subject: Do Criminals Have More Rights Than Someone With Credit Issues? [print this page] Do Criminals Have More Rights Than Someone With Credit Issues?
Over the years, Congress has passed several laws to safeguard consumers rights. The most commonly recognized is the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The object of this Act is to "assure accuracy and fairness of credit reporting." Credit Bureaus were given the job of assembling and assessing a customer credit and other info about consumers. This is to be done with fairness, impartiality and respect for the consumer's right to privacy.
The cards are stacked in favour of big business when it comes to credit related issues. For someone who is considering Do It Yourself Credit Repair, it is critical to have an appreciation of the law that Congress passed to protect the consumer.
A credit bureau is a for-profit company, which implies they are a business that expects to make a profit for its owners and/or investors. The Credit Bureaus compile and maintain files on consumers nationwide. They assemble, guage, maintain and furnish Consumer Reports to third parties with respect to a consumer's credit suitability, credit standing, or credit capacity. Their clients are banks, credit unions, retailers, firms, employers, collection firms, for example.
Do you see how this might be a conflict of interest? First off, the credit bureaus receive this info from their clients (i.e., Banks, for example), at face value, implying the information is deemed to be correct. They evaluate it, assign a value to it (credit score) and then sell this information to whoever has a legal right to get Consumer Reports. This exchange of information is done covertly and without any input whatsoever from the consumer. In reality, a consumer may be totally unaware that there's anything derogatory on their credit file till they make an application for a job or attempt to purchase an item using credit.
While a rapist is presumed innocent until proven guilty, a consumer is presumed guilty without one shred of evidence other than the creditor or collection company's word. The Credit Agency do not contact the consumer and ask for any information or proof prior to putting derogatory information on a person's credit report.
This is truly an uphill battle, especially for someone who is considering DIY credit repair. Many times, the only recourse is filing a lawsuit. Each year credit bureaus, creditors and collection companies are sued because of errors found on credit reports. While winning a legal action might be gratifying and will, at last, correct the record, the derogatory information remains on a person's credit report throughout the entire trial, which could be years.
Having prejudicial items on your credit report is, in essence, a 7 to 10 year sentence in today's version of "debtor's prison." What makes it worse you are automatically convicted without the benefit of a trial or any type of proceeding. With the downturn of the economy, many people, who are otherwise qualified, have lost job opportunities based solely on what is on their credit report. Is this really what Congress had in mind when they passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act?.
Shouldn't we be asking "why are the penalties for consumers crueler than for those given to {criminals|murderers|rapists"? Congress should be ashamed of itself!
