Now really I have no problem with actual credit reports, but credit recording or the use of that credit record against it’s owner has gotten to be down right criminal. I am not sure where at along the way in my life I authorized complete strangers to tally personal information about me and then sell it to other complete strangers for a profit, but it must have happen based on the simple fact that I have a credit record like most adult’s in our society. I say I must have signed something or agreed to it somewhere unknowingly because it would seem downright wrong for this to transpire without one’s permission.

I guess that first time I got a product that required a monthly payment or borrowed that first bit of money, I unknowingly gave my permissions for this atrocity to begin. I completely understand that some sort of track record has to be established to inform lenders of the level of risk involved when dealing with any particular individual, but why am I not allowed to see this personal information that has been tallied on my without having to pay for it? Of course you can now get one free credit report a year, but this credit report conveniently leaves out the most important part, the credit score! This all important score is the data that all lenders and creditors use to decide whether to do business with you at all and what kind of deal you will get if they decide to do business with you. The only time the actual information in a credit report is even looked at is when you (or possibly someone else) is trying to figure out why the credit score is so bad. Why is it that the lower your score is, the higher your interest becomes? Don’t you think that giving someone, who is already struggling, a much higher interest rate would make it even more difficult for them to clean up their credit by making timely payments? Our society is suffering big time right now because of fraudulent business practices such as this relating to the housing market.

Credit reporting has become the favorite tool of the unscrupulous these days to extort money out of individuals who, most of the time, does not owe the money or are not aware of the charge. If you try to challenge an incorrect billing these days you are instantly greeted with some jackass on the other end of the phone who wants to make it clear that they will report your non payment to the credit agencies so your financial life can take a hit for the next five to seven years all because of some stupid $60.00 charge to the phone company that you feel you do not owe. These kind of Gestapo tactics have got to be stopped.

Last year I moved out of an apartment complex in Ann Arbor Michigan called lake Village of Ann Arbor. I left 2 months before my lease was up but had worked out a deal where I agreed to turn in my keys and allow them to try and rent the apartment out as soon as possible. If they found a tenant before my lease was up, I would not be responsible for the last month of rent and if they did not, then I would have to pay. I completely understand what I had agreed to and left all my contact information so they could get a hold of me if and when I needed to cover the last month of rent. Well I never received any correspondence from them after this so I naturally assumed that they had found a new tenant. Over a year later, I receive paperwork in the mail from a collection agency saying that my debt had been reported against my credit and turned over to a collections agency.

I immediately called the apartment complex to ask them why they had done this. I was told that they sent a letter to my address stating that they had not filled the apartment in time and that since they never received a response from me that their corporate policy was to basically sell my debt to a collections agency. Because that is how this all actually works. The collection agency pays a discounted amount for your debt and then they come after you for the full amount in order to make a profit. Now these people have absolutely no problem trashing you and your credit in any way they can along the way. They have built entire businesses around doing just that. So I explained to the folks at Lake Village that I had never received any letter stating that I owed anything and was fully expecting to and was actually surprised when I did not. I asked the lady on the phone to verify the address they had on record for me to see if it may have been a mixup with the postal service. The answer I got was baffling. I was told that since they did not have a forwarding address on record for me (the address that I had given them multiple times while moving out) that she was forced to send the letter to my address there at the apartment. What?!? They sent a notice to a location they know for a fact that I no longer occupied (because they had my keys that I had turned in) and were surprised to not get a response from me? Did this really just happen? Am I in the fu**ing twilight zone here? Are these people really that stupid? Apparently so. My response was that I would be happy to pay the last month of rent to them but I would never pay the collection agency a single dime on principal. We will see how that turns out.

The thing that I noticed while talking with the collections agency was the level of accusation in their tone and overall poor treatment. It was like I had just kicked their puppy or slapped their baby or something. You would have thought that I had burned these people personally when hearing the manner in which they dealt with me. It was actually quite offensive and made me want to reach through the damn phone and choke the life right out of them. Who do these people think they are? I was definitely guilty until proven innocent in their eyes. The sad thing is that this very thing happens to innocent people every day. Now granted, I actually did owe the money and would have been happy to pay it if I only knew about it. This is not the case with a lot of individuals. Some people are accused of owing money for a debt that is not even theirs. How are these large organizations like TransUnion and Equifax allowed to conduct business in this fashion? You would think that there would be some sort of government oversight or something when it comes to financially ruining peoples lives. Guess that is not too high up on the list of things the government cares to do.

To finish, I would love someone to please explain how too many inquiries in a certain time frame becomes a bad mark on your credit? How in the hell is this an indication of irresponsibility?

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