Submitted by T, Aug 12, 2008 10:49

This was a great article, no doubt, and I completely agree with many business leaders out there that Fair Isaac has been overused and even "used against" people that are at a subprime level. I feel that there should be a system in place at Fair Isaac that does automatic verifications of late payment marks and any other derogative material on a credit report and then sends immediate results to you. That is in light of millions of people always disputing information and never seeming to get anywhere.

I feel more should be done on the lenders and credit bureau parts side so that consumers won't have to do as much. Seriously, if a person goes 30 days without payment, they should receive in the mail three letters or at least an e-notification from all three bureaus indicating the date and time the 30 days was submitted and processed as well as a letter from the lender indicating when they will file this late notice with the bureaus. Though it will require more effort on their part, it keeps inaccuracies down and everyone is without excuse (especially if it is accurate).

Then on top of that, there should be a given window of time before the late payment is official and in the system to allow consumers one more opportunity to pay what is owed with interest. That would cut down on a lot of this bad credit foolishness. Or....just simply get rid of credit scores altogether because as we've read in this article, it's a mess.

The fact remains that America is in a credit crisis, and there simply needs to be a structured and well thought-out plan to rescue this economy from where it is right now. VantageScore seems promising but in the end, I'm afraid may end up being just a brutal as FICO. Lenders should also consider wiping clean certain customers' bad records with them (more often) to not only take so many bad accounts out of their system, cut back on dispute claims, and to let customers know: "Hey, you made some mistakes, fell on hard times, or just was flat out irresponsible....so instead of destroying your name, we'll cut your limit down, slap some hard fees on you, and raise your interest...all the while hesitating on touching your credit report." If this were to happen more often, companies could keep internal records of late payers (sort of like First Premier Bank), but still maintain the integrity of your credit report by not reporting it. But yes, FICO has created one hell of a mess out there and needs to seriously revamp everything.

Some with decent credit scores or excellent credit of course wouldn't have a problem with it, but it does allow lenders working with companies to be close to discriminatory towards someone because of their low credit rating. It's almost equivalent to someone kicking you out of a store because of your sexual orientation or ethnicity. It's sad, and though not everyone will agree with that, I feel that companies often mistreat people like subprime scores. Something should be done about it.

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