The FICO God

I named this article “The FICO god” because I saw someone pray to FICO; the god of credit in Wal-Mart the other day. A woman in front of me at the check out counter slide her credit card, closed her eyes, bowed her head and prayed; “Please, Please, PLEASE!” When she opened her eyes, first one then the other the FICO god answered her prayer; “APPROVED”. She then looked up and mouthed the words “Thank you”. nnA long, long, long time ago (actually it was in the 70’s) when a man’s word was his bond, there were no credit bureaus. The only way a lender had to check how you paid your debt was to call someplace that you had charged something and ask the merchant how you paid. As more and more people started buying on time the merchant had to start answering more and more calls, soon it became a large expense to hire someone to answer all the inquiries. We are a very litigious society and many of the merchant were getting sued for reporting that the customer didn’t pay very well. Some diabolical genius came up with an evil plan. He started the first credit bureau. The purpose of a credit bureau was to act as a buffer between the merchants and the customers. The merchants could fire the person that they hired to answer all those credit inquiries and only pay the credit bureau a small fee each month. The credit bureau would also act as a buffer between the customers and the merchants. This is the way it began and it grew into the monster it is today.nnThe banks and other lending institutions then saw a way to use the credit bureaus to increase their profits. Lenders never wanted to refuse anybody credit, they simply wanted to be able to charge the people a lot more interest. Two men named Fair and Isaac came up with a scoring system they named after themselves the Fair Isaac Corporation or FICO. I promise you there is noting fair about the Fair Isaac Corp. nnThe banks, lenders and insurance companies uses the low FICO score to get people to accept paying a higher interest or a higher premium than people with higher scores paid. If the people with the lower FICO scores complained they were told “There is nothing we can do about your rate because you’re FICO score dictates what you pay”. How conveeenient. It’s like saying that the cost you must pay is not our fault the FICO god has chosen your fate and rate. nnThey have taken away your name and given you a number. Merle Haggard has a song called ‘Branded Man’ which describes it perfectly. “I’ve paid the debt I owe them but they’re not satisfied now I’m a branded man out in the cold”. They’ve taken away my name and given me a number.” These credit bureaus have branded us with a number that means more than our name. This brand now controls almost every thing we do and every thing our children will do. It drives us to drugs, alcohol, lying, depression, stealing, divorce, humiliation, depression and desperation. It is eroding our capitalist system and is stealing our liberty. nnDo you know why the credit bureaus reports bankruptcies for 10 years and bad credit for 7? Because they want to. There is no law that requires them to track these things for any time, just a law that lets them. The average prison term for manslaughter is 15 months; you get 7 years for 30 days past due. nnIn America, you are innocent until proven guilty. All the things on your credit are accusations - for them to remain they must be proven and that’s a hard thing to do. The only way the credit bureau can keep bad things on your report is to make it almost impossible to contact them directly. Every time you do what they tell you to do they change the procedure; you waste a lot of time and energy and finally give up. THAT’S THE PLAN!nnThe credit bureaus are literally depriving you to your Constitutional Right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. nnThey do not get their power from laws but act like gods. They make the laws up themselves and keep them secret from the public. If you ask for verification on an item in your bureau, they simply send you a form letter that they have verified the item and it will remain. You can’t find or afford a lawyer who will take these FICO gods on. The only way to stop them is to let your Congressmen know that this is important to you and you want something done. There should be a law that makes it illegal for bad credit to stay on your record for more than 2 years and 30 days late for no longer than 6 months. When a late payment is made up, it should be removed. When you paid the debt you owe them, they should be satisfied but the FICO god is vengeful. Nobody knows how credit scores are calculated and the credit bureaus keep their formulas secret. Your credit score is your property and they should not be able to take your property without due process.