FA_Q2
Gold Member
Is it a "failure" if you or your wife gets cancer and have no insurance, Bern80? You have this fixed idea that discriminating against people with bad credit will benefit you by eliminating competition for jobs, etc., that you would have had to face otherwise.
Of course not. But just as I can't assume every single person with bad credit did it to themselves, YOU can't assume the opposite, that everyone with bad credit is blameless in it becoming that way. Unfortuantely I have observed enough people and their spending habits and have enough just plain common sense to know that in terms of the majority of cases it is the result of irresponsible money management on the part of the individual.
Instead, he is asking that you set aside the question of how this will affect you personally and ponder, is this good for my country? Is making upward mobility virtually impossible "good for America" or not IYO, Bern?
And I am asking WHO is really making the upward mobility difficult? This goes back to what I said before. If you want society to work they way you want it to, the first thing you need to do is make yourself personally accountable for your outcomes. Is upward mobility difficult because of something someone is doing to you or is it difficult because of something you are doing to yourself? Yes credit scores can be ruined through events you have no control over but that happens a) less than people want to admit because most don't admit how much control they really do have and b) that simply isn't reality in terms of what causes a bad credit score. People with bad credit scores generally have bad credit scores because they suck at handling money. That makes perfect sense because personal money mangement isn't taught in school and most parents don't teach it to their kids.
So my answer to your questin above is 'it depends'....on who is making it difficult. Is someone else really making it difficult for you? or did you do it to yourself? Where credit scores are concerned most people did it to themselves, thus they have no right to blame anyone else for opportunities denied to them as a result.
IMO, it sucks and should be illegal. And just for emphasis, I am not referring to relying on credit reports to decide who to lend money to....I am referring to using that data to decide who to give a job to, who to insure, etc.
Again I ask how often is this really happening? And isn't the reason you would be denied a loan on the basis of credit the same reason you might be denied a job on the basis of bad credit? Put yourself in the shoes of an employer trying to hire someone. You would have to be an idiot to think you are going to get the unvarnished truth about a potential applicant straight from their mouth. You think they would really let you know if they are not dependable. So what's an employer to do? They get opinions and information about the candidate from other places. They check references, past employers, and yes maybe your credit score. If you have a bad credit score of your own making I imagine that might be pertinant information to an employer because it tells them you have responsibility isssues. Saying it should be illegal to check credit is like saying it should be illegal to contact our previous employers about your job performance. I guess employers are just suppossed to hire you and pray to god your telling the truth right?
I would add that people here seem to misunderstand the concept of responsibility. Responsibility is NOT fault. They are two completely different things. There are many things in this world that I am responsible for managing or changing that I may not have any fault in creating. that does not change where the responsibility lies or the fact that you need to deal with your own responsibilities. Face it, YOU have the power to change your credit and if you are too lazy to effect that change you have ZERO grounds to restrict my rights.