My theory on why bureaus are so sloooowww to update

[Anonymous]

It's amazing, isn't it? When there's something negative to report... go one day past the 30 day mark, go $1 over your limit, etc... the credit bureaus slap it on your file within 1 or two days. It's lightening fast.

BUT... wipe out a late, pay down a balance, have a creditor agree to remove a negative, etc... and you're given the standard old "give us 30-60 days to update your file" and by-George, they'll take nearly that long.

Why? What's the rush in reporting bad news and why the long lead time for reporting a positive change? It HAS to be intentional. Why?

Think about it... there's a HUGE industry out there that the bureaus have tapped into. They're no longer just "reporting" what the creditors send to them. Now, the bureaus have a captive audience (you and me) working feverishly to improve their reports. And how do we do it? We subscribe to monitoring services, we buy scores, we click on ads, we do a lot of things that lead to REVENUE with the bureaus, and we spend a lot of money doing it.

If positive corrections were sent in by creditors and those changes were made within 24 hours (and they easily could be made that quick) then where would all the bureau's "consumer" customers go for help? In fact, we wouldn't NEED the help to begin with. We wouldn't be so caught up in monitoring our files, watching our scores, checking on corrections, etc.

Not only that, but think about THIS: who are the bureaus REAL customers? You and me? The Consumer? Nope. It's CREDITORS. And how do the CREDITORS benefit from positive items slowly updating? BINGO... they get to charge higher interest rates. There's NO DOUBT in my mind that credit card/bank execs have a "nice arrangement" with the bureaus to "take their time" in cleaning up someone's credit file. If things were sped up, the bottom line is that it would REDUCE the bottom line for most creditors.

I really believe it's a brilliant approach on behalf of these credit bureaus and creditors, and it's screwing the consumer in the long run. Oh well... that's one of the few downsides to living in a free-enterprise society and I wouldn't want to live in anything else for sure. I just wish the bureau execs would be forced to admit to what they've been doing and why.

[MidnightVoice]

A wise man once said:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Remember that credit bureaus use different methods to receive and process good versus bad credit information.

Information that would negatively affect your credit rating--like a late pay or charge-off--is instantly beamed from the creditor to the agency via Department of Defense 256-megabit fiber optic lines and written to their servers in 8.6 milliseconds.

Information that would positively affect your credit rating is scribed onto scrolls in special ink by Gregorian monks, which are then painstakingly illuminated. The Credit Scrolls are then placed onto camel caravans which wind their way to the credit bureau headquarters by way of Marrakesh, Dubai, and Tripoli. Once the caravan reaches Equifax, Experian or TransUnion, the scrolls are then laid out in the sun for a week so that the special ink can be read. (Note that the weather around the credit bureau headquarters is notoriously gloomy, like FICO itself, so finding seven consecutive days of sunshine can be quite an ordeal in and of itself.) Only then can the information finally be encoded into your credit files...

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[Anonymous]

That's a hillarious analogy!

To cut to the chase and keep it simple: creditors AND credit bureaus benefit from consumers having negative information on their files, and they both benefit by the long drawn-out process in having negative information removed.

Speaking of new laws needed...

[Tuscani]

Classic TNWM....... What would we do without him?