Credit Nightmare
If anyone has ever thought, "Oh, all those guys who worry about their credit report and all that identity theft stuff are full of hooey," that anyone would be sadly mistaken. I've dealt with this problem for nearly 10 years. 1 time, I even had 2 detectives come out and check out everything. I sent out letters to credit agencies, numerous stores and courts. I thought the issue was taken care of several years ago.
About a week ago, my wife tried to pay for something using our normal credit card. It is simply a Quicken credit card that we use to track our expenses, we pay it off every month and we get reward points every time we use it. They denied it, saying she was over the limit. She called me (fortunately it was late afternoon), and I called the credit card company and "calmly" relayed to them a reminder that we have never been late or not paid in full in the 7 years we have owned the card. "We realize this sir, but the credit agency relayed to us your financial circumstances and we have dropped your limit by 800% because you are a risky account. We only do what the credit agency tells us is the best thing to do."
Without going into the other 3 calls I had to make before actually contacting a voice that was not a tape, I finally spent 1 hour on the phone with a very helpful individual. Interestingly, the last time I communicated with the major credit reporting agencies, you could not email or phone those companies. The only communication was via snail mail. Things have advanced since the credit reporting stone age and now you can contact 1, yes one, company that will respond and work out the problems with you. Experian was extremely helpful in literally going thru the 25 pages of my credit report and changing the over 30 instances of problems that I had not created. I found out that the problem was not identity theft, but a wrong SS # someone had written down when Keri and I were first married. The one digit that was off, matched me to someone who was near my age, had my same first name and lived nearby. I had tried to correct this before, but apparently no one heeded my call to check the facts. So, over the past few years, on my credit, this fellow has bought a year membership to Bally's, 2 cell phones, 2 land lines for a phone, tools from a professional tool company, leased an apartment, had himself sent to collections on all the above items, bankrupted himself 4 times, late payed over 100 times, and oh, bought a house and defaulted on the mortgage. And my credit stayed at 750 out of 850 until the latest bankruptcy, which then brought it down to 650. I'd hate to see what really bad person at say a 200 score would look like. Sounds like the whole grade inflation thing. Let's just make everyone look good, so people don't feel bad. I pity the fool that has a perfect 850 score. It apparently doesn't mean that much. But, hey, hopefully that is what I will have here shortly. I'd like to be that fool for a change.
About a week ago, my wife tried to pay for something using our normal credit card. It is simply a Quicken credit card that we use to track our expenses, we pay it off every month and we get reward points every time we use it. They denied it, saying she was over the limit. She called me (fortunately it was late afternoon), and I called the credit card company and "calmly" relayed to them a reminder that we have never been late or not paid in full in the 7 years we have owned the card. "We realize this sir, but the credit agency relayed to us your financial circumstances and we have dropped your limit by 800% because you are a risky account. We only do what the credit agency tells us is the best thing to do."
Without going into the other 3 calls I had to make before actually contacting a voice that was not a tape, I finally spent 1 hour on the phone with a very helpful individual. Interestingly, the last time I communicated with the major credit reporting agencies, you could not email or phone those companies. The only communication was via snail mail. Things have advanced since the credit reporting stone age and now you can contact 1, yes one, company that will respond and work out the problems with you. Experian was extremely helpful in literally going thru the 25 pages of my credit report and changing the over 30 instances of problems that I had not created. I found out that the problem was not identity theft, but a wrong SS # someone had written down when Keri and I were first married. The one digit that was off, matched me to someone who was near my age, had my same first name and lived nearby. I had tried to correct this before, but apparently no one heeded my call to check the facts. So, over the past few years, on my credit, this fellow has bought a year membership to Bally's, 2 cell phones, 2 land lines for a phone, tools from a professional tool company, leased an apartment, had himself sent to collections on all the above items, bankrupted himself 4 times, late payed over 100 times, and oh, bought a house and defaulted on the mortgage. And my credit stayed at 750 out of 850 until the latest bankruptcy, which then brought it down to 650. I'd hate to see what really bad person at say a 200 score would look like. Sounds like the whole grade inflation thing. Let's just make everyone look good, so people don't feel bad. I pity the fool that has a perfect 850 score. It apparently doesn't mean that much. But, hey, hopefully that is what I will have here shortly. I'd like to be that fool for a change.
posted by Keri at 5/08/2005 09:35:00 PM
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