'Piggybacking' roils credit industry

Yahoo News ^ | 6-3-07 | J.W. ELPHINSTONE

[Aquinasfan]

This is legal, but immoral. The practice boils down to legalized theft.

The persons renting their good credit are stealing from banks who have to pick up the tab for loans that will be defaulted on.

[nothingnew]

I just don’t care anymore. I pay cash for everything now and figure if I can’t pay cash for it, I don’t need it.

Major bump to that!!! Cash on the barrelhead!

FMCDH(BITS)

[rabscuttle385]

...and yet Capital One keeps sending credit card offers to our long-deceased pet. (Not kidding here!)

[Political Junkie Too]

This sounds like another "offset" scheme. First pollution offset credits, then carbon offset credits, now debt offset credits.

-PJ

[nyconse]

According to the Fair Credit act...they have thirty days to remove errors from your report once proof is received. Also, people can send in their own proof. Companies that do not follow the rules will be fined $10,000.

[zeugma]

I wish I’d gotten in on this. Sounds like they are exploiting a while in the software used to calculate “scoring”. Because actual money is involved, this will be fixed fairly quickly.

[joylyn]

I had almost the same go-round. The cable guy didn’t show up on the appointed day to collect my cable box, but another guy came the next day and gave me a receipt. Somehow, guy #1 reported that I had failed to return the box. Meanwhile, I had actually overpaid my cable bill and got a refund — but that didn’t stop them from turning my supposed bill over to a collection bureau.

I wasted many hours on this, even though the cable co agreed I didn’t owe anyting and I had a receipt that I offered to fax to one all. It took me over a year to clear this one up.

[RegulatorCountry]

When my husband and I purchased our first home, we found out that he had a terrible credit rating. Turns out that he declared bankruptcy in 1990. Yep, that’s right. He filed for bankruptcy when he was 11 years old.

So, who "borrowed" his Social Security Number, name and address? It's almost always a family member.

[RegulatorCountry]

I also had the reporting agencies say that I had a tax lien from a county that I never lived in.

Yet another example of possible identity theft. Did you follow up to figure out just what property had a tax lien upon it, and in whose name? It's easy to do these days, since nearly all counties have an online GIS system. Go to Google, and enter GIS+(whatever county), and you should be able to search by address, name, tax parcel number, or by map, which has aerial photography as well.

[Old North State]

I agree with you entirely about a consumer having the right to sue if they are harmed by a report or credit score that is based on bad information. I think that we would find a groundswell of people who agree. Let credit agencies publish what they want, but if it is wrong and you are harmed it should be treated like any other tort in the law.

[Wil H]

I had a denial of credit letter recently (for credit I hadn’t requested) and took the opportunity to demand a free copy of my credit report from Transunion.

I refused to give them my social security number on the basis that it was illegal for them to request it as they were not a government entity.

They sent me my report without a murmor, I then wrote back demanding they fix a couple of errors, again without giving my SSN, and they complied.