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Larry Dignan, Sam Diaz, Andrew Nusca
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Are visits to massage parlors and bars impacting your credit?

By Sam Diaz | November 12, 2008, 5:45am PST

Summary

Tech blogs are quick to point out when things appear to be a bit too big-brotherish for our comfort levels - cookies, deep packet inspection, Gmail ads. Now, it appears that the one to watch out for is the credit card companies.
Money Magazine, in its December print edition, reports that some major credit card issuers, [...]

Topics

Credit Card, Credit Card Company, American Express Co., Magazine, Tech Blog, Sales Channel, ATM, Financial Services, Sales, Networking, Sam Diaz

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Larry Dignan

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

Sam Diaz

Biography

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. He has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.

Andrew Nusca

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca

Associate Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancee and his cat, Spats.

Follow him on Twitter.

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Tech blogs are quick to point out when things appear to be a bit too big-brotherish for our comfort levels - cookies, deep packet inspection, Gmail ads. Now, it appears that the one to watch out for is the credit card companies.

Money Magazine, in its December print edition, reports that some major credit card issuers, including American Express, are taking into consideration where people use their credit cards when deciding whether to cancel credit lines or cut spending limits. “Studies have found that consumers who frequent certain types of businesses pose an increased credit risk,” an Amex spokeswoman told the magazine. (Sorry, no link available. The piece appeared in the print version only.)

Hmmm. Which types of businesses will prompt creditors to throw a red flag? American Express won’t say, according to the magazine, which also did some digging to come up with some ideas. The magazine reports:

A lawsuit over a similar scoring model, filed by the Federal Trade Commission against subprime issuer CompuCredit earlier this year, may offer some clues. The suit claims that CompuCredit dinged cardholders for using eight kinds of vendors, among them bars, massage parlors, billiard halls, nightclubs and marriage counselors.

If bars and massage parlors lead to marriage counselors and eventually credit problems, maybe it’s time to either start spending more time at home - or hitting the ATM before you hit the town.

Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet.

Disclosure

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Sam Diaz

Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. He has been a technology and business blogger, reporter and editor at the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Fresno Bee for more than 18 years. He's a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a graduate of California State University, Fresno.

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Talkback Most Recent of 2 Talkback(s)

  • credit rating
    Are you kidding me?? What business is it of the credit card company where I use my credit card as long as I pay my bill? Is my credit rating going to go down if I run a tab at the local pub and pay with my AMEX card? Do we have some Bible thumpers running the credit card companies now? Am I TV? Where's the camera? Sounds like to me someone is trying to control my life. How American is that?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    George Hendrickson
    11/14/2008 06:47 AM
  • Bars, probably - most doctors I know of don't tell patients to go there.
    As for massage parlors, doctors DO tell some patients to get massage therapy.

    Context is a many splintered thing.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    HypnoToad
    11/17/2008 09:33 AM

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