Business credit and personal cards issuers looking at the same time

Just because you keep your work and home finances separate doesn't mean your credit cards do.

For many small businesses, a business credit card is an important way to separate work purchases from personal ones for tracking, accounting and tax purposes. While there are many ways card issuers can check the financial health of a business -- from annual business income to commercial credit scores -- issuers typically take a peek into your personal credit when you apply for a business card. Business card issuers "ask for a Social Security number, which gives them the opportunity to check an individual's credit before issuing a card," says Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for Consumer Action.

Pay by credit card in different time zones!

Legal changes have standardized the bills from credit card companies, but there's still one area in which card issuers have different policies: the time of day that your payment is due.

It might sound like a trifling issue -- what difference do a few minutes or hours make? However, consumers nowadays are more likely to use multiple credit cards, and advances in technology have allowed people to schedule bill payments online with more precision. Experts believe more people are probably holding off paying until the actual day the payment is due.

FICO did new mortgage consumer credit score!

A new FICO mortgage credit score unveiled Tuesday casts a wider net to capture consumer behavior not previously considered in whether to grant a home loan. The agency says it will make more people eligible for a mortgage, but critics say that wider net may pull in new inaccuracies and create additional privacy concerns.