SmorgasBoard

[Scene]

A 2006 documentary showing anecdotes of people that were affected by predatory lending practices and financial companies. It even mentions myFICO (indirectly) and says that FICO scores are 90% inaccurate. I almost lol'd at the gross exaggeration backed up by no credible sources. They also go on to say that the reason the FICO formula is not available to the public is because the scoring companies do not want to go under scrutiny of whether the scoring aspects are logical or even discriminatory.

I could believe the latter but the first statement is absolutely exaggeration. Has anybody else seen this movie? What were your thoughts?

[laz98]

I've seen it, & don't particularly care for it.  Actually, it's currently showing on cable   I noticed it yesterday.

[marty56]

Back im my credit dark days, all those pre-approval letters forced my to apply for credit and max the cards out.  I was in fear of my life if I didn't do it.  It's all their fault.

Sadly there are too many people who believe my first statement.

[Repo-ed]

No such thing as predatory lending.  They tried like heck to get me to sign on the dotted line back then.  But alas, I knew exactly how much I made, and I knew it didn't add up to be enough to pay for the loans they were pitching.

If I was smart enough to know that, so was the majority of the remaning population.

[marty56]

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Repo-ed wrote:

No such thing as predatory lending

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+1

Sadly there is such a thing as stupid people and those who don't take responsibility for their actions.

[FrugalRican]

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Repo-ed wrote:

If I was smart enough to know that, so was the majority of the remaning population.

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I would love to think so, but 2008 proved otherwise... sadly, and unfortunately.

[Booner72]

Yep, I've seen it.  What struck me the most is that it was filmed in 06 and had that realtor in Vegas making a killing selling her house and selling other houses....Boy, TIMES HAVE CHANGED!  I found it very interesting.

I don't think 90% is that much, if at all, of an exageration of those of us with errors on their reports. 

True or False:  EVERY SINGLE FORUM MEMBER ACTUALLY HAS OR HAS HAD SOMETHING REPORTING WRONG ON AT LEAST ONE REPORT.  (Like really and truly wrong, not just, Oh my name is spelled wrong I shouldn't have to pay it, wrong.)

              (I'd bet some serious money that most of the answers are true, which equals 90% or better!)  Most people don't even know that there is something wrong because most people didn't get into this odd obsession that we have, and rarely even look at their reports, and those I know who do the annualcreditreport.com thing just glance to see if there is an account they don't recognize.  It takes some real time and effort to understand a credit report.

Regarding predatory lending:  I think a better term would be discriminatory.  One bank was sued for selling the loans w/ the worst terms to minorities.  (Read this in a legal journal and I can't cite the source or remember the bank).  The folks on this documentary were minorities, elderly  and likely uneducated.   When I was watching the show I was very skeptical about how someone can be a "victim" of a predatory bank - but what I saw showed me that in SOME cases, it can be true.

You can also see this on Netflix.

[haulingthescoreup]

I've had false info on my reports, in the form of a 90 that should have been a 60 (rolls eyes), and balances continuing to report long after they were paid off.

To me, the word "predator" implies someone who stalks those perceived to be easy targets. So it's predatory lending if you deliberately go after people that you think you can fleece.

If these targets don't go along with it, that's great, of course, but the lender is still predatory in its business plan.

[cassembler]

I had mixed feelings about the movie. On the plus side, the responsibility of proper credit maintenance is waaaaaaaaaay undersold to kids. By the time I hit 21, I was some $6k in revolving debt... And they would still give me a CLI!!! I'm not even sure if I made that much in a year!

On the minus side, like most documentaries, much of it was over-sensationalized... The <spoiler alert> suicides were kind of... Sad, of course... But I don't think 100% of that was caused by predatory lending... College is an emotional time to begin with, and a few maxed out credit cards are more of a catalyst than a cause, imho.

Also, the interview with the collectors was somewhat enlightening, but you can tell it was edited quite a bit to show them in a negative light... I'll bet many of them are just normal folk with, just in a job they hate.

I'd honestly like PBS to take a swing at a documentary on credit...

[fused]

I will NEVER defend banks, CCC's, or other lenders. They will do whatever it takes to make money. Period!!!!!!!!!!!! As for the movie, I believe some of it and the parts that I did, it really made me angry.