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2003 Suit (appealed, Experian filed credit reports on PACER)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Funny, but BAD for your FICO scores:  Retailers in trouble

Yahoo Finance:

Get Ready for Mass Retail Closings

About 220,000 stores may close this year in America, says our guest, retail consultant Howard Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates. As more Americans save and spend less, it’s clear there’s too much retail space. Just visit Web site deadmalls.com and track retail’s growing body count. And luxury retailers? They’re on “life support,” Davidowitz says.

Among the brandname stores Davidowitz says are in trouble:

* Nordstrom
* Neiman Marcus
* Tiffany
* Jeweler Zale Corp.
* Saks
* J.C. Penney
* Sears
...

I read some of the comments and found this one particularly funny:

I’m almost looking forward to this. Maybe my wife will finally stop buying all that crap we don’t need.

Yup. 

But on second thought, these are the accounts that really help FICO scores.  Of course they will CONTINUE to add to FICO scores due to the AGE, but once the account is closed, they obviously won’t be helping your B/L ratio with the ZERO limit and your score may go down because the account is no longer open. 

Closed accounts will be deleted.

The CRAs claim that they’ll report positive accounts for 10 years after an account was closed, but I’ve seen MANY closed accounts deleted much sooner.

How many of you are old enough to have had a Montgomery Wards account?  It long ago disappeared from my credit reports.

Unlike with credit cards, these store charge cards are not usually taken over by another store.

I’m more bearish than ever on credit reporting and scoring and I’m hoping that if enough people remove themselves from the system and stop buying credit reports, the credit bureaus will go out of business just like the retailers.

But I’m also fully aware that there still are people trying hard to get a refi and they need those scores to qualify.

So here’s my FICO scoring tip of the day:

If you haven’t used your store cards in a while, the GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE is the time to get some deals and use the store charge card. 

A more recent DLA should help to have the account reported longer and you can even carry a balance to artificially prolong the “life” of the account.  How it effects your CURRENT FICO scores depends on WHAT ELSE is on your credit reports.

Whether you should bother is a different story.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Experian refuses to provided the scheduled deletion date

A client disputed two accouts, they investigate one and ignored the other.  He asked when the charge-off would be deleted.  The account was not mentioned in the investigation results and there still isn’t a deletion date on the report.

At least 20% of Experian chargeoffs don’t have a deletion date.  Experian OFTEN reages accounts to delete 7 years after the charge-off was sold instead of 7 years after the account was charged off (or sooner, depending on the date of first permanent delinquency.)

And, Fair Isaac STILL creates entirely fictitious lates on the myFICO reports.  It is truly incredible that FICO scores are based on formulas developed by the world’s most INCOMPETENT programmers.

I can only try to make them irrelevant, I’ve given up fighting for justice.  The new Trado site is slowly coming along, got lots to learn about Drupal.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The appeals court denied my petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc

My 10/3/08 post about my petition

11/19/08: Order denying Petition

Before: TASHIMA, SILVERMAN, and N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judges

The panel has voted to deny the petition for panel rehearing.

The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. See Fed. R.
App. P. 35.

The petition for panel rehearing and the petition for rehearing en banc are denied.

Well, it’s not that I expected justice, but it has to be rather obvious now to EVERYBODY that consumers have NO rights in America.

So I can either commit a public suicide, blow my brains out and make sure that the video ends up on youTube in hopes that “somebody” will “sometime” take some action, or you can kill this corrupt system by building a NEW system without commercial banks, without corrupt politicians and without assholes in robes.

Your choice.

FICO score increased 6 points after deletion of 2 collections, 12 points after using old account

The ONLY two old collections were deleted.  The Equifax FICO score increased from 666 to 672.

Disappointed client.  There would have been a larger increase if we didn’t have the 76% B/L ratio.

A few days later a $77 balance showed on his JC Penney card and the score went to 684. 

That’s a 12 point gain, TWICE the 6 point gain for the deletion of the 2 collections.

And once he paid the account and the $0 balance is reported, he might get a few more points because he’ll have fewer accounts with balances.

When I reviewed the reports, I couldn’t tell whether the JCP account was still open.  The DLA was in 2000.  The client also didn’t know whether the account was open, didn’t have the card anymore.  He called and they immediately sent a new card.

Compare the effort people put in getting collections deleted with how easy it is to make a quick phone call and then go shopping.

Of course a RECENTLY ASSIGNED collection can lower the scores by over 70 points, even if the collection is 6 years old.  It all depends on the specific reporting of collections and WHAT ELSE is on the report.

That’s why I really can’t give advice without reviewing the reports and that takes anywhere from 3 to 6 hours, depending on the number of accounts and especially derogatories.

What reason do we have to put up with this absurd system, designed explicitly to exploit people who are NOT wealthy?

Last night I posted about the new Trado and then contemplated ways to eliminate Dollar debts owed to banks by refinancing Dollar debts with Trados.

These aren’t easy concepts for people who never looked into alternative currencies and how the banks create Dollars.  But it’s a LOT easier to understand than trying to figure out why you deserve lower interest rates and insurance premiums because you just went shopping a JCP.

Soon we won’t need the commercial banks, credit bureaus and credit scores.

They destroyed the global economy and it’s up to us to do whatever it takes to survive.  Only corporations are being bailed out.

The banks, insurance companies and credit bureaus can focus an screwing each other and making billion dollar loans to failing corporations and governments by creating trillions of dollars until the dollar is worthless.

We don’t have to be part of the failing system.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Reader mail:  American Agencies collecting 10-year old debt

I was contacted by an American Agency representative, who was attempting to collect a 10-year-old debt.  He said I owe $300.  He was attempting to offer me a settlement amount.  I asked him exactly what the amount entailed, and he said he cannot provide me with that information since the debt is so old, but did inform me that it includes 10 years of late fees. I provided him with my mailing address and then went to the American Agency website and sent an email about providing the details of the bill. 

Can this be true?!?!  This just seems completely ridiculous to me. 

Please advise.  I don’t have an account number, as this is the first time I’ve heard of this debt. (At least in the last 10 years)

Do NOT pay that debt.  Since it is OVER 7 years old, they can NOT legally report it on the credit.  And they definitiely can’t get a judgment. Even if the statute of limitations had NOT expired, they’d have to DOCUMENT the debt in court, which they obviously can’t.  Nor would they sue for such a small amount.

Send the “cease and desist” letter INSTEAD of payment:

[your name, address]

[Am. Ag. address, it ought to be on their website]

[date]

Re: Cease and desist collection of disputed debt [provide whatever info you have, account #, original creditor]

Please immediately stop all collection activities and do not contact me again.  Should you have any questions regarding this notice, please contact me by fax to [#, or if you don’t have a fax, request contact by mail]

Sincerely,

[your name]

--------------------------------------------------

Don’t provide your SSN.  Send with DELIVERY CONFIRMATION or signature.  They are known liars and won’t hesitate to commit perjury.

When you requesting more information you only encourage more collection efforts and you waste more time on it.