Let’s
admit it, what we don’t know, CAN hurt us. When it comes to
credit reports or credit scores, not knowing the truth can cost
the average consumer tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars
in a lifetime. Credit Bureaus hide in the deep dark mist that has
been created around the swamp of confusion about how to “read”
your report.
Why, you might
ask? Where the credit bureaus are concerned, the consumers buying
into a few “old wives tales” or “age old myths”,
just perpetuates their business constantly providing them with new
customers. The credit bureaus, agencies and their counterparts in
the banking institutions which depend upon them, rely on your ignorance
and uneducation regarding their industry. It allows them to control
where and how you act and with what information they provide you
with.
You can think
of it as a single picture with two sides. On one side they show
you three “official” or main credit bureaus who provide
and maintain accurate records about the financial lives of all Americans.
In this picture, the bureaus are vital and beloved to us Americans
and somewhat beyond reproach, as though “they” would NEVER
make a mistake or accept an inaccurate report about someone.
On the other
side of the photo it shows the real TRUTH regarding these credit
reports on us consumers and how they are created and maintained.
While it is true that there are three “major players”
when it comes to the credit game, this is simply because of their
greed and corporate dominance over the industry, as opposed to the
belief that it was somehow official dictum that put them at the
top.
The three main
credit reporting agencies are not blessed and without reproach and
follow the same guidelines and rules and acts put into place for
the credit industry as does the average consumer follow. The only
reason such corporate behemoths such as Equifax or Transunion dominate
so well is because they won the battle and over the years swallowed
up enough of their predecessors. The battle for dominance of the
industry started quite some time ago, with them buying each other
out and changing names to reflect the new company, not exactly the
behavior one would expect from a “privacy-busting” company.
There are more
than these three different credit reporting companies that exist
and are hoping to spend enough of their start up capital to start
to shadow the three major players in today’s game and up the
stakes. It could be one day we are turning to a company such as
Innovis or Lakeside to gain access to our credit reports and determine
our scores.
The scariest
part of this seems to be how easy it can be to start a credit reporting
company on your own and start gaining access to private information
and financial situations of even your own friends and neighbors.
All it takes is a little know-how. Once you have a reporting agency
started and your business is up and running, you can then attempt
to sell the information you have amassed to whomever is interested.
Even though
there are regulations placed upon them, these credit reporting agencies
seem to enjoy the ignorant notion that prevails for most consumers
that these are “official” bureaus. While federal law does
have limitations on what can be reported and to whom it can be reported
to, there is nothing to stop anyone from starting a credit reporting
agency.
How accurate
can the data reported from these companies be? Only as accurate
as the thousands of employees that work there and spend the day
doing data entry. No human is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.
The first step in educating yourself to not fall into the “ignorant
consumer” trap, is to get your credit score from these bureaus
and find out how to read it well. The only thing that can remain
on your credit report is what can be “PROVED to be ACCURATE”
and the regulations and guidelines set forth in order for these
“blessed” agencies to prove something to be Accurate are
complicated and hard to follow exactly.
It could be
as easy as sending a letter to the agency to get something removed
and most consumers will find that they can have many negative items
removed from their credit report just by proving that the item can’t
be “Proved Correctly” and is therefore invalid. Having
negative items removed from your credit report can raise your score
by few hundred points in some cases, saving you thousands of dollars
in interest on loans.
The point being,
get an education and don’t let the behemoth Credit Reporting
agencies take advantage of you, fix your own credit report, educate
yourself and make sure you are in the know.
