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Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

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Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#61

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #49
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you're rich. The normal rules don't really apply. Your poor credit sounds like my poor credit, but it has a pretty big impact on my life. You once mentioned you paid out of pocket to get your family member some kind of medical procedure. I think it was a CT scan? Anyone who can do that isn't really in the same class. Here's one way it matters: every year, your entire well-being is determined solely by your la…

Let me condense my last post down for you. 1. You're right, in the sense that most people on HN with an established career in technology are, relatively speaking, "rich". That was my point: if you're stably employed in technology, your credit score might matter less than you think it does. 2. You're wrong, in the sense that with the exception of the credit card anecdote, which I related as a way of demonstrating that…

[deleted]

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#62

Post by quadrangle »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28
tptacek wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a really excellent post, the best I've seen you write up this material, and among your top 5 posts ever. Having said that, I'm tentatively going to disagree. I made a conscious, somewhat coerced choice in my early 20s never to rely on revolving credit. A combination of random course-of-business (of course resolved) delinquencies and no history of revolving credit resulted in my having relatively poor credit.…

I mean, you're rich. The normal rules don't really apply. Your poor credit sounds like my poor credit, but it has a pretty big impact on my life. You once mentioned you paid out of pocket to get your family member some kind of medical procedure. I think it was a CT scan? Anyone who can do that isn't really in the same class. Here's one way it matters: every year, your entire well-being is determined solely by your la…

Although I agree with your point broadly, $3k on a laptop is either a business expense or a luxury. Furthermore, tons of non-rich people who do NOT have money to up and pay for expensive medical costs etc. can readily save up for an affordable laptop (you can get pretty decent second-hand for under $1k actually). People who don't have $800 or $500 lying around might sell some stuff on Craigslist or work a couple odd jobs and save it up.

To be clear: everyone should understand that it's MORE expensive to be poor than to be rich. The key is a BUFFER, just like the buffer loading a streaming video. Someone with a $2k buffer can weather most common issues that come up as long as they can fill the buffer up again each time it gets used. Someone with a $2k buffer is not a truly poor person who is in debt and gets payday loans or worries about whether they will eat, but a buffer like can be had WAY before you can be called "rich" (and some rich folks can be incompetent and not keep a good buffer).

The vast majority of people are in a position where they could keep some buffer if they learn to. The class difference here is whether or not someone gets the financial education to care about keeping a buffer.

But obviously, some items can come up and kill any normal person's modest buffer, and then things get painful. And the rest of your points about how the system works are valid.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#63

Post by forbiddenlake »

jaclaz wrote: post #22
lettergram wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a brief list of where I use credit cards (which I always pay off monthly): - Car payments (they let me use credit cards with no fee, >$9 / month rewards) - utilities ($1 fee, with >$1 rewards) - Food (>$20 / month rewards) - Gas (>$5 / month) There are more, but that's what $40 / month. If you then use a churning method to get more points, like opening a new card where you spend $4000 in three months get $500…

>There are more, but that's what $40 / month. Help me understand, US$ 40 in rewards agains a monthly spending of?

Assuming a good cash-back rate of 2%, $2000 spent on the credit card for $40 back.

The point being he's spending the $2000 anyway, so he'd rather get $40 back from his credit card company rather than $0 back if he used cash or debit.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#65

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #61
tptacek wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me condense my last post down for you. 1. You're right, in the sense that most people on HN with an established career in technology are, relatively speaking, "rich". That was my point: if you're stably employed in technology, your credit score might matter less than you think it does. 2. You're wrong, in the sense that with the exception of the credit card anecdote, which I related as a way of demonstrating that…

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#66

Post by quadrangle »

brndnmtthws wrote: post #51
quuquuquu wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to credit suisse, only 33m people in this world have 1m+ USD of assets. So, out of 3.5 billion adults in this world, only 0.7% have the ability to buy a home in a large city in cash. What, then, should the other 99.3% of people do?

Improve your skills, increase income, invest and save, live with roommates, learn that consumerism is programmed into people through TV ads and thus is completely unnecessary. Mr. Money Mustache[1] has been blogging about this for years, and it's a great place to start for people who don't understand personal finance. Also check out the personal finance[2] and financial independence[3] subreddits. [1]: https://www.mr…

Although that's all completely good advice for everyone, the facts on the ground are that we can't all be rich. The majority of rich people are the beneficiaries (either directly or indirectly) of an inherently exploitive system. A trivially small number of them actually added true wealth to the world equal to or greater than the wealth they've captured.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#67

Post by ams6110 »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28
tptacek wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a really excellent post, the best I've seen you write up this material, and among your top 5 posts ever. Having said that, I'm tentatively going to disagree. I made a conscious, somewhat coerced choice in my early 20s never to rely on revolving credit. A combination of random course-of-business (of course resolved) delinquencies and no history of revolving credit resulted in my having relatively poor credit.…

I mean, you're rich. The normal rules don't really apply. Your poor credit sounds like my poor credit, but it has a pretty big impact on my life. You once mentioned you paid out of pocket to get your family member some kind of medical procedure. I think it was a CT scan? Anyone who can do that isn't really in the same class. Here's one way it matters: every year, your entire well-being is determined solely by your la…

> It's AT&T. Call them up, ask for Internet. "No." "What do you mean 'no?'" "The system says 'unknown risk'.

That surprises me. I have relatives who have TERRIBLE credit. Reposessed cars, unemployed, a lifetime of poor financial decisions. They have had no trouble getting utilities or e.g. DirecTV service. They typically have to pay several months in advance as a "deposit" but they are not turned down flat.

Even "unknown risk" would be in the worst case approximately that. Doesn't seem to make sense.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#68

Post by g051051 »

weirdstuff wrote: post #56
g051051 wrote: post #48

Finally a breath of fresh air and reason amidst all of the fear mongering and anti-CRA FUD. The system isn't perfect, and consumers are definitely at risk...but it's far more important to really understand the relationship and interplay between CRAs and businesses in order to get a handle on the problems and work towards meaningful reform.

No, I think we need more FUD given what has just occurred. SSN and sensitive financial data of over half of U.S. adults obtained by criminals. Nice.

What "sensitive financial data"?

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#69

Post by tptacek »

ams6110 wrote: post #67
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you're rich. The normal rules don't really apply. Your poor credit sounds like my poor credit, but it has a pretty big impact on my life. You once mentioned you paid out of pocket to get your family member some kind of medical procedure. I think it was a CT scan? Anyone who can do that isn't really in the same class. Here's one way it matters: every year, your entire well-being is determined solely by your la…

> It's AT&T. Call them up, ask for Internet. "No." "What do you mean 'no?'" "The system says 'unknown risk'. That surprises me. I have relatives who have TERRIBLE credit. Reposessed cars, unemployed, a lifetime of poor financial decisions. They have had no trouble getting utilities or e.g. DirecTV service. They typically have to pay several months in advance as a "deposit" but they are not turned down flat. Even "unk…

I don't know if this is a late 201x thing, but over decades of having piss-poor credit and no funds with which to make advanced payments, I never once had a problem getting phone and Internet service. Renting cars? Yes. Needing to provide some extra documentation for landlords? Yes. Opening new checking accounts? Yes. Getting DSL or cable? Not once.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#70

Post by tertius »

quadrangle wrote: post #66
brndnmtthws wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Improve your skills, increase income, invest and save, live with roommates, learn that consumerism is programmed into people through TV ads and thus is completely unnecessary. Mr. Money Mustache[1] has been blogging about this for years, and it's a great place to start for people who don't understand personal finance. Also check out the personal finance[2] and financial independence[3] subreddits. [1]: https://www.mr…

Although that's all completely good advice for everyone , the facts on the ground are that we can't all be rich. The majority of rich people are the beneficiaries (either directly or indirectly) of an inherently exploitive system. A trivially small number of them actually added true wealth to the world equal to or greater than the wealth they've captured.

> the facts on the ground are that we can't all be rich

Yes but it's actually very doable and we can do it while adding value. Be the example that you don't believe exists.

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