The Way I See It

Today I am in an “everything sucks mood”. Let’s talk about two areas in today’s society. First, the lenders and then the politicians who sit back and do nothing about the lenders’ loan sharking habits.

Inquiries are exactly as they are described in the dictionary. A consumer wishes to learn about offers so they call or write one or more of the thousands of lenders out there to find out information. The lenders then tell the consumer they have to do a “soft” credit check which won’t affect their credit report. That is the first lie they tell you. Almost as soon as you hang up and recheck your 800 credit report number it has dropped to 770. And if they do a “hard” credit check it drops even further to perhaps 720 or worse. So you are already placed in a lowered rating category and there is the opening for the lenders opportunities to either raise the interest rate they charge or rescind their offer to you because of some bogus debt to ratio numbers. Not only had their claim to “ pre-approve you or already approve you” been the biggest bull crap line of the century but the humiliation a person feels for just inquiring in the first place dampens one morale and causes stress tenfold in their lives. Why? Cause you begin to realize how far it has come where Credit Reports and Lenders control your financial life. Unless you are rich, you are under their thumbs and like talented puppeteers they will pull your strings from here on end.

Okay let’s talk about our Representatives in Congress who make the laws for ALL the Nation’s lenders and credit reporting agencies. I have no interest in choosing political parties here. To me that plays no part since they all vote to make these legal loanshark practices available to lenders with the aid of the credit reporting agencies. This enemy of all consumers who do not happen to be rich are the puppeteers. Credit reporting agencies should be stripped of their power to lower the consumers credit worthiness based on inquiries whether soft or hard! I’m not talking about their use in showing lenders the honest actual debt to ratio numbers they crunch or the credit use of consumers. All that is in place to protect the lenders from getting bilked out of their funding. No, I am talking about the loan shark practices they have adapted which are compared to leg breaking within a week if the loan shark doesn’t get their money back. That is what I am comparing inquiries to. A consumer regardless of their credit standing should be allowed to inquire without being penalized for having their credit checked soft or hard! The final decisions to lend money is already in the hands of the lenders and accepting the terms offered is in the hands of the consumer. There are already legal steps in place that protect both the lender and the borrower, so the Credit Reporting agencies should have no control over that process! They are there to Report a person’s credit worthiness or not! Not raise or lower the numbers of that rating because of a soft or hard check by the lender! This form of control is loan sharking 101!

So consumer BEWARE! As innocent as you may think an inquiry is, it isn’t. Whether soft or hard it will hurt your credit rating! Please write to Reps like AOC or Elizabeth Warren (although I disagree with them on most everything) I think one or both of them would pick up the gauntlet thrown down by the innocent consumers against the loan sharks in the credit reporting agencies. Try to accept that no matter how hard you try to live in a cash only world unless you make a six figure salary, you will never get ahead of credit……that is never gonna happen! I can’t even get started on retired folks who live on limited incomes and no savings to fall back on! In today’s world most retired folks are one doorway away from homelessness. Medical costs alone are destroying them, but that is a whole other blog!

And that is the way I see it here in Jackson!

K