Finance
Six moves you’re making that can ruin your credit score
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One of the most important lessons regarding your finances to understand is to preserve and protect your credit score, as it can affect many directions and decisions throughout your life.
“Your credit score is one of the most important numbers in your financial life; it goes a long way toward determining whether or not you’ll be approved for loans and lines of credit, along with the interest rates you’ll pay,” Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com told FOX Business.
In addition to a credit score being considered to qualify you for mortgages and car loans, Rossman explained that your credit can be checked for other reasons, including apartment rentals and utility and cell phone providers when you open a new account.
“If you have a low credit score, you might be denied or a larger security deposit might be required,” he said.
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With all this on the line, protecting your score should be a top priority. Even those with favorable credit scores and those who practice sound money habits can sometimes make foolish choices regarding their credit scores. To put you in a better position to not make these foolish choices, read more about what you shouldn’t do.
Here are six foolish flubs that could sink your credit score
Co-signing a loan
Rossman said co-signing a loan is “potentially a very big mistake” as people don’t realize this is a sizable legal commitment.
“You’re on the hook to pay that money back if the other borrower doesn’t,” he said. “Your funds and credit score are on the line. You’re not just vouching for someone or giving them a reference. You’re legally responsible for that loan, and it should show up on your credit reports just like the primary borrower.”
A man works from home on his laptop. (iStock / iStock)
Applying for too much credit in too short a time span
If you’re opening a bunch of new credit cards, this could backfire.
“In general, it’s suggested to apply for credit no more than every six months or so and this is all types of credit combined,” said Rossman. “If you get rejected for a credit card and then try again quickly, you might have two rejections and two hard inquiries which negatively affect your credit score and no new card to show for it.”
Not staying on top of your statement due dates
Set up alerts to make sure you’re paying your credit card statements on time.
“Our time and energy are pulled in a million directions every day, which makes it easy to accidentally miss a credit card payment due date,” said Sara Rathner, credit cards expert at NerdWallet. “If you’re more than 30 days late, your credit score could drop by a substantial amount.”
Visa Inc. credit and debit cards are arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 2019. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
To prevent this, Rathner suggested logging into your account and set up text or email alerts so you know when the next due date is approaching.
“You can also set up autopay so you can take that task off your plate entirely,” she suggested.
Not paying all your obligations in a timely fashion
Credit card and loan payments aren’t the only things that can affect your credit, said Rathner.
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“Utility bills, rent and other monthly payments can be reported to credit bureaus. Set up calendar reminders for those due dates so you don’t miss payments,” she added.
Failing to monitor your credit
Get into the habit of glancing at credit reports and bank statements so you can report fraudulent activity ASAP, she said.
“Signs of identity theft can be as subtle as an unexpected small charge, or as glaring as an unfamiliar account opened in your name,” said Rathner.
Get into the habit of glancing at credit reports and bank statements so you can report fraudulent activity ASAP. (iStock / iStock)
Spending to get rewards when you have debt
Chasing rewards can be a slippery slope, particularly if you have debt.
“The interest you’re paying on that debt can wipe out the value of any rewards you’d earn in just a few months,” said Rathner.
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She recommended that instead of running after points that are worth a penny each, look into lowering your interest rate with a balance transfer card or personal loan.
“Then, pay that debt down as aggressively as you can to save hundreds on interest,” she said.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has invested heavily in its fast-growing international business as growth slows for its China-focused Taobao and Tmall business.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
BEIJING — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba‘s international arm on Wednesday launched an updated version of its artificial intelligence-powered translation tool that, it says, is better than products offered by Google, DeepL and ChatGPT.
That’s based on an assessment of Alibaba International’s new model, Marco MT, by translation benchmark framework Flores, the Chinese company said.
Alibaba’s fast-growing international unit released the AI translation product as an update to one unveiled about a year ago, which it says already has 500,000 merchant users. Sellers based in one country can use the translation tool to create product pages in the language of the target market.
The new version is based only on large language models, allowing it to draw on contextual clues such as culture or industry-specific terms, Kaifu Zhang, vice president of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group and head of the business’ artificial intelligence initiative, told CNBC in an interview Tuesday.
“The idea is that we want this AI tool to help the bottom line of the merchants, because if the merchants are doing well, the platform will be doing well,” he said.
Large language models power artificial intelligence applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which can also translate text. The models, trained on massive amounts of data, can generate humanlike responses to user prompts.
Alibaba’s translation tool is based on its own model called Qwen. The product supports 15 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
Zhang said he expects “substantial demand” for the tool from Europe and the Americas. He also expects emerging markets to be a significant area of use.
When users of Alibaba.com — a site for suppliers to sell to businesses — are categorized by country, developing countries account for about half of the top 20 active AI tool users, Zhang said.
Chinese companies have increasingly looked abroad for growth opportunities, especially e-commerce merchants. PDD Holdings‘ Temu, fast fashion seller Shein and ByteDance’s TikTok are among the recent global market entrants. Many China-based merchants also sell on Amazon.com.
Contextual clues
Since Alibaba launched the first version of its AI translation tool last fall, the company said merchants have used it for more than 100 million product listings. Similar to other AI-based services, the basic pricing charges merchants by the amount of translated text.
Zhang declined to share how much the updated version would cost. He said it was included in some service bundles for merchants wanting simple exposure to overseas users.
His thinking is that contextual translation makes it much more likely that consumers decide to buy. He shared an example in which a colloquial Chinese description for a slipper would have turned off English-speaking consumers if it was only translated literally, without getting at the implied meaning.
“The updated translation engine is going to make Double 11 a better experience for consumers because of more authentic expression,” Zhang said, in reference to the Alibaba-led shopping festival that centers on Nov. 11 each year.
Alibaba’s international business includes platforms such as AliExpress and Lazada, which primarily targets Southeast Asia. The international unit reported sales growth of 32% to $4.03 billion in the quarter ended June from a year ago.
That’s in contrast to a 1% year-on-year drop in sales to $15.6 billion for Alibaba’s main Taobao and Tmall e-commerce business, which has focused on China.
The Taobao app is also popular with consumers in Singapore. In September, the app launched an AI-powered English version for users in the country.
Nomura analysts expect that Alibaba’s international revenue slowed slightly to 29% year-on-year growth in the quarter ended September, while operating losses narrowed, according to an Oct. 10 report. Alibaba has yet to announce when it will release quarterly earnings.
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