Reuters U.S. senators question credit reporting practices Tuesday July 29, 6:55 pm ET WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - A senior Democratic senator said on Tuesday he was worried that U.S. credit reporting practices might be making some consumers appear to have "maxed out" their available credit lines when in fact they have not. Maryland's Sen. Paul Sarbanes said testimony at a Senate Banking Committee hearing made him concerned that some consumers might be getting lower credit ratings than they deserve because of incomplete information provided about them to the credit bureaus who write up the credit reports. In an exchange with Sarbanes, the representative of one of the top 10 largest credit card issuers, Capital One Financial Corporation, said his company did not report a consumers' total total credit line to credit bureaus, but instead the amount outstanding on credit card revolving accounts. But Sarbanes said a credit bureau could assume the highest amount that had been charged on a credit card in the past was the total amount of credit available to that consumer -- even if it was actually far below the real credit limit. "That could artificially depress a consumers' credit score, make it appear they have maxed out or are close to maxing out when in fact that is not the case," Sarbanes, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said. The committee is examining whether to rewrite national credit reporting laws to take consumer and states' concerns into account. The panel's chairman, Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, has held a series of hearings on credit reporting laws and is expected to draft legislation by September. A House panel has already approved a bill that would give consumers easier access to credit reports, but it would also bar stronger state credit laws. Scott Hildebrand, vice president of direct marketing services for Capital One, told the Senate Banking Committee he did not know whether his company was unique in not reporting consumers' credit lines to credit bureaus. But Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America, suspected it was not unique. "Capital One is likely not the only one using this practice," he told the panel. At the request of another senator, Utah Republican Robert Bennett, Plunkett said he would provide the committee with a list of information that should be provided to credit bureaus to give them a "complete" picture of consumers' credit.
bump for the day crowd. Not anything we didn't know about Crapital One, but some of us may want to write these senators. Is there any other cc's that only report high balance?
