topic Re: I really wish... in Credit Cards

I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 06:30:39 GMT

1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number.

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant.

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc).

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk.

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time.

Re: I really wish...

Kenny — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 06:42:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number. I wish they were free, as well. I think your rationale for it being free isn't a good one though. It's not like paying to know your date of birth or SSN, IMO.

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant. No way, Jose! Then if you ever had a problem, you'd be forced to talk to that one company. What if they weren't willing to help you? The government would be the worst place IMO to be monitoring our credit and giving out scores on us.

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc). It's not shrouded in secrecy - there are guides out there that can help you maximize your score. Plus, these companies tell us how they grade us.

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk. LOL, right? Would be nice, but they do kinda already do this in that we can sort them based on if they need excellent credit or not.

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time. Well, just know that your patience will be rewarded, and eventually you won't ever have to do this again if you remember how hard it has been for you.

Wish you nothing but the best!

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 06:42:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number. certain sites gives you FAKO scores for free. Certain lenders also give out FICO scores for free. It's not free for the most part because it is a service provided by another company. You know your date of birth because it is what it is. Your credit score however changes periodically based on your action(s).

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant. Some may argue that that having separate CBs is a good thing, as inquiries can be spread out. It's always good to have competition as well. If there's only 1 CRA, one probably will have to pay a lot more just to buy a CR since there's no competition. Same reason why we need different telephone companies, even though one can argue that having just 1 company is more efficient.

And not everything run by the government is going to be in good shape. Just look at healthcare.gov, or the congress.....

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc). the formulas are kept private because if they were made known, people will simply abuse it to get into the "right" spot.

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk. Your CS is just one of the many factors lenders look at. For example, if your DTI ratio is already 40% (which many banks would have taken AA against you if it were indeed this high), but your CS is 750, does this mean the bank is still supposed to approve you for a 100k car loan?

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time. a $50 card is probably too much work for what's its worth for the bank. Even a $300 deposit is considered low, to be honest.

Re: I really wish...

FinStar — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 06:48:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number. certain sites gives you FAKO scores for free. Certain lenders also give out FICO scores for free. It's not free for the most part because it is a service provided by another company. You know your date of birth because it is what it is. Your credit score however changes periodically based on your action(s).

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant. Some may argue that that having separate CBs is a good thing, as inquiries can be spread out. It's always good to have competition as well. If there's only 1 CRA, one probably will have to pay a lot more just to buy a CR since there's no competition. Same reason why we need different telephone companies, even though one can argue that having just 1 company is more efficient.

And not everything run by the government is going to be in good shape. Just look at healthcare.gov, or the congress.....

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc). the formulas are kept private because if they were made known, people will simply abuse it to get into the "right" spot.

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk. Your CS is just one of the many factors lenders look at. For example, if your DTI ratio is already 40% (which many banks would have taken AA against you if it were indeed this high), but your CS is 750, does this mean the bank is still supposed to approve you for a 100k car loan?

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time. a $50 card is probably too much work for what's its worth for the bank. Even a $300 deposit is considered low, to be honest.

+1000

Well said enharu.

Re: I really wish...

MissCredit9 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 06:50:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number.

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant.

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc).

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk.

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time.

If I'm not mistaken BofA has a product like that.... I believe it can even convert to non-secured eventually. Others can chime in on this as well as I don't do dealings with BofA.

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:38:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number. Some credit scores are free. Others you must pay for just like any other service.

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant. Redundancy can be a good thing.. imagine if there was only one system and something went horribly wrong. You'd be screwed!

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc). This would be nice, but very few things in life are black and white

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk. Sure, but it's equally silly to expect CCCs to take a risk based only on a score. Imagine you manage a rental property. Would you be willing to rent to anyone with a score >X without knowing anything else about their financial history?

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time. Similar to #4. Would you be willing to let someone rent from you without a significant security deposit?

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:44:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number. certain sites gives you FAKO scores for free. Certain lenders also give out FICO scores for free. It's not free for the most part because it is a service provided by another company. You know your date of birth because it is what it is. Your credit score however changes periodically based on your action(s).

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant. Some may argue that that having separate CBs is a good thing, as inquiries can be spread out. It's always good to have competition as well. If there's only 1 CRA, one probably will have to pay a lot more just to buy a CR since there's no competition. Same reason why we need different telephone companies, even though one can argue that having just 1 company is more efficient.

And not everything run by the government is going to be in good shape. Just look at healthcare.gov, or the congress.....

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc). the formulas are kept private because if they were made known, people will simply abuse it to get into the "right" spot.

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk. Your CS is just one of the many factors lenders look at. For example, if your DTI ratio is already 40% (which many banks would have taken AA against you if it were indeed this high), but your CS is 750, does this mean the bank is still supposed to approve you for a 100k car loan?

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time. a $50 card is probably too much work for what's its worth for the bank. Even a $300 deposit is considered low, to be honest.

to add to what many of the posters said, and I mean this kindly.. are you sure you're in a position to have credit right now? If $50 or more is too much, can you pay your accounts promptly? If you end up with multiple accounts all with even just minimum payments (which is not recommended) will you be able to keep up? Please be careful that you don't find your self in over your head!

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:44:50 GMT

@MissCredit9 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number.

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant.

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc).

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk.

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time.

If I'm not mistaken BofA has a product like that.... I believe it can even convert to non-secured eventually. Others can chime in on this as well as I don't do dealings with BofA.

They do, but it is a targeted offer. You can't request it.

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 16:51:28 GMT

The behavior is ours, they own the information.

We aren't the CRA's true customers.

It would be good to know what score range companies tended to approve in, though.

Scores don't take income or ability to pay into account. Perhaps that's the real problem and reason so many people get into trouble with their credit.

I wish inquiries didn't hang out for two years, but that does keep me from applying all willy-nilly. I'd probably have two more cards if inquiries fell off faster, LOL!

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 17:27:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The behavior is ours, they own the information.

We aren't the CRA's true customers.

It would be good to know what score range companies tended to approve in, though.

Scores don't take income or ability to pay into account. Perhaps that's the real problem and reason so many people get into trouble with their credit.

I wish inquiries didn't hang out for two years, but that does keep me from applying all willy-nilly. I'd probably have two more cards if inquiries fell off faster, LOL!

I thought inquiries fall off after 1 year..?

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 17:29:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
The behavior is ours, they own the information.

We aren't the CRA's true customers.

It would be good to know what score range companies tended to approve in, though.

Scores don't take income or ability to pay into account. Perhaps that's the real problem and reason so many people get into trouble with their credit.

I wish inquiries didn't hang out for two years, but that does keep me from applying all willy-nilly. I'd probably have two more cards if inquiries fell off faster, LOL!
I thought inquiries fall off after 1 year..?

They stop hurting you after a year/ counting in your score, but remain on your credit report for 24 months.

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 18:26:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc). the formulas are kept private because if they were made known, people will simply abuse it to get into the "right" spot.

Ideally, they would be hard to abuse, based on stuff that can't easily be manipulated, such as lates, charge off and total charged. I still find it amazing that the score can be manipulated by paying before the statement cuts, presumably they default to outstanding balance rather than doing something more complex and have found that predictive enough.

Re: I really wish...

chwebb1 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 18:41:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number. It would be great if it was free. It can be free from some CCCs (Barclays and Discover I know offer this service)

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant. I can see that this might be convenient since you only have one CR to monitor instead of 3, but at least you can spread out inquiries! It would be great too if they were non-profit so that they might be more accountable to credit users.

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc). I would love to only have to worry about 1 credit score. I think I read somewhere that there are hundreds of credit scores out there. That's just confusing for consumers.

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk. I wouldn't be for a "Minimum score", but I would like to see:
"
You will likely be approved for this card if the following are met:
1. Oldest account age of X years.
2. Debt to income percentage of X%.
3. Debt to limit ratio of X%.
4. No more than X derogatory marks in the last X years.
5. A credit limit of $X on your report that has been reported for X months.
6. No more than X inquiries in the last X months.
7. No more than X new accounts in the last X months.
8. No BKs on your report
9. No judgements listed on your report.
Average FICO score approved for this card: XXX with a standard deviation of XX and a minimum of XXX. Sample size of XXXX.

In order to get the best APR on this account:
1. Oldest account age of X years.
2. Debt to income percentage of X%.
3. Debt to limit ratio of X%.
4. No more than X derogatory marks in the last X years.
5. A credit limit of $X on your report that has been reported for X months.
6. No more than X inquiries in the last X months.
7. No more than X new accounts in the last X months.
8. You must have an installment loan for X years.

Average FICO score for the best APR offered for this card: XXX with a standard deviation of XX and a minimum of XXX. Sample size of XXXX.
"
You get the idea.

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time. I've never had a secured card, so I have no opinion of this.

Re: I really wish...

SnackTrader — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 22:11:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1. That Credit Scores were free. Period. It's your own information, why do you have to pay for it? It's no different than paying to know your date of birth or your social security number.

2. That there was only one CB and it was ran by the government, or some non-profit organization as of such any pertaining info would be free. I don't see a need for more than one as various CC's pull from different CB's and report to different CB's and then the whole fact of scores varying across them makes it even more confusing and redundant.

3. Credit scores were black and white and not based upon some complex algorithm that is shrouded in secrecy, varies from CB to CB, and even uses different ones for lenders (TU 98, TU 04 etc).

4. You could easily know if your approved without applying if CCC's had "minimum score accepted" posted on all their cards. Seems silly to play the guessing game with your CS at risk.

5. There was a secured card that had as low as a $50 deposit and slowly increased it on payment history. Not everyone can plunk down $300 for a secured card, took a lot for me working part time.

Your reasoning on #1 is flawed. Credit scores are NOT our information, they are "rankings" developed based on our information. The information itself is held with the credit bureaus, and you do indeed have free access to that information. Www.annualcreditreport.com

Now, here is my completely unrelated rant: These forums and the world in general put a much higher emphasis on a score than what goes into the actual report. It is well established that not all 800 or 720 or 640 scores are alike. Some of this was already discussed in this thread (DTI, type of employment, etc). At the end of the day, I have very little interest in my actual score because I do everything that I can be to be creditworthy. I do understand, however, that these forums are hosted by a scoring company, and that a number is much easier for most people to understand than the details of their actual report. So perhaps instead THAT is what we should change about the credit culture of our nation.

My wish is that society develops a way to help people become more credit literate earlier in life. I think it would support economic growth and lead to significantly less dependence on credit scoring.

***Runs and hides from MyFico kneebreakers***

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 22:17:56 GMT

@SnackTrader wrote:

Now, here is my completely unrelated rant: These forums and the world in general put a much higher emphasis on a score than what goes into the actual report. It is well established that not all 800 or 720 or 640 scores are alike. Some of this was already discussed in this thread (DTI, type of employment, etc). At the end of the day, I have very little interest in my actual score because I do everything that I can be to be creditworthy. I do understand, however, that these forums are hosted by a scoring company, and that a number is much easier for most people to understand than the details of their actual report. So perhaps instead THAT is what we should change about the credit culture of our nation.
My wish is that society develops a way to help people become more credit literate earlier in life. I think it would support economic growth and lead to significantly less dependence on credit scoring.
***Runs and hides from MyFico kneebreakers***

"Ha, too late Mr SnackTrader. That sort of commie nonsense comes from someone who is ashamed of their FICO (TM) score and wants to pretend it doesn't matter! We're here to help you see the error of your ways" <evil laugh and evil baseball bats>

And I agree, way too much emphasis on score and how to optimize, but to be fair that does help people get credit cards that also rely heavily on scores.

Re: I really wish...

chwebb1 — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 00:12:58 GMT

@SnackTrader wrote:

Now, here is my completely unrelated rant: These forums and the world in general put a much higher emphasis on a score than what goes into the actual report. It is well established that not all 800 or 720 or 640 scores are alike. Some of this was already discussed in this thread (DTI, type of employment, etc). At the end of the day, I have very little interest in my actual score because I do everything that I can be to be creditworthy. I do understand, however, that these forums are hosted by a scoring company, and that a number is much easier for most people to understand than the details of their actual report. So perhaps instead THAT is what we should change about the credit culture of our nation.

+1.

Re: I really wish...

longtime_lurker — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 00:46:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@SnackTrader wrote:
Now, here is my completely unrelated rant: These forums and the world in general put a much higher emphasis on a score than what goes into the actual report. It is well established that not all 800 or 720 or 640 scores are alike. Some of this was already discussed in this thread (DTI, type of employment, etc). At the end of the day, I have very little interest in my actual score because I do everything that I can be to be creditworthy. I do understand, however, that these forums are hosted by a scoring company, and that a number is much easier for most people to understand than the details of their actual report. So perhaps instead THAT is what we should change about the credit culture of our nation.
My wish is that society develops a way to help people become more credit literate earlier in life. I think it would support economic growth and lead to significantly less dependence on credit scoring.
***Runs and hides from MyFico kneebreakers***
"Ha, too late Mr SnackTrader. That sort of commie nonsense comes from someone who is ashamed of their FICO (TM) score and wants to pretend it doesn't matter! We're here to help you see the error of your ways" <evil laugh and evil baseball bats>

And I agree, way too much emphasis on score and how to optimize, but to be fair that does help people get credit cards that also rely heavily on scores.

Hehehehe +1

Re: I really wish...

SnackTrader — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 02:13:16 GMT

Since when are there two longtimelurkers?!?!?

Re: I really wish...

longtime_lurker — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 02:38:58 GMT

@SnackTrader wrote:
Since when are there two longtimelurkers?!?!?

It's funny because I didn't know him before joining the forum, I swear.

That being said, he definitely says a few things I can agree with!

Re: I really wish...

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 02:58:33 GMT

@SnackTrader wrote:
Since when are there two longtimelurkers?!?!?

Apparently since 10-21-2013 or so!