[creditwrench newsletter] New Post/Thread Notification: ASK AN ATTORNEY

Hello,

Creditwrench has just posted in the ASK AN ATTORNEY forum of CreditWrench under the title of credit law network.

This thread is located at http://www.creditwrench.com/consumers/showthread.php?t=3664

Here is the message that has just been posted:
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Credit scores are the driving force of consumer finance.* And consumer finance is the driving force of our economy.* But obsessing over your score can be time-consuming and unrewarding.* Your credit score (http://www.creditlawnetwork.com/what-is-my-credit-score/) says nothing about you as a person.
I spoke with a young woman a few months ago who was upset with a credit card lender that had reported her late payment.* It hurt her credit score.* I asked her if she had been applying for a loan or other credit?* No.* Had her interest rate increased or had any other loan rates increased?* No. * Did she anticipate applying for any new loans or credit in the next few years?* Not really.* Had she actually been late with the payment?* Yes, although she subsequently paid off the entire balance owed.
As a consumer lawyer, I hear from people fairly regularly who are hurt by poor credit reporting.* So in this case, it took a moment to realize my potential client had not really been harmed at all.* Her score had dropped a few points, that was true.* However, the score was not relevant to anything she needed or wanted and no one else knew.
But in a more profound way, she was hurt.* Not in a legal sense, but psychologically.* She had completely absorbed the credit industry's viewpoint that a credit score defines who you are, and how good a person you are.* To her — and to millions of Americans — a credit score defines self-worth.* Obsession with credit or debt can become dangerous or tragic (http://www.debtlawnetwork.com/debt-and-suicide/).
Don't be fooled.* Your credit score doesn't define who you are.* It is not a value judgment.* You are not a better or worse person based on your payment history with Visa!* A credit score is only a crude backward-looking estimation of your credit risk probabilities, nothing more.
I had a short discussion about this with the young woman on the phone.* Later I received a very sweet thank you card from her.* She had begun to see that she had never really thought about what her credit score meant but had allowed monitoring it, feeding it, making it happy to become a small obsession.* Getting past it was a liberating experience for her.
Don't get me wrong, credit scores are important and influence far too many (http://toughmoneylove.com/2008/08/07/my-campaign-against-credit-score-obsession-part-1/)financial transactions these days.* They just aren't everything.
*If you liked that post, then try these...*

Test Your Credit Knowledge (http://www.creditlawnetwork.com/test-your-credit-knowledge/) by Stephen Otto, Pittsburgh Consumer Attorney
Really Free Year Round Credit Report (http://www.creditlawnetwork.com/really-free-year-round-credit-report/) by Andy Miofsky, Illinois Consumer Law Attorney
Is Suze Orman The Light Of Your Financial Future? (http://www.creditlawnetwork.com/is-suze-orman-the-light-of-your-financial-future/) by Rachel Lynn Foley, Kansas City Missouri Consumer Attorney

More... (http://www.creditlawnetwork.com/feed/)
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