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The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#211

Post by agentdrtran »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #208
superuser2 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you propose?

I'm not sure I really propose anything, it's a hard problem. Maybe a more decentralized web-of-trust like identity system would be a good long-term goal? As for authenticating orders to your bank: You should be able to use any compatible product/software you like to sign orders to your bank with your private key. The bank should not have the ability to fake orders to themselves (see also the Wells-Fargo fiasco).

> You should be able to use any compatible product/software you like to sign orders to your bank with your private key.

If a .gov smartcards are a pipe dream, this is a pipedream^10. Private companies will throw a fit if they can't lock people in.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#212

Post by nickpsecurity »

tedunangst wrote: post #143
ThomPete wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absurdly backwards because it's asking you to create debt which normally is the opposite of showing you are good with money and I would question the validity of seeing people paying back limited debt to be indicative of ex. borrowing for a house. You could instead just look at the history of their debit card usage to figure out whether they are trustworthy. As I said though I understand why they do it, it's just…

The trust by default model was tried with driver's licenses. Give one to everybody. Result: lots of accidents. Most states have now switched policies and require a year of driving with a provisional license. Result: fewer accidents. If we want to avoid debt "accidents", only letting people with demonstrated experience seems like a good solution.

I didn't even hear about that. That's interesting. It reminds me of what we used to joke as solution to reduce malware and bots on the net: license for using a computer online for at least basic, precautionary measures with disconnects or something like that if they do dumb things. Congress still not taking action on that but I'm glad situation with driving improved.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#214

Post by mng2 »

codegeek wrote: post #17

Some steps to monitor your credit (USA): 1. Signup for https://www.creditkarma.com . Yes, you can argue about giving your credentials to a 3rd party company and they show you ads but credit karma sends me real time activity on my credit report FOR FREE. I get offers etc but I am happy since I can keep an eye on my credit report from all agencies. (except Experian who want you to pay them for report). 2. Get a free cr…

I have calendar reminders set four months apart to get and review credit reports, going round-robin through credit agencies. This gets me a (free) credit report 3 times a year.

I have a Citi Doublecash with no annual fee and they provide a credit score. Been with them for many years though so your eligibility may vary.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#215

Post by morgante »

hellogoodbyeeee wrote: post #137
superuser2 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you are trusted by definition I felt pretty "trusted by definition." Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. A few years later I had an $8,000 limit card and a $10,000 limit card. I bought my car certified-pre-owned under a program that writes favorable low-cost loans to recent college graduates with no or limited credit history (with an offer letter or paystubs). You just aren't truste…

It sounds like you are at least ten years out of college. Federal regulations have changed and now it is more difficult for a college student to access credit cards

I'm a recent college graduate. It's, frankly, ridiculously easy to build up an excellent credit score. Just open up a credit card (any card, even a secured one) and consistently pay it off every month.

At this point, I have enough credit from credit cards alone to buy a small house.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#216

Post by superuser2 »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #208
superuser2 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you propose?

I'm not sure I really propose anything, it's a hard problem. Maybe a more decentralized web-of-trust like identity system would be a good long-term goal? As for authenticating orders to your bank: You should be able to use any compatible product/software you like to sign orders to your bank with your private key. The bank should not have the ability to fake orders to themselves (see also the Wells-Fargo fiasco).

>web-of-trust like identity system

The most important thing about a government-level identity system is extreme difficulty of obtaining any identity other than the one you were born with. It seems inevitable in a web of trust that fraud rings would emerge to manufacture identities for those looking to escape debts, criminal convictions, etc by some combination of tricking and bribing people to sign authentications.

>You should be able to use any compatible product/software you like to sign orders to your bank with your private key

I'm not sure you should be able to use, say, a poorly written IE extension on your unpatched Windows XP machine. Something federated would be great, where any manufacturer can technically make something compatible, but it has to meet a FIPS standard or something.

Keys could be generated onboard, and then you upload your public key or something.

We're getting way ahead of ourselves - banks are extremely hesitant to use anything better than secret numbers. I'd rather a shitty 2FA implementation than that.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#217

Post by yason »

popmystack wrote: post #155
superuser2 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you are trusted by definition I felt pretty "trusted by definition." Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. A few years later I had an $8,000 limit card and a $10,000 limit card. I bought my car certified-pre-owned under a program that writes favorable low-cost loans to recent college graduates with no or limited credit history (with an offer letter or paystubs). You just aren't truste…

>Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. How old are you? Just a few years ago, despite making a very decent amount of money and having no marks on my credit, it took an entire year for me to get a credit card. Reason: lack of credit history. A lot of people have similar stories. >This depends on your definitions a little bit. The part where you spend money that isn't yours and then pay…

I have a about $90k~ worth of available credit to me on my CC's alone.

How many cards do you have? I understand it's mostly theoretical but I'm wondering why would anyone want to use their high-interest credit card to borrow even a few tens of thousands? Or any high-interest vehicle of debt for that much money, for that matter.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#218

Post by ThomPete »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #197
ThomPete wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and your parents history in the US in general can have a an affect on whether you can convince a bank to give you a credit card or not not on the credit score. I am not talking about credit card history but about history of being a US citizen, having a bank account etc. I think a lot here are missing the point. The question is not about your credit score but about getting the credit card to begin with. Once you g…

Ok, here is the thing. Your parents credit score doesn't affect yours. At all. IT doesn't help you get a credit card, nor bank accounts. Unless: Someone has them cosign for a loan or credit card. This is somewhat common with a first car loan or some student loans, but less common with credit cards. They won't be able to do that if they have a low score. Otherwise, you are basically on your own. The credit stuff you w…

You are talking about two different things.

With regards to credit score, of course, I never said it did.

With regards to getting a first credit card thats simply not true. Maybe if you go into a bank and open an account but if you have had a relationship with that bank for several years it is going to help you get one to begin with. Of course it helps you if you have had a history with the bank. And of course there are americans who can't just get a credit card thats still not what I am talking about.

I know plenty of 18 year olds who never had to deal with what I had and no matter what it doesn't really change anything from my original claim which is that the US credit history system is built on distrust not trust.

Citibank offers customers credit cards based on how much they have on their savings account. So it's simply not true that history doesn't help. Of course it does as it should.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#219

Post by superuser2 »

popmystack wrote: post #155
superuser2 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you are trusted by definition I felt pretty "trusted by definition." Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. A few years later I had an $8,000 limit card and a $10,000 limit card. I bought my car certified-pre-owned under a program that writes favorable low-cost loans to recent college graduates with no or limited credit history (with an offer letter or paystubs). You just aren't truste…

>Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. How old are you? Just a few years ago, despite making a very decent amount of money and having no marks on my credit, it took an entire year for me to get a credit card. Reason: lack of credit history. A lot of people have similar stories. >This depends on your definitions a little bit. The part where you spend money that isn't yours and then pay…

>Credit card management has no indication how I'll manage a loan (whether a house or car) due to the nature of spending and utilization

I think the actuary-types who design the scoring models would disagree vehemently with this one. Scoring models are built from regressions on actual default rates.

Re: The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

#220

Post by superuser2 »

makmanalp wrote: post #203
popmystack wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. How old are you? Just a few years ago, despite making a very decent amount of money and having no marks on my credit, it took an entire year for me to get a credit card. Reason: lack of credit history. A lot of people have similar stories. >This depends on your definitions a little bit. The part where you spend money that isn't yours and then pay…

> Prevent landlords from pulling credit history. I never understood this - why is someone else asking for your credit history a ding on your credit report? It seems really silly to me, but I must be missing something.

Each individual inquiry has a tiny effect. The point is that lots of inquiries indicate you are desperate for credit, and people who try to get a lot of credit at once are much more likely to default on it.
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