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The creditbureaus love the fact that the average consumer knows very little aboutthem.? All consumers really know is thatcredit bureaus have major power and control over their financial lives.? Would you agree that this is true?? If so, why don’t we know more about them?
I don’tknow about you, but when I went to apply for my first loan, I didn’t knowanything about them.? But, I quicklyfound out that they were the ones I needed to contact when I got declined.? I was told by the bank to contact them to seewhy I was declined.? Like so many otherconsumers, I just figured it was a government agency that kept private recordsof everyone’s financial information. Yearslater, I found out that wasn’t the case at all.?Credit bureaus (also known as consumer reporting agencies and creditreporting agencies) are for profit, private companies.? How do they profit?? They sell your private information.? Do you remember giving them permission tosell your private information?? I don’teither.? The truthis most Americans are completely unaware of their rights when it comes to theircredit reports and what is being sold, who it’s being sold to and what can andcan’t be reported…and that’s EXACTLY how the credit bureaus like it.? Let me tell you why. When youdispute information on your credit reports, by law, the credit bureaus mustrespond within 30 days.? That means thatthey must hire employees to deal with such disputes.? The more disputes they get, the moreemployees they must hire.? Since it isfree to dispute accounts, this cuts into their profits.? That doesn’t make them very happy at all. They wouldprefer that you just accept what is reported and go on with your life payinghigh interest rates and getting denied credit.?In fact, when you do try to dispute, they make it as difficult aspossible. They use every technique within the law (and many times outside ofthe law) to stall, confuse and discourage you from ever contacting them. Statisticsshow that over 79% of consumer credit reports contained errors or mistakes. Canyou imagine if even half of them took advantage of their federal rights anddisputed items on their credit report??That would cost the credit bureaus a lot of money.? But, best of all and even more important, itwould save consumers millions of dollars.?As you can see, the banks would prefer that you weren’t aware of theserights either.? Smart consumers pay lowinterest rates and that’s just not profitable for lenders or consumer reportingagencies. |
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