The Credit Bureaus and Their Proprietary Credit Reporting Methods
In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the concept of “doublespeak” was introduced. Simply put, “doublespeak” meant the deliberate altering of the meaning of words to the point where sometimes, words took on the exact OPPOSITE of their true meaning.
What we hear in America all the time is “thank God I live in a free country,” or “our soldiers fight to keep us free,” and other statements of that nature. But what kind of a free country do we really live in, when to participate in the marketplace, we must make ourselves LESS secure financially?
That is exactly what happens with credit reporting. This is where the “doublespeak” of fiction becomes the non-fiction version of 1984 that we are living. Rather than the government tracking people’s every move, as it did in the novel, corporations now track our every move through credit reports and then they use that record to deny us opportunities in the future using “doublespeak.”
For example, most of us were probably taught that it is irresponsible to go into debt if you don’t have to. (This will be discussed later in the new Consumer Underground–that you shouldn’t EVER go into to debt for anything–not even for a house. And yes, it CAN be done)
Yet, since the early 80s, we have been told that to build good credit, we MUST go into debt. “Irresponsibility is RESPONSIBILITY” in this corporate dominated country of ours. You must get a credit card, or two credit cards or a loan to PROVE you are worthy of earning a good credit score. You must put yourself into debt, to show you are responsible, rather than simply being responsible by never going into debt in the first place. That absurd and twisted logic, that “doublespeak” is our reality in this era.
Such an absurdity could be easily ignored except for this fact: Life is made very difficult for people who do not have credit or good credit because corporations have altered consumer behaviors and hence the marketplace, to the point where much of what we need is now inaccessible without good credit.
For example: It used to be, for the last 230 odd years in this country, that a person could go and get a job based on their resume, experience, references and an interview. But now, an ever increasing number of companies want the applicant to also have good credit. Why? When an individual’s personal financial situation was never of concern to an employer before, why has it become so now?
The answer is because the credit reporting agencies were not content with the fees they made simply by selling your private credit history to just lenders. There was more money to be made if these agencies could expand their clientele in some way. So, they peddled their services to employers, and in doing so are now not only making a fee every time you apply for a loan or credit card, but also each and every time anybody applies for a job. Of course corporations have to keep growing to please shareholders, so the for-profit credit reporting agencies didn’t stop there. Credit bureaus went on to property management companies, so that every time you apply to rent an apartment somewhere, they get a cut through the housing application fees you paid, which are non-refundable. Do you think they stopped there? Because we’re not even talking about credit anymore. Of course not, they went on to make themselves necessary in the auto insurance world, as well. Ever wonder why you have a perfect driving record, yet your insurance premiums are higher than others with less impeccable driving histories? It’s because the credit bureaus have figured out a way to get insurance companies to pay for the credit reports they generate, as well.
When buyers of insurance were found to have an average credit score or low credit score, insurers decided that they could justify charging those customers a lot more money by categorizing them as “higher risk.”
So despite a good driving record, you are charged higher premiums anyway. Since 49 states now require every driver to have auto insurance, you have no choice but to get your credit checked and this makes the credit bureaus money.
This actuarial trick enables auto insurers to make a lot more money off of good drivers and it allows the credit bureaus to make more money for themselves by opening up a new market where they can continue to cash in on the credit reports they generate. A win-win situation for two giant, for-profit industries.
Where you live, where you work, how much you pay in interest and how much you pay in insurance premiums are no longer controlled by consumer preference or by the free market, but by giant corporations, who make billions of dollars off of you through the collection and sale of your private history–without any regard whatsoever as to how doing so may sabotage your future.
So now, to get a place to live, to get a job, to insure our cars or to get loans to start our businesses and buy our homes, we all need to pledge our allegiance to the credit bureaus, by taking out loans and credit cards in order to demonstrate that we’re responsible with credit. “Irresponsibility is responsibility.” We must earn our FICO scores to become citizens of the free market.
All of this is a conspiracy to indoctrinate people into a lifestyle of indebtedness.
What is even more insidious is that unless we’ve applied for housing, or a job, or insurance or a loan, we cannot even obtain our credit reports without paying the credit bureaus ourselves. So that’s more money to be made by them.
Because your “scientific” FICO score can inexplicably be different at all four reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, Novus/Innovus and TransUnion, you are then forced to monitor and pay for THREE different reports. The credit bureaus are not a service for YOU. Without your consent, they collect your personal information, from childhood on, in order to sell it and make money off of it. If they get things wrong, they manage to elude defamation or libel suits. Their excuse is that it’s YOUR fault because they deem it your responsibility to make THEM aware of any discrepancies in your report. You have to do THEIR work, so you don’t lose a job, or a loan, or an apartment.
To add to the silliness, whole industries have cropped up now to make money off of people’s obsession with monitoring their credit reports. It seems that just about everyone has been duped by this marketed notion that “irresponsibility is responsibility.” Consumers, under the fear of not being able to obtain more debt, blindly allow these credit bureaus to control them and to sell their identities, when in fact they can opt out if they want to. It’s $10 per credit reporting agency, but it can be done.
The FICO score has become a numeric status symbol that organizes people into castes. The high credit scores go to the rich and the lucky, while the low credit scores go to those who may have only made a mistake or two in their lives, those who suffered unexpected misfortunes, or those who started out life at an economic disadvantage and have struggled with finances all along.
Oh but you can rebuild your credit the companies and people cry. No you can’t. It takes YEARS to “rebuild” your credit and you can only do so by going into debt and then not having another mishap before you pay off that debt over an amount of time deemed acceptable by the credit bureaus. All the while, creditors are making interest off of your efforts to redeem yourself to an entity that frankly doesn’t have any real authority. Where are you going to live in the meantime? What job are you going to get in the meantime? Your credit won’t rebuild overnight. Rebuilding credit is effort aimed in the wrong direction.
Hardworking Americans are victimized every day by their credit reports. Perhaps they got behind on bills once, perhaps they had an expensive medical emergency. Does that mean they should become homeless, jobless pariahs? Do they deserve to be gouged by insurance companies? America used to be the place where your car was your freedom and where a home and a job were automatic if you were willing to work. Such was the high quality of life in this country.
How are we free when we are assigned a FICO score that pre-determines our future opportunities? How can a single score possibly define a whole person? In this land of Oz that corporations have fashioned, Mr. FICO is the “man behind the curtain” who governs through a giant, intimidating mask and makes the final determination as to our place in American society. And like Oz, Mr. FICO is a phony.
The Consumer Underground encourages people to simply extricate themselves from credit reporting altogether. Doing so is all part of the change of consumer attitudes and behaviors that need to be brought about to free ourselves. Just like Dumbo the Elephant did not really need his feather to fly, you do not need credit to live a good life in America, nor do you need to cow-tow to these credit bureaus, which are nothing more than illegitimate governing bodies.
This website will show you why and what you need to do.
