Loved to pick up an LA Times today (can't find the link though-- it was a Bloomberg News story) and read the headline: Lenders Faulted for Giving Incomplete Credit Picture Withholding how close borrowers are to their limits is misleading, senators say at a hearing. The article goes on to describe how Cap 1 and "other lenders" came under criticism for failing to show the true credit limit. "Some senators and consumer advocates said not disclosing the remaining credit may give the false impression that consumers have borrowed their full amount of credit and hurt their chances of getting additional credit from other companies" FINALLY!!! This is one of my pet peeves (my culprit is Citi Aadvantage) Let's hear it for Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala) who had the guts to tell Cap 1 that they are "gaming the system to prevent its customers from appearing like worthwhile marketing targets to your competitors" People are catching on!!! The article says that the Senate Banking Committee is reviewing policy as it is considering renewal of the FCRA. 'SENATORS SUGGESTED THAT LENDERS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO REPORT ALL RELEVANT INFORMATION TO COMPANIES THAT PREPARE CREDIT REPORTS" We are being heard, people! I am going to post this under another header with hopes that more people will read it. Let's do everything we can to support this effort!!
Catnap 1972 was kind enough to supply a link to a similar article: http://reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=3182290 I feel so strongly about this because credit is so important. And it infuriates me that companies use tricks to artificially lower scores. As we all know, it is difficult enough to earn good credit without having companies use strategies to lower our scores. I simply want fair play. C
There is no "fair play" in the credit game. CRA's are out to make money off the creditors and the creditors are out to make money off of us. It's a vicious game of chess in which our credit are the pawns. We can play the game the right way but one misstep - lose our jobs, get sick - and the game is lost. Hopefully this senate measure can even the playing for all of us.
Here are a few PFB letters that pertain: http://www.planetfeedback.com/share...696-12-0-0-20-0-fb_date-desc-230806-0,00.html http://www.planetfeedback.com/share...696-12-0-0-20-0-fb_date-desc-231520-0,00.html http://www.planetfeedback.com/share...696-12-0-0-20-0-fb_date-desc-232109-0,00.html http://www.planetfeedback.com/share...696-12-0-0-20-0-fb_date-desc-232139-0,00.html Consider writing one of your own !
They aren't going far enough. If Congress really want to aid the consumers who tries to pay their debts, they should reduce the 7 year penalty on late pays which are reported to the CRAs.
Anything is a start, a step in the right direction. I still think that the consumers just need to scream, and loudly. Write to your Senator and Representative, as well as those on the banking and finance committees. And make sure we all write to Senator Shelby to thank him and encourage him to keep looking at these issues. Once they make creditors start reporting all info, we can start another campaign for the reporting period, reaging, and other problems we have. But let's be thankful for a starting point.
Couldn't agree more, Hedwig. I am very happy that our reps are taking action. I've said it before-- no wonder the CRAS fought for so long and so hard to cloak our scores. They knew that once we saw them we would catch on to some of these tricks. I have some more theories I am working on about how the algorithms work. I think they have some sneaky ways of rewarding categories they are not supposed to be acknowledging. (IE-- interesting how deferred student loans help scores so dramatically-- points for being educated. Just one example) I'm not paranoid-- just observant!!
