Honestly, isn't FICO absolutely worthless?

[Anonymous]

As a system, it seems to me that FICO is worthless.

Sure everyone uses it, but it's a poor system.

I have very little debt. I've never really been able to qualify for a credit card, because I didn't go to college. The credit card companies preyed on college kids as part of their growth market (before moving to senior citizens). So college kids could easily get credit cards without jobs. It didn't phase me, because I was working at NASA and could easily afford to pay cash for everything.

Fast forward. I still have a hard time with credit. I'm working to engineer a high credit score, by buying high limit secured cards so I can get real cards, so they can sit there and build a score. I have no real need for them, I make enough money to buy all my toys with cash. I don't think people should buy things they can't afford.

So recently I've been fighting this. I'm now giving money to the enemy, that is, companies like the credit reporting agencies and FI to clear up fraudulent entries from dishonest companies that are on my credit report. Information about me stored in a private database, where by access is sold, not really in my favor.

So this data is then used for computer models that supposedly average me with billions of other people into a simple risk model. But they don't really work. Look at all the pending bank failures of some of the biggest financial institutions in our country right now. They used computer models to mark to model their garbage loans, and rip off investors who were foolish. And the home sales are often based on similar garbage market values based on computer models of sales prices, which half the time are from fraudulent sales or gamblers who are going to loose their homes after the teaser rates adjust.

So here I am, fighting this worthless system. I apply for credit cards to build a credit score, and get denied. They don't really ask or care how much money I make. They don't care that I have very little bills. It counts for nothing that I try to save $2500 every month. They just use the FICO score. Upon getting denied, I get a wonderful letter that says "Try getting more credit cards." Genius.

My only real reason for working on my credit score is I believe that in a few years the chances are high that it will require a 20% down payment to buy a house, and I want to engineer my score so that with a nice huge down payment I can buy a home at 50% or less of current market value, which will be where the market value should be once you remove all the fraud, teaser rates, and scum from the market. That is, if I still have a job.

So looking at FICO, and how it totally misjudges me, and I have to fight these credit reporting agencies on inaccuracies... one has to ask... why? It isn't a very good system. But I guess everyone will realize that in a few years when everything has fallen apart over the fraud from the people running the current financial system.

[marty56]

You dont need to go to college to get credit.  DW is from Korea, doesnt even have a GED as worked hard here for 18 years and has scores in the mid 720s with no help from anyone.  All before she meet me.

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, bubbleboy, welcome to the forums! I'm sure that you saw this message over on the side of the list of boards:

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myFICO® provides these Forums as an educational and entertaining platform for people to share their credit knowledge and personal financial experiences with other members of this online community. Please be friendly and supportive!

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We love good arguments around here, and we don't necessarily always keep the tone to that of an afternoon tea party, but we do ask that they remain reasonable in tone and don't degenerate into endless rants.

If you are genuinely trying to get into this fun little world of credit, go to a credit union, where they will probably pour love all over you. Credit unions are more about the people than about the scores.

And as marty said, not going to college did not shut you out of credit. If anything, a lot of people here ruined their credit because they accepted those cards while students, ran them up, and didn't pay them off.

If for some reason you chose at some point to live off the grid, that's fine. But it's hardly the fault of the system, creaky and unwieldy as it is. As I always say, credit scoring is a game, but it is a game that influences a large part of our lives, so if you want to have some control in it, you might as well learn the rules and jump in.

[Anonymous]

HTSP  Ditto to everything you wrote.

By the way, bubbleboy, you claim to have fraudulent info in your credit file.  I certainly know about fraudulent info.  My identity was stolen back in 1999.  I had fraudulent charges on a credit card and a new credit card opened in my name.  If you truly have fraudulent info on your reports, it CAN be corrected...  File a police report, and contact the fraud division of the three bureaus.  Check out the FTC web site. No trace of ID theft on my report after a few months of correspondence.  If it is truly fraudulent, YOU have the power to correct it.

[Anonymous]

This isn't a case of stolen info. I tried to switch from Verizon to Vonage a few years ago. Upon handling the Verizon side, Verizon did very very heavy handed sales tactics trying to get me to not leave. I still wanted to move to Vonage so I could use the service with an open source phone system platform that Verizon wouldn't support. I paid Vonage, initated the transfer and verizon held up the switch for months. So I reported Verizon to the FCC, and in the end thought it was all ended. I lost my phone numbers, and had some financial loss (paid early to terminate the Vonage service). Years later I found out that they had put it on my credit report, and kept turning me in for "120 day lates" ... even though I never heard from them or the collections company they sold the so-called debt to. The first time I ever heard anything when was when I filed a dispute over the entry on my report... then a bill shows up about a month later. Verizon/Penn Credit needs to be totally removed. I've started writing all the letters, but it would be great if I could sue for damages (Aka, the time involved in dealing with it). I'm also thinking about going to the gov't again regarding Verizon. There are now laws in place that make what they did totally illegal (I'm 100% sure it was an anti-competitive action). Oh well.

[Anonymous]

This is America - nothing says you can not attempt to sue them for damages. 

If you have all the paper trail to back-up what you have stated-

May want to try a free consult with an lawyer- naca.net

[Anonymous]

I love it when people come on here to rant about how THEY do things and then get broken down! I received my first CC at 19, and I was not in college, so your theory is already faulty. If feel u like Verizon did you wrong, you should eat, sleep and breathe Verizon until it is removed.

Message Edited by jaybee on 01-01-2008 12:25 PM

Message Edited by jaybee on 01-01-2008 12:56 PM

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it's a bogus system. Learn how to manipulate it in your favor instead of complaining about it.

Manipulating your score = Value Added to you

Complaining about it = No result, you'll still be cheated.

Message Edited by fail2deliver on 01-01-2008 12:36 PM

[Anonymous]

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bubbleboy wrote:

I've never really been able to qualify for a credit card, because I didn't go to college.

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I stopped reading after I saw this line.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've never really been able to qualify for a credit card, because I didn't go to college.

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I stopped reading after I saw this line.

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Funny, I should have too but as I said I love these kinds of posts, and I am nosey!