The New York Times reminds us that 1 out of 5 computer users choose a dumb, popular password.

Some tips on creating a password that is easy for you to remember, but tough to crack:

• Use the first letter/number of each word from a phrase you know and can remember. For example, MyStreetNumberIs25 or TheDogsNameIsLulu.
• Look through the dictionary and find a word that is easy to remember but rarely used.
• Try the foreign translation of your name. For instance, Greenwood is Grunewald in German and Boisvert in French.
• Put two interesting words together, but type them in reverse, with a number between them.
• Buy a map of the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany or Belgium. Use the names of the towns as passwords, cross them off after a month's use and keep switching. You can even hang the map on the wall, and no one will ever realize what you're up to.
• Use your spouse's initials AND your anniversary, like TFB0602. (This guarantees you won't forget an anniversary card, either.)

• New York Times
• passwords
• security

• Jake Harrington's blog
• 4 comments

This Sunday's New York Times shed further light on the problem with credit scores like Fair Isaac Company's FICO score. In short, students applying for loans are penalized for shopping around for a competitive interest rate.

I find it outrageous that young consumers, most of whom are just starting to build a credit history, are harmed for exercising sound financial judgment. This is another symptom of mysterious "black box" risk scores... it's not just your payment activity or balances they look at. They try to gauge your intentions to predict how risky you are.

In this case, the score gets it dead wrong:

The damage is even greater for young students who have a short credit history.

There's even a website, a sort of Lending Tree for student loans, that aims to circumvent the vicious cycle of:

• Shop for a loan
• They check your credit
• Your score drops
• Try somewhere else
• They check your now-worse credit
• Your score drops further...

The FICO creators need to come out from hiding behind the black box, where our smarter score proudly sits. Or at the least, they should overlook multiple hits to the credit file of student loan shoppers. (A similar exception exists when you are shopping for an auto or home loan; that is, when different loan officers check your credit in the same two weeks, it doesn't damage your score.)

• black box
• credit scores
• FICO
• New York Times
• student loans

• Jake Harrington's blog

We don't rely on traditional credit scores for many reasons:

• They ignore factors that landlords care about
• They consider factors landlords do not care about
• They are subject to manipulation

Today's New York Times illustrates how to cheat the system and raise your credit score by piggybacking on someone else's good record.

This is big business, and a major problem in the mortgage industry, where 1 in 4 loan applications include fraud by way of falsified documents or false credit reports!

You're asking for trouble if you're a landlord that uses FICO or relies on a pre-packaged "risk score" from a resident-screening company. These scores can be gamed, whereas our screening reports are not vulnerable to this sort of manipulation.

Get in touch for more ideas on how we can help you rent with confidence.

• credit scores
• FICO
• New York Times

• Jake Harrington's blog

The New York Times knocked on our door, asked me our secrets, took my photo and published a lead story in their Real Estate section.

The Times asked: In a strong Manhattan rental market, just how good do your credentials need to be?

The answer: Only the strongest survive.

New York heavyweights weighed in their experience with screening residents, using as many dog references as possible:

Citi Habitats:

Manhattan Skyline Management:

Us:

Anita Ray, who thought her credit was good enough:

Glenwood Management:

Archstone-Smith:

Get the full story.

• Archstone Smith
• Citi Habitats
• FICO
• Glenwood
• Manhattan Skyline
• New York Times

• Jake Harrington's blog