Pope issues warning on artificial intelligence, fears ‘logic of violence’

Pope Francis issued a warning on artificial intelligence Tuesday, urging those behind the technology to “be vigilant” during their work.

The Pope made the statement in his message marking New Year’s Day, which the Vatican traditionally releases far in advance. Francis, 86, has joked in the past that he is far from technologically savvy, but said Tuesday that AI must be used in a “responsible way.”

“Pope Francis calls for an open dialogue on the meaning of these new technologies, endowed with disruptive possibilities and ambivalent effects. He recalls the need to be vigilant and to work so that a logic of violence and discrimination does not take root in the production and use of such devices, at the expense of the most fragile and excluded,” the message read. 

“The urgent need to orient the concept and use of artificial intelligence in a responsible way, so that it may be at the service of humanity and the protection of our common home, requires that ethical reflection be extended to the sphere of education and law,” the statement said.

POPE FRANCIS HOLDS PRIVATE MEETINGS WITH SEX ABUSE VICTIMS, UKRAINIAN PILGRIMS AT WORLD YOUTH DAY

The Pope most recently made news for his health troubles, having to undergo multiple operations both for his knee and abdomen. 

He said this weekend that his recovery from his latest abdominal surgery is going well. Some observers were concerned that he had ditched planned speeches during a recent trip to Portugal, but he stressed that he spoke off-the-cuff not because he was tired or feeling unwell, but to better communicate with young people.

POPE FRANCIS URGES YOUNG PEOPLE TO ‘CHANGE THE WORLD’ AT WORLD YOUTH DAY, ANNOUNCES SOUTH KOREA AS NEXT HOST

Francis is far from the first major figure to remark on the potential dangers of AI. Roughly 2,0000 tech experts signed a letter in May urging caution around the technology and calling for a six-month pause in development.

That call went unheeded by major players in the industry like OpenAI, the company behind the massively popular ChatGPT.

Red Bull's Horner issued official warning for 'rogue marshal' comment

Christian Horner has been issued an official warning by the FIA for suggesting motorsport’s governing body had no control over one of its circuit marshals at the Qatar Grand Prix. The post Red Bull's Horner issued official warning for 'rogue marshal' comment appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

WARNING: Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? They Can… UNLESS You Take These Important and Easy Steps …

Do business credit cards affect personal credit? They can, and in fact most do. But, they don’t have to.  There are steps you can take to make sure they don’t. The key is to build your business credit score, and choose the right business credit cards.

Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? It Depends

If you are asking yourself “Do business credit cards affect personal credit?” you are obviously trying to fund a business. And yes, most high limit business credit cards report to your consumer credit report.  In fact, some report to both your personal credit and your consumer credit.  There are even some business cards that will report negative payment information, but will not report anything if the account is in good standing. If you are trying to keep your business accounts from affecting your personal credit score, you need cards that will not report to personal credit bureaus. 

Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? Does it Even  Matter? 

Yes, it matters. Here’s why. You know that if an account, business or personal, is not in good standing, it can be detrimental to your personal credit if reported. Yet, did you know that even if an account is in good standing, it is possible that it may still damage personal credit. 

Check out how our reliable process will help your business get the best business credit cards.

This is due to one of the fundamental differences in business credit vs. personal credit. Your personal credit score is affected by your debt-to-credit ratio. That’s a measure of how much debt you have, relative to how much credit you have available. A high debt-to-credit ratio can negatively impact your personal credit score. This is further complicated by the fact that many business credit cards stay at or near their limit, even if you are making regular payments. It is a function of the fact that business expenses are typically much higher than personal expenses. 

As a result, if those accounts are on your personal report, they can bring your credit score down even if they are not delinquent. The question then becomes, how do you make sure this doesn’t happen? There are two key parts to this. 

Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? Make Sure They Don’t

First, if you are getting business credit cards with a personal guarantee, you have to make sure they will not report to your personal credit report. There are a handful that will not, even though they do ask for a personal guarantee. It is important to note that a personal guarantee means there will be a personal credit check. That will create an inquiry that may affect your personal credit for a bit. However, if the account does not report payment information to your personal credit report, the impact will be minimal.  

A Few Examples of Business Credit Cards that Will Not Report to Personal Credit

If you have bad personal credit, the Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card is a good option. 

You can get approved with a credit score as low as 580 currently, but that can change of course. 

You do have to make at least a $500 deposit.  Also, they do not report to consumer credit agencies, but they DO report to Dun & Bradstreet. That is, assuming you have your D-U-N-S number. 

That means it can help you build business credit even with a bad personal credit score. They also report to the Small Business Finance Exchange. While the SBFE does not issue credit reports, they do share information with certain lenders, vendors, and credit agencies. 

Wells Fargo will review your account periodically, and they may move you up to an unsecured account if you are eligible, based on a number of factors, including FICO. 

If you have good credit, you have even more options for credit cards that will not report to personal credit.  A few include: 

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard®

Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card (have to be a Costco member) 

Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card

Remember, even though these cards do not report to your personal credit report, they do require a personal guarantee.   That means they will do a personal credit check, and that inquiry will affect your score for a bit. 

Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? Business Credit Cards That Will Not Affect Personal Credit Scores Without a Personal Guarantee

Using a personal guarantee to begin building your credit portfolio is okay to start with. The goal, however, is to get as much as you can without a personal guarantee.  To do this, you need to lay the groundwork before you apply for any cards. After all, they cannot report to your business credit profile if there is not one to report to.

Check out how our reliable process will help your business get the best business credit cards.

Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? They Do if You Do Not Establish a Business Credit Profile

In contrast to a personal credit profile, you have to intentionally build a business credit profile.  While a personal credit builds passively, business credit scores do not. With consumer credit, all you have to do is get credit accounts and they almost all end up on your consumer credit report. 

How Do You Establish a Business Credit Profile?

First, you have your business up to be fundable. This includes a number of factors, some of which include: 

You can get your EIN on the IRS website for free, and apply for the D-U-N-S number on the Dun & Bradstreet website, also for free.  This is vital, because if you do not have that D-U-N-S number, accounts will not be able to report your payments to Dun & Bradstreet, because you will not have a profile there for them to report to.

The EIN is what you will use when you apply for business credit instead of your social security number. You may have to provide your SSN for identification purposes, but it will not be used to determine approval. This is one way you ensure your business credit accounts are not reporting to your personal credit report. 

Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit?  How to Get Business Credit Cards That Do Not Affect Personal Credit

Once your business is set up in the right way so that you have a business credit profile, you need accounts that report to that profile. However, if you start applying for high limit credit cards using your business credit profile right away, you are going to get denied. 

You have to find accounts that will extend credit to your business without any sort of credit check. You don’t yet have a business credit score, and you are trying to avoid personal credit all together. To do this, you start with starter vendors

These are accounts that will extend net terms and report payments, but they will approve you based on factors other than your credit score. These factors  may include time in business, revenue, average balance in your  business bank account, or other factors. 

How to Find Starter Vendors

The trick is, these types of vendors are not easy to find. They do not advertise themselves as “starter vendors.” They do not make it easy to find out whether or not they report payments to business credit profiles. Business owners need help finding this information. 

Here are a few options to get you started: 

Grainger

Uline

Marathon

Still, you need more accounts than this reporting before you can build a strong enough business credit score to apply for higher limit accounts. 

Check out how our reliable process will help your business get the best business credit cards.

Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? They Don’t Have To

How to Build a Strong Business Credit Portfolio With Minimal Effect on Personal Credit

The secret to building a strong business credit profile as fast as possible and with minimal effect on your personal credit, is to work with a business credit expert. A business credit expert makes this whole process faster and easier. 

They can help ensure you have your business set up the right way, and guide you toward those starter vendor accounts that will help you initially build your business credit score. They will help you know when you have enough accounts reporting to start applying for higher limit accounts and be approved. 

In addition, our business credit experts have the knowledge and expertise to help you find the best accounts to flesh out your business credit portfolio. There is more to this than just building strong business credit with accounts that report. An expert can guide you toward the best vendor accounts for your specific business, whether they report or not. 

The best way to start this process with no risk is to have a free consultation with a business credit expert. They can help you figure out where you stand now, and where you need to start so that you can build your business credit portfolio in the most effective and efficient way possible.

The post WARNING: Do Business Credit Cards Affect Personal Credit? They Can… UNLESS You Take These Important and Easy Steps … appeared first on Credit Suite.

Warning: Don’t Apply for Bank Credit Cards For Your Business Before You Read This

You can’t apply for bank credit cards for your business and expect approval if you don’t have a business credit profile. If you do apply and get approved, it will likely be on the merit of your personal credit.  That means if something goes wrong, your ability to buy a house, a car, or anything else you may want to buy with consumer credit, goes down the drain. 

Find Out Why Your Business Is Being Denied High Limit Bank Credit Cards and the Simple Changes that Can Lead to Approval

If you are applying for high limit credit cards in the name of your business are getting denial after denial, the likely culprit is a lack of business credit profile. Or, you have a business credit profile but a low business credit score. 

The idea behind business credit is that the debt is in your business name.  It is totally separate from you as the owner. This means it does not impact your personal credit score. As a result, since business credit tends to have higher limits, you can actually get more funding for your business. 

The key to avoiding denials is to wait to apply until your business is fundable. This includes having a strong business credit score. 

Check out how our reliable process will help your business get the best business credit cards.

5 Tips for Applying for High Limit Bank Credit Cards for Your Business

1.Build Business Fundability First

If your business is not fundable, business credit will never be an option. It starts with how your business is set up.  It has to be set up to be a fundable entity separate from you, the owner.  How do you accomplish this? It starts with building a fundable foundation. 

The Building Blocks of a Fundable Foundation 

As you know, a foundation is only as strong as the materials you build it from. Here are the building blocks of a strong, fundable foundation for your business. 

Contact Information

Your business should have its own phone number and a physical address. 

EIN

You also need an EIN for your business.  This is an identifying number for your business.  It works similarly to how your SSN works for you personally.   You can get one for free from the IRS.

Incorporate

Incorporating your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation is necessary to fundability.  Talk to your attorney or a tax professional about which option might work best for your business. 

Business Bank Account

You have to open a separate, dedicated business bank account.  There are many reasons to do this. One of them is that many lenders require it before they will extend credit.

Licenses

To be fundable, you must be a legitimate business.  For a business to be legitimate, it has to have all of the necessary licenses it needs to run.  

Website

Spend the time and money necessary to ensure your website is professionally designed and works well.  Furthermore, pay for hosting. Don’t use a free hosting service.  Also, make sure your business has a dedicated business email address with the same URL as your website.  Don’t use a free service such as Yahoo or Gmail.

More Fundability Secrets

Now, the foundation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fundability.  In fact, there are well over 100 factors that affect the fundability of the business. However, they all fall into these broader categories. 

  • Business credit reports
  • Business data agencies
  • Identification numbers
  • Business credit history
  • Congruence of business information
  • Financial Statements
  • Bureaus such as FICO and ChexSystems
  • Personal credit scores
  • The application process

Here is a visual that may help you better understand how complex and far reaching business fundability really is. 

2. Try This Expert Trick to Get Out of the “Need Credit to Get Credit” Cycle

The next step is to get accounts reporting to your business credit profile. This is how you build a business credit score.  High limit business bank credit cards will use your business credit score to make an approval decision. 

The truth is, even if you do everything right to initially establish your business credit profile, there is no business credit score on your business’s credit report until accounts are reporting on-time payments.  

With consumer credit, creditors automatically report payments.  In contrast, to work intentionally to find creditors that will report your payments to your business credit profile. Surprisingly, not all of them do. In fact, only about 7% of companies that extend credit to businesses actually report accounts to business credit reporting agencies. 

So, how do you find companies that will extend credit to your business without a good business credit score and report your payments?  That’s the million dollar question, and it’s the trick to getting out of the “need credit to get credit cycle.” 

Check out how our reliable process will help your business get the best business credit cards.

The Secret Weapon

First, the type of vendor that will extend credit to a business without a credit check is called a starter vendor.  Despite not running a credit check, they do have various other factors that they look at to determine whether or not to extend credit. These vary between vendors, but they include fundability factors such as a business bank account, as well as income and time in business, among others. 

Starter vendors typically will extend net terms on invoices rather than revolving credit. However, they will report your payment to the business credit reporting agencies.  In turn, you build your business credit score. Yet, it is very difficult to determine which lenders will report your payments.  That is where the secret weapon comes into play. That is, a business credit expert. 

3. Don’t Try to Build Business Credit Without a Business Credit Expert

As for finding starter vendors that will report, a business credit expert can help. They know which accounts report and which ones you can qualify for right now.  They also help you determine when the tie is right to apply for other accounts.  

There are many more ways that a business credit expert can help, including helping you assess current fundability and improve it if necessary.  Not only that, but they can also help you find funding that you can get while you are working on fundability and building your business credit score.  Get an idea of what a business credit expert can do for you with a free consultation. 

4. Apply for Store Credit 

Soon, you will have an established business credit profile with multiple accounts reporting.  These are credit cards that are restricted to use with the store that issues them. For example, an Office Depot card that you can only use at the store or on that store’s website.  These cards typically start with fairly low limits.  Yet,the limits will increase as you handle the credit responsibly.  Your business credit expert can help you determine when the time is right to start this step, and guide you toward the right store cards for your business. 

  1. 5. Fleet Credit

After you have several of these types of credit cards reporting on-time payments, you should be able to get approval with Fleet cards. These are cards that are more typically limited to the type of purchase you use them on.  They are for automobile fuel and maintenance, but some do allow for certain other purchases as well.  Again, your business credit expert will help you discern when the time is right to apply for fleet cards, and guide you toward the ones that will work best for your business. 

Check out how our reliable process will help your business get the best business credit cards.

Now The Sky’s the Limit for Your Business with High Limit Bank Credit Cards

After you work through each of these steps, responsibly and in order, you should have a well rounded business credit profile and strong business credit score. That is the time to apply for high limit bank credit cards. They include general business credit cards from Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and the like that are not limited by location of use or purchase type.  

They generally have very high limits and favorable incentives. All you have to do is pick the ones with the best interest rates and the rewards programs that fit your business best. If you jump right in before establishing your business credit profile and business credit score, you will get denials from these types of cards every time. 

Using a business credit expert to help you assess and improve fundability, find starter vendors that report,  and guide you in knowing the right accounts to apply for at the right time to get approval makes the process much faster and easier.  As a result, you will avoid wasting time with vendors that do not report, and move through the steps as fast as possible.  Then, you can watch your business grow and thrive with high limit bank credit cards.

The post Warning: Don’t Apply for Bank Credit Cards For Your Business Before You Read This appeared first on Credit Suite.

Warning: Don’t Apply for Bank Credit Cards For Your Business Before You Read This

You can’t apply for bank credit cards for your business and expect approval if you don’t have a business credit profile. If you do apply and get approved, it will likely be on the merit of your personal credit.  That means if something goes wrong, your ability to buy a house, a car, or anything … Continue reading Warning: Don’t Apply for Bank Credit Cards For Your Business Before You Read This