AP answers your questions on the news, from boundaries in the Gulf to credit agency reports

Ask AP: Gulf boundaries, credit agency reports

Let’s say you’ve been making consistent payments on a loan, hoping that will improve your credit score. Is there anything you can do to make sure your lender reports your good behavior to the credit agencies?

Curiosity about credit reporting requirements inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

You can also tweet your questions to AP, using the AskAP hashtag.

Ask AP can also be found on AP Mobile, a multimedia news service available on Internet-enabled cell phones. Go to www.apnews.com/ to learn more.

Where are the international boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico? All the news reports seem to suggest that the territory is all in the U.S.

Jean Clanin

Columbus, Ohio

It’s a more complicated question than it sounds, starting with the fact that the laws and treaties use nautical miles (just over 6,076 feet) rather than statute miles (5,280 feet).

U.S. territorial waters end 12 nautical miles (about 13.8 statute miles) from shore, and the United States has limited jurisdiction to enforce some laws for another 12 nautical miles. The rest is the “high seas.”

However, international agreements give nations a 200-nautical-mile (230-statute-mile) “exclusive economic zone,” or EEZ, where they have jurisdiction over such matters as fishing rights and mining — including oil and gas — but not over where planes fly or ships sail.

Treaties between the United States and Mexico set boundaries for EEZ oil and gas rights in the Gulf of Mexico within two areas known as “doughnut holes,” more than 200 miles from either country’s shore. They also describe, in intricate detail, how much oil and gas each nation should get from reservoirs that cross those dividing lines.

Have a look at this report for more information about the “doughnut holes,” including a map showing where they’re located: bit.ly/ayyJCn. And you can find out more about boundaries in the sea here: bit.ly/blYvGj.

Janet McConnaughey

Associated Press Writer

New Orleans

Seven years ago I bought a home for cash, and I later went to a mortgage broker and took out a loan for $75,000, hoping to pay it off quickly and improve my credit rating. I recently went to refinance and found that the payments I am making are not on my credit report — the mortgage company says they don’t report the payments. Is there not a law to make them report my good credit? Can I force them to report it?

Jeff Gordon

Chattanooga, Tenn.

Most lenders do report loan and payment data to one or all of the three credit reporting agencies — TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. But there is no law that requires a lender to share information with these private companies, and no way to demand a report be submitted.

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act sets the rules for what sort of information must be reported and how often it should be updated if a lender takes part in the voluntary reporting system, said Norm Magnusen of the Consumer Data Industry Association, a trade group.

Some small companies may decide not to report to the agencies if they have a low volume of loans, he suggested, because there is an expense involved in doing so. Borrowers who want their payment history added to their credit reports should ask the lender if it reports to one or more agencies before accepting the loan.

The information on a credit report is used to determine a credit score, a rating intended to gauge a borrower’s trustworthiness. Everyone is entitled to one free credit report from each agency each year. Details are available at www.annualcreditreport.com.

Eileen AJ Connelly

AP Personal Finance Writer

New York

Is there any evidence to support a possible link between frequent cell phone use and brain tumors?

Don Huebscher

Eau Claire, Wis.

Overall, cell phone users have no increased risk for the two most common forms of brain cancer. That’s the conclusion from the largest study so far, covering phone users in 13 countries (but not the United States). The study was published May 17 in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

The research found no evidence of risk based on larger numbers of phone calls or longer calls. There was a suggestion of increased cancer risk for a small proportion of the heaviest cell phone users, but the researchers said those results were inconclusive.

The study “illustrates how difficult it is to identify and corroborate, or definitively rule out, any possible association” between cell phone use and cancer, Dr. John Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute, said recently.

So the research will continue, particularly when it comes to children and teens.

Kit Frieden

AP Health and Science Editor

New York

Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions@ap.org.