protect your personal computers by using firewalls, installing anti-spam/virus software, updating security patches, and changing passwords for Internet accounts.
• Don’t give personal information over the phone, through the mail, or on the Internet unless you have initiated the contact or you are sure you know with whom you are dealing.

Katz immediately filed a police report and a 90-day fraud alert with the credit agencies. However, she didn’t know until nearly a year later that she and her family had become victims of identity theft, child identity theft, and identity tax fraud.

First, this past February, Katz was notified that she was being sent to collections for a credit card that someone else had opened in her name. Then, in the beginning of March, Katz filed her taxes electronically and got back an unexpected note.

“When I filed my taxes, I was rejected,” she says. “It said someone had used my daughter’s Social Security number.” As of March, just one daughter’s number had been used to file false taxes. She is waiting anxiously to see if her other daughter’s identity has been compromised as well.

Katz feels frustrated by the sheer number of agencies she had to contact and the number of forms she had to fill out to try to clear her identity. She’s also concerned about her children’s future.

“It affected everything. I was so completely overwhelmed by it,” she says. “With the kids, it’s more complicated. My concern is, what’s going to happen when they are 18? Are they going to have messed up credit?”

Understanding child identity theft

Identity theft–when someone uses another person’s name, Social Security number, or other personal information to commit fraud or other crimes–is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States. Of all identity theft complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2011, about 8 percent were cases of child identity theft.

Children are prime targets because, unfortunately, they’re easy to take advantage of. If a thief steals a child’s identity and Social Security number, the thief can set up credit in his own name. A parent might not even realize that a child’s identity has been compromised because there would be no reason to check the child’s credit activity. When the child turns 18 and is ready to apply for a credit card or take out a car loan, he or she might find a legal morass waiting.

A growing subset of identity theft is government identity theft or tax fraud. Thieves will try to use a stolen Social Security number to claim a child who is not theirs on their tax return. They will then file for the Earned Income Tax Credit and other tax credits to garner a higher tax refund.

“Especially during tax season, we see more cases involving minors,” says Gabby Beltran, a public information officer for the Identity Theft Resource Center. “Parents submit tax returns and they come back rejected because someone else already filed a return using that Social Security number or someone else already claimed their child as a dependent.”

If you think your child might have tax issues related to identity theft because his or her Social Security number or other personal information was stolen, let the IRS know as soon as possible. Contact the agency’s Identity Protection Specialized Unit at (800) 908-4490 and visit irs.gov/identitytheft. In addition, if the IRS sends you a notice alerting you to possible tax fraud, respond immediately to the name and number printed on the notice to set up an identity theft report.

“Identity theft on the whole is something the IRS takes very seriously,” says an IRS spokesperson. “It’s a very high priority here, and we’ve been doing a lot to address the situation. It is important to know that if [identity theft victims] are due a refund, the IRS will get them their refund. It just may take some time.”

The IRS says it has added new identity theft screening and compliance filters that will help agents spot false returns before they are processed. The agency is also working to speed up case resolution and to secure accounts by placing an identity theft indicator on violated accounts for at least three years. And the IRS also has a test initiative underway to give victims a personal identification number to use when filing their taxes.

For more information about Child ID theft and how to protect your family, visit Equifax’s Family Plan.

In 2011, more than 19,000 child identity theft complaints were reported to the Federal Trade Commission, compared with approximately 6,000 complaints in 2003.

Children are at risk because they are essentially blank slates in the credit world. Identity theft scammers have caught on to this opportunity and are taking advantage by stealing children’s identities and selling them on the open market.

Child identity theft most often occurs when someone gets a hold of a Social Security number or other personal information for a minor and uses it to apply for credit, apply for a job, get a driver’s license, tap into a family’s medical health insurance benefits, or even apply for government benefits.

Sometimes the identity thieves are professional criminals, but often, the thief can be a close relative or friend with access to sensitive personal information. A family member may take a child’s Social Security number and open up credit accounts or set up utilities.

The family member who pilfers a child’s identity might not realize the extent of the possible long-term damage, but if they don’t pay their bills or rack up debt or have a history of late payments, that negative information is entered on the child’s credit file and stays there. Child identity theft can go unchecked for years. Often the first sign of child identity theft is revealed when the child becomes an adult and is turned down for their first apartment, or is rejected for their first credit card.

Children are supposed to have a completely blank credit file. Parents have the responsibility to protect their children’s personal information. If parents are informed and aware of how to protect this information, they have a much greater chance of protecting against and preventing child identity theft.

In a Child Identity Theft study recently commissioned by Equifax, research firm Vantedge found that more than 80 percent of parents with minor children are still largely unaware of the threat of the child identity theft.

Younger parents are more tuned into the dangers of identity theft. Almost 50 percent of the survey respondents who were “extremely familiar” with child identity theft were between ages 25 and 34, and 87 percent of those have children are 10 or younger.

The group of survey respondents most familiar with child identity theft also recognizes the danger. “Extremely familiar” parents were two times more likely to rate their level of concern as a nine or 10 on a scale of one to 10.

The extremely familiar respondents were also ones with a close personal connection to child identity theft. Thirteen percent of total survey respondents have a friend or family member who is the parent of a victim of child identity theft, and 11 percent have a friend or family member who is a victim of child identity theft.

Clearly, it’s time to spread awareness and education about child identity theft. The numbers of children whose identities are stolen grows every year. But by educating parents to take steps to help prevent child identity theft, we can begin to stem the rising tide of this problem. Don’t wait until your child or family becomes a victim of identity theft to start looking for the warning signs.

Equifax is committed to arming parents with the tools you need to help protect your own identities and the identities of your children.

We recently launched Equifax Complete Family Plan as a product to educate parents and help guard against the threat of identity theft. It offers families the most comprehensive identity protection and credit monitoring features available from Equifax for two adults and up to four minor children.

Please continue to return to the Finance Blog and Equifax.com for more resources and education on child identity theft.

Have you or someone in your family been a victim of child identity theft? Share your story in the comments below.

Warning signs of identity theft

Without an existing credit report or financial identity, the first red flags for identity theft could be odd mail. Your child may receive pre-approval for credit or a credit application—things someone with no credit activity shouldn’t be receiving—or collection notices or a Social Security earnings statement. Another red flag might be raised if you go to open your young child’s first savings account only to find that there’s already an account on file. Marietta Jelks of the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies says she’s even heard of teenagers who can’t get a driver’s license because someone is already using their Social Security number.

Who do you need to notify?

First, contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Child identity theft is one of the agency’s biggest priorities, and while the FTC can help you with your individual situation, your case might also help prevent future identity theft.

You should also go to the police. Bring as much information as possible when you file your police report. Take credit reports, bills, collection notices, and anything else you have to make the case that your child’s identity has been stolen.

If you can figure out where your identity thief has opened accounts, contact the fraud department at these corporations. This is where your police report will come in handy. Companies won’t close accounts just because you say so; you’ll have to provide proof that these accounts are fraudulent.

How to check your child’s credit report

With a copy of your police report, you can now request a copy of any information on file by the three credit reporting agencies. The request will need to be in writing.

Once you have your credit reports, you’ll want to contact any credit issuers or collection agencies listed on the credit report or who have been in contact with you. Give them copies of the police report and the credit report. Explain that this is a case of child identity theft and that the contract is not binding due to the age of the child at the time the contract was written.

Ask to have all accounts, application inquiries, and collection notices removed immediately from your child’s credit report. You can do this via the credit issuer or through a dispute process with the credit reporting agencies. In the end, the credit issuer is the final decision maker as to whether to accept the claim of fraud or not.

Request copies of all application and transaction records. According to federal law, credit issuers and collection agencies must make those documents available to the victim/parent when a police report has been submitted with the written request. Make copies and provide them to the police investigating the case. These documents may help you discover how this crime occurred.

If you’ve been through this process before, you know how painful and arduous it can be. Instead of trying to recover your child’s credit report and personal information after identity theft, you can help prevent the theft from happening. With the new Equifax Complete Family Plan, a blank credit file is created using your child’s Social Security number, and that account is locked until he or she turns 18. No one will be able access his or her personal information or credit file unless you give permission, giving you the peace of mind that your child’s credit history will be safe for years to come.

Children are at risk because they have a clean slate. They have no credit history or debts, and that makes them an attractive target to identity thieves and scam artists. People are looking to rebuild their life with a fresh start, and a child’s clean credit report may provide them with that new (albeit fraudulent) beginning.

In 2011, more than 19,000 child identity theft complaints were reported to the Federal Trade Commission, compared with about 6,000 cases in 2003. And, a 2011 Carnegie Mellon CyLab study on child identity theft looked at identity scans of 40,000 children and found that 10.2 percent had had someone else use their Social Security numbers.

Some perpetrators of child identity theft are friends and family members looking to get around their own bad credit ratings. According to the CyLab report, other primary causes of identity theft can be traced to illegal immigration (to obtain false ID for employment) and organized crime and financial fraud.

Criminals will search for Social Security numbers and run checks to see if the numbers have been used to obtain credit. When they find an unused number, they’ve hit the jackpot. Such numbers—and other personal information—can then be sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Even if you think your child’s Social Security card is protected in your safety deposit box, you might be surprised at the activities that can place his or her personal identification at risk.

According to Marietta Jelks, consumer action handbook manager for the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, children are online more, and they don’t understand the consequences of certain actions. “They’re giving out private information like their phone number or address, and [they] don’t think about the negative implications. They’re not reading privacy statements,” says Jelks.

You trust your children’s doctor’s office and school with their health and safety, but you don’t know what such agencies are doing with your family’s personal information. If you submit a form when you see the doctor or sign your child up for an extracurricular activity, you don’t know who is seeing the information and how it’s kept or destroyed. Jelks also says that parents are placing their children at greater risk when they carry around children’s Social Security cards without keeping track of the materials.

What kind of personal information could put your child at risk for identity theft?

• Social Security number
• Date of birth/location of birth
• Address and phone number (present and prior)
• Student ID number (often easily traced back to a Social Security number)
• Email address
• Medical ID number
• Health insurance ID number
• Bank account numbers

As your children become teenagers and may have jobs, bank accounts, and email addresses, educate them on the importance of protecting their personal information. While your children are growing up and finding their identity, help them out and make sure to protect their credit and financial identity.

How can you protect your family and children from identity theft?

You can lock up all your paperwork and request that everyone in your life shred every piece of paper with your name on it, but sometimes identity thieves will still find a way to slip through the cracks.

Maryland is considering legislation to become the first state with a law to protect a child’s credit report. This law would allow parents or guardians to create a credit file for a child and immediately freeze it. If the credit report attached to your child’s Social Security number is frozen, an identity thief can’t open credit under your child’s name.

Until more states consider legislation to protect children in this way, you can take action for yourself. The new Equifax Complete™ Family Plan helps families protect themselves from the growing problem of child identity theft.

If you currently protect yourself with the Equifax Complete Premier Plan, you’ll be familiar with the offerings available to you:

• Monitoring of your credit files with the three credit reporting agencies with alerts of key changes to your credit report sent within 24 hours.
• Monitoring of your Equifax Credit Score and notification of changes to it.
• Access to credit scores from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
• Internet scanning of your personal information.
• Lost wallet assistance and fraud resolution specialists.
• Identity theft insurance.

The new Equifax Complete™ Family Plan includes all the above features, but it’s not just for your personal use. You can now add one adults and up to four minor children to this plan.

Have you or your children been victims of identity theft? Over the next few weeks, we’ll cover what to do if you’ve become a victim and ways to protect yourself at the doctor’s office and at tax time. Please leave your questions and comments below.

If a couple has open and honest communication before they walk down the aisle, they can identify areas of concern and build a foundation for financial success and money management. Here are some tips that I recommend for engaged couples to be as happy financially as they are in other aspects of their relationship.

• Calculate your net worth individually and as a couple. Share information about full-time, part-time, or supplemental income; monthly expenses; and existing loan and credit card debt. For better or worse, when you get married, you inherit all of your spouse’s finance issues.
• Map out short-term and long-term financial goals, including preferred living standards. Does your future spouse have a desire to retire in his or her 50s? Does your beloved want a second house on the beach? What about retirement savings plans, insurance policies, life insurance plans, or investment accounts? Are either of you on a strict budget to pay off the debt you’ve accumulated? It’s important to talk now about long-term goals and any necessary short-term sacrifices.
• Develop a plan to reduce debt redundancies and to pay off debt. Identify areas where bills unnecessarily overlap, and look for opportunities to use your married status to decrease expenses. Most cellular phone companies offer family plans that can cut monthly phone costs. If you are paying individual membership dues to a gym or other club, see if a family membership makes better financial sense. Use your savings to reduce credit card debt. Bear in mind that carrying significant debt into your marriage can affect the rates for which you might qualify when you are applying for a mortgage.
• Create a comprehensive budget. Take into account your current income and expenses. While income generally increases with a marriage, oftentimes expenses increase, too. Take a realistic look at what your new monthly expenses will be as a married couple. Keep in mind that certain bills will increase, such as groceries, commuting costs, and even dry-cleaning expenses. Be sure to plan the amount of money you will place into savings each month to create a joint emergency fund, to save for a down payment on a house, or even to build a joint retirement nest egg. Consider also setting aside a small amount of money per week that each spouse can spend at his or her discretion.
• Share your credit reports and credit scores. For many couples, marriage signifies the impending desire to purchase a new home or make other major purchases—but it is crucial to know about your partner’s credit report. Americans are entitled to a free credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies every 12 months. Log onto www.annualcreditreport.com to obtain copies of your reports, and consider also purchasing your credit score (for a nominal fee). In the process, carefully review the reports and correct any erroneous listings. Be sure to examine both of your credit scores and debt-to-income ratios as lenders use this information when assessing loan applications.
• Decide when to merge accounts. Discuss the pros and cons of maintaining separate or joint accounts. If your intended has bad credit, maintain separate accounts for the time being, but work with him or her to pay off the debt and begin the process of improving his or her credit score. If you both have good credit, consider opening joint accounts for household expenses and savings but possibly maintaining separate accounts for personal spending money.
• Plan the wedding of your dreams—and of your financial means. Now that you are headed on the right path to financial bliss, be sure that the happiest day of your life does not become the one that ruined your finances and credit rating for years to come. Set a budget prior to planning the wedding and stick to it! There are lots of convenient ways to cut costs and still have a beautiful wedding.
• Talk about the future. Discuss your plans for the future and how they can impact your finances. If you are planning to have children, talk about the expectations of what will happen when the baby comes. Will one of you stay home to care for the child? Will you both continue to work and need to consider daycare options? How about college? The cost of raising children is significant and can have an impact on the most prepared family.

READ MORE:
Consumers Paying Off Debt Helps Economic Recovery
Building a Strong Credit Report from the Beginning
Become a Better Borrower with Your Credit Score
When to Lock Your Equifax Credit Report
Saving Money On Banking Fees

Mechel Glass is the Director of Education for CredAbility. In this position, she is responsible for developing the curriculum and educational materials for online classes including webinars, podcasts, videos and listen-on-demand classes. She is responsible for managing the agency’s community outreach programs and staff, including financial education specialists in a 14-county area throughout metro Atlanta and north Georgia. She also manages the development and reporting of education partnerships online for the agency.

Credit scores

Today’s average credit scores and bankruptcy risk scores are better than pre-recession scores were. Large groups of consumers are better off after surviving the recession. They are still employed, they spent cautiously, and they managed debt levels. Now they’re in a better position with their credit report to take out credit and contribute to the economy by buying consumer goods or even a new car.

As we continue to move past the recession, we can look at the data to help answer the question: Are credit score improvements due to lender requirements tightening or to consumers exercising more caution in their financial transactions?

New credit

New credit is still far below pre-recession levels. New credit dollars (credit and loans, excluding home equity and mortgage loans) in 2011 were a little more than half what they were in 2006.

However, since 2010 we’ve seen growth in new credit, with new auto loans standing out as healing the fastest. Overall, credit lenders have been more cautious with tighter lending requirements, but low-risk borrowers (720 credit score or above) are taking out auto loans at pre-recession levels. New auto loans (as of Oct 2011 YTD) were at 76 percent of pre-recession levels, and new auto bank loans are almost completely recovered at 97 percent of pre-recession levels.

Consumer debt repayment

We’ve now moved past the highest levels of missed payments and late payments. Early-stage delinquency (defined as 30 days past due or one missed payment) is down and levels are even better than they were pre-recession.

This improvement is largely due to who received loans from lenders during and after the recession. Lower-risk consumers mean better loan performance. Consumers with higher credit scores pay their bills, and lenders are more likely to continue to take on risk and give credit and loans.

Auto loans for 2011 ($19.8 billion) were below 2006 levels ($20.9 billion). In addition, credit card losses have almost recovered, but they’re still not quite there— they were 13 percent higher in 2011 than 2006.

Outstanding credit balances

One side effect of the recession is that credit balances have been declining over the last three years. We usually see credit balances increase year over year, but credit balances are below pre-recession levels—$11.1 trillion in December 2011 versus $11.3 billion in December 2006.

Unfortunately, the decline in balances is partly due to consumers who couldn’t pay their bills or simply didn’t think certain bills were worth paying (i.e., by walking away from a mortgage). Keep in mind other consumers have remained in good credit standing as they paid down or paid off balances. Still, the decline is slowing because new credit is continuing to grow and non-payment rates are declining.

I continue to look toward the increase in auto loans and new credit cards as signs of life. However, for 2012, my eye will be on when we might see a bottom to the problems in home finance.