Credit Q & A

So let’s try this again!  From the top this time!  CREDIT! CREDIT! CREDIT! you can not get away from this word and what it means in your life. Here is the definition straight out of the dictionary. You can easily see that the word CREDIT is a good thing until you fuck it up! then its your worst nightmare. Like that house you promised your baby you would buy her, before CREDIT made you a liar! Or why you still live with your MaMa because CREDIT said No Way Jose to the only apartment your broke ass could afford. And the reason your ass is broke is because CREDIT told your potential employer that you are a dead beat loser who might be a risk to hire. Yea, Yea, get the sand out of your vagina and stop your crying I know this is not the majority of you that I speak of. I know there are many legit reasons for having a poor credit score like your company down sizing and kicking your ass to the curb, or your dumb ass cheating and your partner kicking you to the curb like the dog that you are and taking your CREDIT with them. Or that Casanova you met on-line that you traveled overseas to marry only to find out that he was already married to 3 other women, and a prison escapee who conned you out of your good credit. Wait shit this one doesn’t count if this is you then you are already to stupid for me to help. Or the evil bankers who sold you that million dollar house while you were working at Micky D’s. Or the family member you co-signed for, who turned up on Americas Most Wanted. I am not talking about you! I am mostly talking about me! Back in the day! Before I became older then dirt! I was probably all of these except the overseas one. That one I have no sympathy for i’m just going to keep laughing at your dumb ass. So get a grip! Answer the quiz I am about to give you and help me educate others!

Dictionary definition:

1. commendation or honor given for some action, quality, etc.: Give credit where it is due.

2. a source of pride or honor: You are a credit to your school.

3. the ascription or acknowledgment of something as due or properly attributable to a person, institution, etc.: She got a screen credit for photography.

4. trustworthiness; credibility: a witness of credit.

  5. confidence in a purchaser’s ability and intention to pay, displayed by entrusting the buyer with goods or services without immediate payment.

  6. reputation of solvency and probity, entitling a person to be trusted in buying or borrowing: Your credit is good.

  7. influence or authority resulting from the confidence of others or from one’s reputation.

8. time allowed for payment for goods or services obtained on trust: 90 days’ credit.

9. repute; reputation; esteem.

  10. a sum of money due to a person; anything valuable standing on the credit side of an account: He has an outstanding credit of $50.

  11. Education .

a. official acceptance and recording of the work completed by a student in a particular course of study.

  12.Bookkeeping .

a. an entry of payment or value received on an account.

b. the right-hand side of an account on which such entries are made ( opposed to debit).

  an entry, or the total shown, on the credit side.

  13. any deposit or sum of money against which a person may draw.

Have good credit and life is much easier. Take this quiz and leave me your answers in the comments, like this  (1. T – F  2. T – F) etc. and in a day or two I will post the answers and continue on this CREDIT journey. Or not if you tell me i’m full of shit and you want me to shut up on this topic.

1. It is impossible to change what’s in your credit report.

True
False

2. You have to make a lot of money to have a good credit score.

True
False

3. Paying cash for every purchase hurts your credit.

True
False

4. You have multiple credit scores.

True
False

5. It takes 7 years to fix a poor credit score.

True
False

6. Keeping old credit card accounts open can improve your credit score.

True
False

7. When you get married, your credit score is merged with your spouse’s.

True
False

8. Checking your credit report can hurt or lower it.

True
False

9. Credit scores and credit reports are two different things.

True
False

10. Bankruptcy is a “fresh start” for troubled credit.

True
False

STOP!  PAY ATTENTION!  This is some serious shit that i am about to drop in your lap. I’m going to give you a few minutes to put the kids to bed, turn off the T.V. get your glasses and a pen and paper. Well are you ready? Let’s focus… This is a preliminary post with more to follow as i continue to research this craziness. Any finance or accounting  pros out there please help us out with any info you can share. We all know about the 3 major credit bureaus, Equifax, Trans union, Experian. But you might not know that there are other CLANDESTINE companies who track the rest of your life.(collectively they are known as the FOURTH BUREAU). These companies sell that information to lenders, landlords, employers and even health care providers with out your knowledge or consent. These companies gather data from sources as varied as payday loans, magazine subscriptions, cable subscriptions, utility bills, auto warranties, also purchases of prepaid cards, visits to payday lenders, plus rent-to-own furniture stores, gym memberships, rent payments and cell phone bills. WAIT a f*****g new york minute. Are you listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth. These companies know whether your checks have cleared. WHAT! and they scour public records for mentions of your name. SON-OF-A-BITCH this pisses me off!  These companies unfairly use your data to draw potentially harmful and unreliable conclusions about your credit worthiness and your ability to pay.  Five – facts about the fourth bureau: (One). The fourth bureau collects what the big three don’t. There is no industry standard for the type of data that can be used in the fourth bureau. (Two.) 30-70 million U.S. consumers or more do not show up in the big three or have thin credit histories. Ahhhhh let’s think about this for a minute, i wonder who these people could be that are being targeted by these mother f******g vultures. Come on you have been following my blog for a while you know this answer come on its easy. IT’S THE YOUNG STUDENTS, IMMIGRANTS, MINORITIES OR LOW – INCOME CONSUMERS. Surprise, Surprise. (Three.) Fourth bureau data can help you qualify for a loan or better rate – or NOT. For consumers outside the big three, the data in the fourth bureau can help them establish a track record that proves they are financially responsible. Showing that you’ve paid other bills on time may help persuade banks to lend you money. But not all of them are willing to accept the data in place of a traditional credit history. On the other hand, if you have been late on your bills, it may come back to haunt you even if your record at the big three is clean. (four.) You may be charged a fee to look at your records. You can be charged as much as $11.00 for your file. However, anyone who hs been denied credit or gotten a bad interest rate  can get one free report . (five.) No one knows how accurate the reports are.

Federal regulations do not always require companies to disclose when they share your financial history or with whom, and there is no way to opt out when they do. No standards exists for what types of data should be included in the fourth bureau or how it should be used. No one is even tracking the accuracy of these reports. That has created a virtually impenetrable system n which consumers, particularly the most vulnerable, have little insight into the forces shaping their financial futures.

Now it’s your turn – comment ,offer some advise, provide some research, MAKE SOME NOISE DAMN IT!

 

Why do i even have to speak about this topic? Companies such as free credit score .com basically act as an agent for a fee. They attempt to get you hooked into a membership by offering free trial periods. usually a 7 day free trial period. Lets use free credit score .com as an example.  free credit score REQUIRES you to enroll in their triple advantage program (Here is the A- HA moment. If you now go to the www.experian.com site you will see that the triple advantage program is the same program that is offered by Experian. Are you starting to understand that with this blog i am trying to teach you how to look past the sales pitch). That after your 7 day free trial period if you do not cancel within those 7 days will automatically start billing you $14.95 a month. You can cancel your membership at any time BUT YOUR FEES ARE NON REFUNDABLE. Now let’s go to their frequently asked questions page where you will find some interesting facts and extras. They only offer the Experian credit score. But for an ADDITIONAL one time fee they will order  you the credit report from the other two credit bureaus. (that sucks because you should get all 3 credit reports as some times they differ from each other) they offer card safe service for an ADDITIONAL $19.95 annual fee. Child secure service for an ADDITIONAL $6.95 monthly fee. Which requires card safe for $6.95 monthly fee. Go to their site and read the rest for yourself. A few things i want to point out. Why in the world would anybody want to use a service like this, when you can go direct to the source (Equifax,Experian,Transunion) who already have most of your private and sensitive information and offer most of the same extra services. When you use free credit score .com they keep and store all your private and sensitive information. When you use their card safe service they keep and log all of your credit card information.(are you serious you worry about using your card at retail stores, but now you want to give access to your most private information and credit card numbers to a company based in san francisco but registered in Delaware). The credit score calculation that they call your plus score is just the standard calculation offered by Experian. They say things like, as a member you will ENJOY the following benefits like $50,000 product guarantee (yea but not in New York) I don’t know about you but i ENJOY things like a good restaurant, a base-ball game, sex, etc. I don’t know if i will ENJOY third-party sales offers, pop ups, or solicitations, or benefits at extra ADDITIONAL fees.We take privacy and security very seriously (i hope so, but what those that mean to me) all your information that they collect remains in their system. BOTTOM line you can get a free credit report from ALL 3 CREDIT BUREAUS AT www.annualcreditreport.com and if you want any of the extra options offered by free credit report .com you can get them directly from the 3 credit bureaus who ALREADY HAVE YOUR SENSITIVE information. Instead of having your information in the hands of some third-party company somewhere out-of-state. Come on people wake up. You should NEVER use companies like these that offer free credit reports, there are tons of them out there. Or who offer to repair your credit score (They CAN NOT) Instead go directly to the credit bureus. www.experian.com, www.transunion.com, www.equifax.com Its easy for you to do it yourself, but it does require you to do some work. Stop being lazy! Also go to www.ftc.gov

Part two of  W.T.F. a fourth bureau! Below you will find very informative links that will give you a lot of information. Go there get schooled. Don’t let the blood sucking, money whores like MIKE MONDELLI take advantage of you. His company L2C is one of the companies that are involved in the fourth bureau. Here is the link to L2C  http://www.l2cinc.com/ Here is how they spin what they do by using fancy language. I hate fuckers like this so pay some damn attention!

“L2C solutions use alternative, leading indicator data to inject insight, clarity and confidence into credit risk decisions across the consumer credit life-cycle”

This is what they are really saying!

Alternative = personal data that can be  considered  unreliable

Inject insight = sell your personal data for a profit

Consumer credit life-cycle = track all your personal shit without your knowledge or approval for the rest of your life. Fuck i hate companies like this that hide in the shadows.

http://www.defendyourdollars.org/2011/07/consumers_union_calls_for_cong.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/little-known-firms-tracking-data-used-in-credit-scores/2011/05/24/gIQAXHcWII_story.html?nav=emailpage

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