My FICO Went ▲UP▲ For a Brief, Glorious Moment...It Was a Beautiful Thing.

[Anonymous]

I agree completely.  It takes two people to create a child and they're both responsible for that child for as long as they live.  What support is paid rarely equates to more than 1/4 of what it costs to keep up a home much less all of the extras that children require.   Paying for the care of a child is an obligation to the child NOT the other parent.  

Whether a parent sits on their buns most of the time or works like a dog every day is irrelevent.  They're providing a home, food and other necessities and shouldn't have to soley bare the responsibility unless they choose to do so.  If it burdens the parent financially to do so then the child ultimately suffers.

If I were a creditor, I'd be much more suspicious of someone who has to be forced to care for their child.  If someone tries to shirk his financial obligations to his own flesh and blood then obviously the lender would be the lowest man on the totem pole.

[Anonymous]

I discovered, unfortunately, that my FICO score really hasn't gone up. Rather, there is a HUGE difference between the credit score Bank of America provides as part of its PrivacyAssist program, and FICO scoring. Thus, my leading post wasn't an apples-to-apples comparison. Comparing apples to apples, over the past four months, two out of three scores have actually gone down.

The BofA scores are lower than FICO...about a hundred points lower than FICO for my TU score. This certainly sheds light on what they turned me down for an unsecured card: BofA apparently views the world through crap-colored glasses. Using their credit simulator, I get the same rosy projections they gave me four months ago...if only I pay my bills on time, my score will increase about 25 points in the next three months. This is, of course, the same thing they told me before, so I don't really believe them.

Whether or not my FICO score went down during the same time period is unknown, because I don't have FICO scores from six months ago. But from what I can see, the scores have probably moved sideways. Projecting into the future, both the FICO and the PrivacyAssist simulation tools tell me things will get better...which is the same song and dance I've been hearing ever since I started this credit score improvement project.

Reminds my of a book I read about the old USSR, where there were always shortages of everything, but the government-run radio assured Russian citizens that improvement was always around the corner. So there was a Soviet saying: if you want milk, take your pail to the radio. If you want to see a good credit score, use the simulator, because that's the onyl way you'll ever see one.

[Anonymous]

However, The amounts that they give out are way to bloated. My ex doesn't work so that's held against me (Score yet another one for the lazy people)and her new husband makes more than me. I have no problem with paying a reasonable amount per month but I know from my 12 year old daughter she's not getting any of the money. Not to mention the fact that because I sent my Ex so much per month I can't really afford to do much with her when she is with me. I have two younger boys that I know I don't spend as much to raise them per month that I give to my ex every month and they are very well taken care of...They need to make people that have nothing to do with their kids pay more than the ones that actively support and help raise the child not punish the ones that try to do the right thing...

[Anonymous]

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fast5frog wrote:
However, The amounts that they give out are way to bloated. My ex doesn't work so that's held against me (Score yet another one for the lazy people)and her new husband makes more than me. I have no problem with paying a reasonable amount per month but I know from my 12 year old daughter she's not getting any of the money. Not to mention the fact that because I sent my Ex so much per month I can't really afford to do much with her when she is with me. I have two younger boys that I know I don't spend as much to raise them per month that I give to my ex every month and they are very well taken care of...They need to make people that have nothing to do with their kids pay more than the ones that actively support and help raise the child not punish the ones that try to do the right thing...

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In the state I live in there is a fixed percentage of the absent parents income that is ordered for child support, no more without special needs and no less.  Its also dependant on the number of other children he has to support.  My ex gets buy with 17% of his income going to support.  I wish I could pay half the mortgage and utilities on 17% of my income.  So in my state it doesn't matter who earns what, much like the FICO system, its an algorithm

Message Edited by Brammy on 04-09-2007 03:40 PM

[Anonymous]

Well, yesterday I got a score alert indicating my FICO went up 13 points. There was no accompanying credit alert...I am assuming the increase came because I have continued to reduce utilization on my credit cards.

[Anonymous]

Way to go!  I gained 16 points this month...whoo hoo!!

[Anonymous]

Good points all, on child support.

I love it when I see blended families where one parent sends child support to the other, who, thanks to their new spouse, use it to pay child support to a another parent, and so on down the line.

Credit, like Child Support, like governmnet intervention, like poker, is unfair.  Do the best you can with what you have.  Consider the alternatives. 

Hmmmmmmm.....ok, ok, don't consider the alternatives too deeply now!  

Message Edited by NPugetSoundRE on 04-10-2007 04:08 PM

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good points all, on child support.

I love it when I see blended families where one parent sends child support to the other, who, thanks to their new spouse, use it to pay child support to a another parent, and so on down the line.

Credit, like Child Support, like governmnet intervention, like poker, is unfair. Do the best you can with what you have. Consider the alternatives.

Hmmmmmmm.....ok, ok, don't consider the alternatives too deeply now!

Message Edited by NPugetSoundRE on 04-10-2007 04:08 PM

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I think it's time we recognized child support for what it is: a transfer payment program. It redistributes wealth from divorced men to single women. And I'm opposed to all transfer payment programs that are not 1) means-tested and, 2) placing an emphasis on the person receiving the transfer payments increasing his or her own income and becoming independent.

I'm never in favor of anyone who is not substantially disabled receiving long-term money just for being warm and breathing. Do you think a woman should be allowed to commit adultery, divorce her husband without cause, quit a well-paying job, get custody of her kid, and live with her husband's mother, spending her day playing video games--all while collecting money from her ex?

The only reason child support exists the way it does in California is politicians LOVE the idea of getting ahold of more taxpayer dollars, using whatever "justification" they can conjure. That's the motivation: socialism, a la Marx. All that's missing is the red flag with the hammer-and-sickle, and "La Internationale" playing on TV every morning. Take as much money from the working class as possible, and make sure as much sticks to the fingers of the bureaucrats redistributing it as possible.

And to add insult to injury, not only am I being milked, but they're going to put the judgment on my credit report, thus making sure I'll never be able to have a mortgage and buy a home. And people wonder why I hate the government. Gee, let me think...

[Anonymous]

It's really funny to hear males complain about paying child support.  What SHE is doing is irrelavent, the question is, is your child being taken care of?  The reason I say this is that it doesn't matter how she provides the housing or if someone provides it for her, there is a fixed cost associated with raising a child.  I have yet to hear child support in an amount more than it would take for a person to live on.  My ex pays a fair amount of support around 8k a year but to support those arguments you would have to believe a family of two could live on 8k a year.

It reminds me of a coworker complaining that he was paying child support and his ex wife had just bought new furniture....huh?  Mind that the woman worked herself.  Does the fact that a male pays child support mean that the woman, who also works, can't spend a part of her pay on herself.  Not to mention the child would be using the furniture too.

Glad my ex is confident in what his support pays for.  I would have hated to hear his response when I bought my new 52 in widescreen plasma TV.  With MY money.  I don't understand why males think because they pay child support that somehow that magically means that a woman is not contributing to her child's welfare whether she's working or not.  Try paying a sitter 24/7 and child support will look like a blessing. Try paying one for 12 hiours, the amount of time every day 7 days a week that you as the ABSENT parent should be dedicating.

My teen came in the house a few moments ago with an attitude, I'm on the phone with a client and I've got doors slamming in the background so I have to mute my conversation and deal with him while on a conference call..... yes a blessing unto itself.

Message Edited by Brammy on 04-11-2007 05:05 PM

[Anonymous]

I got a notice from the child support people...now they're accusing me of being behind.

All I'm gonna say is that if I woke up tomorrow morning and read in the papers that a meteor strike wiped the state government off the map, I'd take every dime I have left and throw the biggest party my block has ever seen. Then I'd go see the crater, put some music on my iPod, and dance on the politicians' graves.