Credit-reporting business is ruining America

2-7-2009 National:

The new administration might have thought the right thing to do was to “hit the ground running.” The only ground that was hit was comprised of the collective bodies of the population as they were pounded economically and emotionally downward by elitist leaders who do not live in the real world.

Someone in Washington, D.C., should stop, look and listen to the victims who are supposed to be the basis of democracy and power: We the people.

So far, the new administration has succeeded only in missing the opportunity to exact accountability from financial giants, derailing the possibility for change so ardently promised.

Change cannot begin until someone breaks the stranglehold of credit-reporting businesses on our society. They are the largest purveyors-for-pay of confidential information and the greatest risk to national security and privacy in the nation, trumping the FBI and the CIA with lack of oversight.

They make money, first by charging financial institutions to participate in data collection and sharing, then by assessing the victims (us) for reports; by negotiating the fate of the victims (us) with so-called credit counseling and bankruptcy lawyers and organizations.

They fuel their not-so-distant cousins, collection agencies, as the basis for usurious credit-card rates and provide excuses for a variety of consumer overcharges. Even the government Web site to which people in danger of foreclosure are directed contains an up-front disclaimer as to absence of HUD responsibility and liability involving the performance of another industry the reporting services helped to create, the credit counseling firms listed as “resources.”

The practices of credit-reporting bureaus should be audited and their powers limited, even outlawed. They gather and release information on everything from health care to utility payment lateness without regard to the accuracy of information or extenuating circumstances. They further profit because consumers are forced to pay fees to view and track their own information.

The process of correcting erroneous information is daunting, so much so it is often necessary to pay a lawyer or other advocate in order to rectify or expunge data.

Credit reporters have spawned an entire industry under an often-shady umbrella of debt relief. When an entity becomes so powerful people must engage the services of a third party to negotiate the terms of their credit reputation, something is radically wrong. Credit-reporting companies seldom, if ever, will negotiate directly with the client, referring them to equally uncooperative credit-card companies.

It should be criminal to base insurance rates, credit-card rates, jobs, loans, and other life-altering circumstances on the basis of one’s credit score.

The fine print on the signatory portion of an employment application should not be allowed to contain language that permits a credit-history check. The inference is if one does not pay bills on time, he or she is dishonest or more likely to steal from an employer.

Criminal-background checks might be warranted for some occupations, but a credit check only provides another opportunity for job discrimination against protected classes and an already economically compromised population.

What good will it do to create 500, 5,000 or even five million jobs for people who have been unable to pay bills, many of whom have been in foreclosure, if they can be denied employment based on their sure-to-be-negative credit reports?

Why have all bailouts been targeted to the top of the financial pyramid without demanding full audit and demonstration of good faith from lenders? They should be required to provide examples of outcomes for the mortgage victims they should have already helped with monies already “donated.”

Shouldn’t any future “help” be based on performance by the Citis and Bank of Americas of the world? What about the credit-card interest rates they have been allowed to exploit that helped drive people to the edge of economic destruction in the first place, rates upwards of 29 percent? The fines, penalties and fees involved in pre-foreclosures and credit-card assessments often exceed actual goods purchased by victims.

Why are credit companies and other institutions not required to give back some of the fruits of their usurious rates and — relieving borrowers of payments for six months or more to allow them time to take advantage of the jobs that are promised?

Banks and other lenders now can enjoy borrowing at interest rates of less than 1 percent and already have received bailout funds.

Why are they not forced to pass part of the bargain on to those trying so desperately to hold onto shelter and provide food for their families?

Surely lenders could still make a profit at a 3 percent rate, extending mortgages to a term of as many 40 years rather than the current maximum of 30.

Doesn’t it seem more economically feasible to help people with thousands in mortgage payments, just as with Section 8 housing, through the “rough spots,” rather than foreclosing and attempting to find eligible new buyers for several-hundred-thousand-dollar vacant homes?

I trust someone in our security administration is tracking how many foreign interests are purchasing distressed homes and businesses. Many of the banks have already been taken over by other countries, and our international indebtedness has been well-documented and publicized. We might not need a war to lose our country.

Just as early settlers purchased Manhattan from the Indians at bargain basement prices, depriving Indians of their land, the wholesale purchase of our real estate, our very geography by foreigners, will effectively steal America from Americans.

It will be interesting to see what kind of change the Obama administration ultimately renders: Deliverance from the ground up, or more abysmal economic, social and occupational enslavement from the top. ..News Source.. by NANCY WALTZ Times Guest Columnist