PRESS QUERY: National monthly, score stories

[Scott Martin]

Hello --

 

I'm a journalist working on a scoring piece for a national monthly magazine. (Site owner invited me so this is not spam.) We're looking for short quotes from real people across the country on the areas of the credit score system that confuse/annoy you: fuzzy qualification targets, vague utilization ratio calculations on lines that don't report limits, treatment of retailer accounts, late reporting of payments, FAKEO versus FICO, that kind of thing.

 

We're also interested in getting your take on credit repair services, especially now that FICO 08 is out there, and on the various monitoring and other products the CRAs sell.

 

Very short quotes but it would give you a chance to tell the public what drives you crazy about scoring. We would need to publish name, town and occupation.

 

Please feel free to message or mail me through here. I have to say I'm blown away by what I've seen on this board and we'll definitely be citing it as the best resource on the Internet for the real dirt on scores.

 

Thanks,

 

Scott Martin

[DragonFlyer]

Hi Mr. Martin,

 

Thanks for your interest and for including our experiences/insight in your article. What is the best method to reach you for submissions?

[hegemony]

for some history you may want to look at this thread:

 

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=283515

[Scott Martin]

Thanks to all so far. I know plenty of journalists like to troll message boards for free insight, but this is one of those rare opportunities to attribute everything.

 

Divine DragonFlyer -- I think this site has usermail; anybody should feel free to drop me a note here or at robertscottmartin at gmail.

 

Hegemony -- thanks. Right now what FICO is telling me is that 08 won't have much of an impact except in terms of small baddies and the diminished impact of AU accounts. Is that the sense around here?

[hegemony]

Hegemony -- thanks. Right now what FICO is telling me is that 08 won't have much of an impact except in terms of small baddies and the diminished impact of AU accounts. Is that the sense around here?

 

mostly. Also keep in mind it may be a long time before many CREDIT card issuers use the new model since it is costly for them to transition as they need to conduct tests to see how it performs and relates to their internal models/scorecards.

 

Mortgage lenders may be more likely to adopt it ASAP since they are the ones that whined about AUs.

 

I am still skeptical that FIC has found a good way to live up to the spirit of the ECOA by including spousal AU tradelines while excluding non-spousal.

Edited June 17, 2009 by hegemony

[breeze]

bumpity

 

If you have insight you want to share, please help our newest friendly reporter out. This publication reaches a huge audience of people who need to know what we know.

[Scott Martin]

Hey Breeze -- thanks for the BUMP. The site gets a blurb either way, but this is also a chance for people to air their pet frustrations or clear up some of their most-hated urban legends. ("Dispute mills really work ... carrying a balance helps your score ... employers check your score.")

 

Hegemony, I hope everyone's singing your praises because otherwise you'd be an unsung genius. I suspect that since all the issuers are reworking their qual models now anyway, switching to 08 at the same time could either complicate or simplify the process, depending on how each bank's people decide to handle it. Interesting times....

[breeze]

^

[DragonFlyer]

Mr. Martin,

 

I know I already gave a list of "universal credit repair truths", but here's more (and hopefully others will add to it in the process):

 

99.4% of consumers have a moral compass that points North, even if their credit scores are heading South.

 

Bankruptcy isn't the end of the world; rather, it's a dawn of a new day.

 

Paying a charged-off account doesn't improve your score almost 99% of the time. A charge-off is a charge-off is a charge-off in the credit scoring algorithm.

 

Mortgage lenders know squat about credit repair. They just want your loan to pass their inspection.

 

A mortgage inquiry will bring collection companies out of the woodwork. They give life to "zombie" debts.

 

Never sign your letters to a collection agency. And never, ever, ever give them your social security number, phone number, or date of birth. If your account was complete enough to report to the bureaus, it’s good enough to find in their computers.

 

 

 

 

And I already gave you my favorite observation:

 

 

 

 

"Your credit report has more flaws than you ever had."

Edited June 18, 2009 by DragonFlyer

[Jen23514]

scott, I will contact you via gmail.

 

here are a few things I've written for CB: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showuser=23514

 

But I have a few thoughts I wouldn't mind sharing.

[thesaintly]

One of my largest complaints regarding FICO scoring is that if your balance reports as $5k, your utilization number will go up unconditionally. There needs to be more of an option for those who charge large balances and pay them off fairly quickly to be assessed differently than those who max out their cards and never make payments against the principal. Granted, you can pay prior to the statement cutting, but this is tricky if you have a lot of cards like most people.