Let me get this straight. Three companies, TransUnion, Equafax and Experian, came into existence and are allowed to access all of your personal financial information and create some kind of a " FICO score" that can be kept hidden from you, unless you pay to see them?
You can get a free report per year, but that doesn't include the score! This "FICO score" is not only being used to evaluate things like the interest rates you get, but now it is being used by potential employers and landlords to determine if you will get a job or a rental apartment. This is tolerated?
What ever happened to being innocent until proven guilty? Under this system, you actually have to track down your bad score and try to dispute it, in order to keep it correct. This is time and money you are spending on something that should be a private issue.
Steve Rizza, a Reginal Vice President for Primerica, here on Long Island, said, "Most people don't check their scores. They should because it affects their mortgage and credit card rates".
What if a new company came along, took all your private medical records, and made a "medical score" you weren't allowed to see without paying for, so that health and life insurance companies could judge what rates you should get on medical and life insurance? Is that next?
I think that this is designed to destroy the middle class. If you lose your job, you can't make your credit card payments, which lowers your score, which makes it harder to get another job, which makes being unemployed a longer problem, which also raises the interest rates on your new loans that are even harder to pay without a job. As you spiral down, you may also lose your apartment, but good luck trying to find another, more affordable, one as your score falls lower and lower.
Don't like the fees your current bank is charging you while you struggle to survive on unemployment insurance? Good luck trying to open up another checking account at another bank (yes, your credit score counts for that, too).
The worst part about credit scores is that they are inconsistent. According to a recently released report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, credit reporting agencies actually give out different scores, depending on if they are for banks, retailers, landlords, or consumers. "Given this complexity, it is unlikely that a consumer will often be able to know the exact score that a particular lender will use to evaluate them," the report stated.
Nicole Brems, a college student on Long Island agrees. “It's a totally ridiculous system they have set up," she said.
Some people are even having a problem getting a simple cell phone, because of the credit score system. “AT&T wanted a $500 security deposit thing, per phone, because I didn’t have a score," said 19-year-old Kierstyn Horne of Centerport.
This needs to end. People have to stop accepting the way things are now. We need to make credit scores fair.
You can get a free report per year, but that doesn't include the score! This "FICO score" is not only being used to evaluate things like the interest rates you get, but now it is being used by potential employers and landlords to determine if you will get a job or a rental apartment. This is tolerated?
What ever happened to being innocent until proven guilty? Under this system, you actually have to track down your bad score and try to dispute it, in order to keep it correct. This is time and money you are spending on something that should be a private issue.
Steve Rizza, a Reginal Vice President for Primerica, here on Long Island, said, "Most people don't check their scores. They should because it affects their mortgage and credit card rates".
What if a new company came along, took all your private medical records, and made a "medical score" you weren't allowed to see without paying for, so that health and life insurance companies could judge what rates you should get on medical and life insurance? Is that next?
I think that this is designed to destroy the middle class. If you lose your job, you can't make your credit card payments, which lowers your score, which makes it harder to get another job, which makes being unemployed a longer problem, which also raises the interest rates on your new loans that are even harder to pay without a job. As you spiral down, you may also lose your apartment, but good luck trying to find another, more affordable, one as your score falls lower and lower.
Don't like the fees your current bank is charging you while you struggle to survive on unemployment insurance? Good luck trying to open up another checking account at another bank (yes, your credit score counts for that, too).
The worst part about credit scores is that they are inconsistent. According to a recently released report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, credit reporting agencies actually give out different scores, depending on if they are for banks, retailers, landlords, or consumers. "Given this complexity, it is unlikely that a consumer will often be able to know the exact score that a particular lender will use to evaluate them," the report stated.
Nicole Brems, a college student on Long Island agrees. “It's a totally ridiculous system they have set up," she said.
Some people are even having a problem getting a simple cell phone, because of the credit score system. “AT&T wanted a $500 security deposit thing, per phone, because I didn’t have a score," said 19-year-old Kierstyn Horne of Centerport.
This needs to end. People have to stop accepting the way things are now. We need to make credit scores fair.
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