Five steps to turning bad credit into great credit.

It’s a fact that poor credit can drastically affect your ability to qualify for credit cards, auto loans and mortgages. But did you know that poor credit can also affect your ability to find an apartment, turn on your utilities, or even get a job?

Bad credit doesn’t have to be a life sentence. It doesn’t matter if you have a previous history of collections, charge-offs, delinquent payments or even if you’ve filed for bankruptcy – it’s never too late to get back on track and rebuild your credit. While negative information will remain in your credit reports for 7-10 years, it doesn’t mean that you have to wait that long to start rebuilding your credit. By following these five simple steps, you can start improving your credit now – even before these negative items expire.

Step 1: Where do you stand?

Before you can determine where to start, you need to find out where you stand. To do this, you’ll need to find out exactly what’s being maintained in your credit reports at each of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, & TransUnion. Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), every consumer is entitled to a free copy of his or her credit reports once a year. To order your free reports, simply go to www.annualcreditreport.com.

The FCRA also gives you the right to request a free copy of your credit report if you are denied credit, insurance or employment because of the information in your credit reports. You have 60 days from the date you receive the denial notice to request your free report.

Step 2: Review your reports carefully for errors!

Believe it or not, it’s very common for credit reports to contain errors. This is why it’s imperative that you take the time to make sure the information is accurate. While reviewing your reports, be sure to check the balances, date opened, account status and any other notes associated with each account.

If you have negative records in your report (collections, charge-offs, judgments, late payments, liens or bankruptcy) be sure to double-check the expiration dates. Most negative information will remain in your credit report for 7 years but there are some exceptions. Bankruptcies for example, can remain for up to 10 years. It’s important to understand that the older these negative items get, the less impact they will have until eventually, they have very little impact and expire from your reports completely.

Step 3: Dispute any errors!

If you find errors on your credit reports, you’ll need to dispute them directly with the credit reporting agencies. To do so, you can either complete the online dispute form provided with your credit report order or you can do it the old fashioned way and write a letter. Personally, I prefer the old fashioned method because you’re not limited to the multiple choice options and online explanation limited character restrictions. Be specific and clearly explain each dispute and why it’s wrong. Include any supporting documentation if you have it. It’s also a good idea to include a copy of your credit report with notations written directly on the report for each mistake. Keep copies of everything you send for your own records.

Once the credit bureau receives your dispute, they will launch an investigation to verify the accuracy of the information. The credit reporting agency has 30 days to investigate the dispute and if the item cannot be verified, it must be removed. Once the investigation has been completed, the credit reporting agency must send you a free copy of your report if any changes were made.

Step 4: Formulate a budget and eliminate your debt!

Now that we’ve identified where you stand and have established that your credit report is accurate and free of errors, we’re ready to start rebuilding your credit. In order to do this, you’re going to need to formulate a budget that allows you pay down your debt and keep your payments on time, all the time. If you’re having trouble making payments, contact your creditors and explain your situation. In most cases, your creditors will work out a payment plan until you get back on your feet. You may even be able to negotiate with them to keep your accounts current and not be reported as late. You can also ask for reduced monthly payments, or even request to change your due dates in order to balance out your monthly bills. The same strategy can be used for fixed-loan payments, but it should only be used as a short-term solution. Use any extra money to pay off debts one at a time, focusing on the higher interest debts first.

It’s important to note that once you pay off an account, you should NEVER CLOSE THE ACCOUNT. Just leave your accounts open and simply stop using them. Closing accounts can actually have a negative impact on your credit scores. This is because the percentage of your available credit in comparison to the debt you owe is an important factor in calculating credit scores. This is called “revolving utilization,’ or your “debt-to-limit” ratio. When you close an account, the amount of available credit decreases, which can result in a higher revolving utilization and lower your score. As a general rule, I always advise keeping your revolving utilization at 10% or less.

Step 5: Start adding positive information to your credit reports and keep it consistent!

This step is crucial for those that have a previous history of derogatory information in their credit reports. Because negative information cannot be removed from your credit report, the only way to help improve your credit rating is to add new, positive information to your credit reports. This may mean that you have to endure a secured credit card for a while to get you restarted. Secured cards can be a great way to start over and re-establish a solid credit history.

There you have it. With these five steps and a little hard work, you’ll be well on your way to turning poor credit into great credit!

Google Launches Options Exchange Plan to Retain Talent

Google’s Board of Directors approved and the company announced a new “employee options exchange program” today.

The company filed the requisite 8-K with the SEC and also detailed the plan on its blog:

“Recognizing that about 85% of our employees have at least some stock options that are underwater (i.e., have an exercise price higher than the current market price of our common stock), we plan to offer our employees the opportunity to exchange those options,” reads the post. “Our goal is to continue to reward our employees for their contributions and do everything we can to keep them engaged and focused on serving our users.”

The program has the following components:

• It will be a one-for-one, voluntary exchange. Employees will be able to exchange part or all of an existing option grant for the same number of new options.

• The offer period will is to begin on January 29, 2009 and end at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 3, 2009.

• Employees will be able to exchange their underwater options for new options with a strike price equal to the closing price of our stock on March 2, 2009.

• The new options will have a new vesting schedule that adds 12 months to the original vesting schedule. In addition, new options will vest no sooner than 6 months after the close of the offer period.

The blog post indicates that almost all employees are eligible but that top executives Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page do not hold any stock options.

Google estimates that the total number of options expected to be exchanged in this program represents less than 3% of total shares currently outstanding, and to takea one-time modification charge of approximately $460 million over the vesting periods of the new options.

These estimates are based on the assumption that the company’s stock will close at about $300/share on March 2. The stock closed today at $306.50. Shortly thereafter, as the 8-K filing and the blog post were made public, Google’s stock rose sharply in after-hours trading, and is up over 2 percent to above $312/share as of this writing.

One way to interpret this move, given the company’s recent program cuts and layoffs, is that management feels it is critical at this time to make an aggressive move to retain employees. There are a lot of competitors out there that would like to take a similar move, I suspect, but few with the resources of Google to do so at this time.

Brand Launches

Bridal Beauty
Lakme unveiled Bridal Sutra collection comprising lipsticks, lip chrome, eyeliner, eye pot, sindoor and nail colour. The products start from Rs 85 onwards.

Vintage Sport
Proline Apparel launches Vintage sports wear comprising pullover, jacket, denim or t-shirt in variety of colours and designs. Priced from Rs 499 onwards, it is available at all leading MBOs.

Crocky Style
Crocks launched two styles as a special addition to the Winter range – Karaqusa for men and Celeste Lace Up Pump for women. Karaqusa is priced at Rs 3,659 and Celeste Lace Up Pump priced at Rs 2,395 and is available at all Crocs outlets.

Where’s the party?
Miss Players introduced party wear collection of satin tops, trousers, waist coats, corduroy, short formal jackets, skirts, sweaters, tunics, leggings and pullovers. The collection starts from Rs 595 onwards.

New Tastes
Whyte & Mackay unveiled its new range of blended scotch whisky. It includes W&M The Thirteen, W&M Old Luxury, W&M Supreme.

Cutting Edge Technology
Victorinox unveiled Swiss memory USB, which combines some useful tools with 1GB and 2GB memory.Its special features are the integrated ball point and red or white LED’s to provide illumination. Its starts from Rs 4,950.

Alluring Fragrance
Escada unveils its new fragrance Incredible Me for women. It is available at Parcos as well as select departmental stores across the country.

Chocolate Dreams
Mesmerize introduces organic chocolates made from cocoa butter, organic sugar, natural herbs and fresh butter cream. They are available in flavors like Seville Orange, Cinnamon Sin, Maple Crunch and Columbium Mocha.

Mock Tastes
Samali mock meat is now launched in India. Made from soya protein, corn, potatoes, seaweed, vegetable, cardamom and spices, it is 100% vegetarian.

Natural Care
Thai brand Spa Siam launched its natural spa and skincare products in India. Available in a variety of fusions, they are available at Spa Siam centres only.

Time Check
Seiko Watch unveiled Arctura collection, the watches have an aerodynamic profile and include Kinetic Chronograph Caliber 9T82 and Chronograph Caliber 7L22

What’s In a Name?

According to Shakespeare’s Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That may be true, but would you name your kid Skunk?

I didn’t think so.

That’s because we associate things with names - thoughts, emotions, even the memory of how a skunk smells.
For better or worse, language is the primary form of human communication. When we shop for things, we don’t point at them and grunt. We search by name.

I know what you’re thinking. Naming is a waste of money. Customers and investors could care less. Sometimes that’s true, but believe it or not, oftentimes there’s actually strategy involved, branding strategy.

Decisions, Decisions

There are brands and sub-brands, corporate brands and product brands; how do you know how much weight to put behind which arrows?

• Unless you’re Proctor & Gamble or Johnson & Johnson - a loose association of powerful product brands - fewer brands is a more efficient use of marketing dollars, less confusing, too.
• Coca-Cola.
• Richard Branson uses the Virgin name for all his companies.
• McDonald’s use of Mac in Big Mac and the Mc prefix in McRib and McChicken sandwiches is a unique strategy that boosts customer recognition by having product and corporate brands that reinforce each other.
• Similarly, Apple’s product names reinforce each other: iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone.

Market Segmentation

Market or brand segmentation is used two ways: 1) to position similar products in different market segments, usually by price, and 2) to distinguish one company’s products from another’s or from an entire category.

• Toyota created Lexus because Americans would have balked at luxury cars from Toyota - an economy brand at the time.
• Intel created the Celeron brand to compete with low-cost processors while maintaining high margins on its flagship Pentium processors.
• Apple avoided the PC (personal computer) label to distinguish its Mac products from IBM in the 80s, PC clones in the 90s, and now from Microsoft.

Small World

As the world shrinks, so to speak, geographic distinctions are disappearing in favor of global brands.

• On October 1, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. announced that it had officially changed its company name and global brand to Panasonic Corporation - a big move for a 90 year-old company. And National, its consumer brand in Japan, is also gone.
• Apple doesn’t even use a name for its worldwide corporate brand, just a silvery silhouette of a partially eaten fruit. Volkswagon does the same thing with its VW logo.

Life and Death

Brands aren’t just created; they also die.

• In mergers, simplicity and efficiency often wins over brand equity. JPMorgan Chase now includes Hambrecht & Quist, Bear Stearns, and Washington Mutual. The H&Q name has disappeared and the others will likely follow.
• When a brand’s reputation is tarnished in a crisis, most companies - Exxon and Perrier, for example - stick with the brand. But Philip Morris changed its name to Altria. No surprise there.
• When a product name defines a category, like Kleenex, Xerox, Vaseline, Tivo and iPod, that’s branding Nirvana. How do you suppose that happens?

Last Word

I’ve often observed that those who protest the loudest about naming being a waste of time and money are also the most opinionated about specific names. As for me, I’m not big on names, per se, but I am big on naming strategy. Big difference.

How BI could have provided early warning to financial market meltdown

Various analytic tools could have provided banks an early warning of the risks to their loans and securities, some observers say.

Read the full story here.

Making Ghandi talk again

Sixty-one years after the father of the nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was killed, InGandhisShoes.org, an NGO, and Publicis India, its communications partner, are all set to launch a campaign that will give voice to his philosophies and teachings. Titled Let Gandhi Talk, the campaign will give Indians the opportunity to rediscover Gandhi.

The campaign has been conceptualised by Shailendra Uniyal, founder, InGandhisShoes.org. The project will not only attempt to resurrect Gandhi's much-needed philosophy of peace and non-violence in today’s turbulent times, but also make people realise that it is possible to dissent, demand and drive change without resorting to violence.

Citing the reasons for the campaign, Uniyal tells afaqs!, "While travelling to various parts of the world, I discovered the impact Gandhi had left with his teachings. Gandhi has left an indelible mark on all of us. This made me think that considering some of the burning issues like corruption, violence, terrorist activities, communal backlashes and oppression that bother us in our own backyard, it’s high time we Let Gandhi Talk!"

The campaign will kick off on January 30 – the day that we mark Gandhi’s assassination – from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A two minute silence will be observed in his memory, which will be marked by a short film clip on Gandhi, the core idea being, “You can kill the man, not the idea.”

Next, the gathered people will be asked to sign a petition in the form of a giant postcard, with a commemorative Gandhi stamp and a message blurb addressed to the President of India, demanding that Gandhi's quotes and messages be included on currency notes and other representations of the Mahatma.

Following this, people from the crowd can step into a large-size replica of Gandhi's sandals and take an oath of non-violence and also voice their opinions.

These activities will be followed by a campaign, wherein people will hold placards with thought-blurbs consisting of Gandhi's quotes and messages next to his statues, murals and other representations in different cities of India.

The petition will also travel to various places of public interest, including schools, colleges and youth hangout zones, where people can sign it and convey their opinions to the President.

What impact will such a campaign have? Will it see mass participation and actually push the masses to adopt ‘Gandhigiri’ as a part of their lives?

Emmanuel Upputuru, national creative director, Publicis India, explains, "Much has been done to propagate Gandhi's thoughts. However, we wanted to start a conversation among the masses with this attempt. We are trying to make the campaign contagious, so that people talk about it, take part in it and have fun, while soaking in Gandhi's principles.”

He adds, “Have you ever tried taking stock of the number of statues, the amount of currency notes that change hands every day, or the number of Gandhi murals and stamps on postcards? It's like having all the touchpoints at the right places, which now need to be interconnected and integrated into the campaign to start off a movement."

He states, "In India, Gandhi is on a pedestal right now. We need to bring him within the reach of the masses." Not to forget that Gandhi himself was against honours being bestowed on him. Instead, he preferred a simple life.

However, when we questioned whether his participation in the initiative was with one eye on various international awards, Upputuru states diplomatically that he is not taking this initiative solely to win awards, but to execute an idea that has a lot of potential to bring about a change.

He says, "Even if the campaign doesn't win any awards, but ends up creating a stir and helps the masses raise their voice, then the ecstasy is as good as holding a metal." However, he does acknowledge that he will enter the campaign for various award shows.

As far as the reach of the campaign is concerned, Uniyal maintains that they would like to take the campaign to any region of India that has witnessed violence, tyranny, state-sponsored oppression, corruption and exploitation. On receiving a positive response, the campaign might even travel abroad, since there are statues and mementoes of Gandhi spread across different countries, including the US, the UK and South Africa.

The campaign has been funded by Publicis India, Uniyal himself and some of his fellow partners. As of now, they have no brand association, but Uniyal welcomes any brand that would like to be associated with the cause.

As far as spreading awareness about the campaign is concerned, Upputuru maintains that a mix of digital and on-ground activations and events will do the job. The film, which is nearing completion, will be for private circulation and will also be in the public domain through sites such as Youtube.

The team behind the campaign includes Anup Sharma and Saurabh Dwivedi, who are working alongside Uniyal and Prasad Raghavan, who has designed the Gandhi sandals. The team from Publicis India is led by Upputuru and includes Publicis Dialog, the activation partner. Nomad Pictures is the film production partner; Hanmer MS&L is the public relations partner and Publicis Modem is the interactive partner.