Our mission is to get Congress to realize the detrimental affect that the so called "Fair" Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has on EACH AND EVERY AMERICAN and their credit reports. This unethical and poorly written law treats everyone un-fairly and needs to be amended before it does any more damage to the financial fabric of our great country.
We teach our children to accept responsibility for their actions and be responsible citizens. Meanwhile the UN-Fair Credit Reporting Act does the opposite. Yes, it's true, the UN-FCRA undermines our society and punishes anyone who accepts responsibility for their debts with an additional 7 year negative credit report.
A 7 year penalty is completely understandable if someone ignores their debt responsibilities. That seems fair, it you ignore your responsibility to pay off your debts and the longest you can be punished is 7 years. That is a stiff, but fair penalty. That's not the problem....
The problem is, Congress has passed this UN-FCRA law that allows honest people who actually pay off a debt to be punished for as long as 20 years! Yes, your credit report could have a negative notation for as long as 20 years if you "do the right thing". Why accept responsibility if you are going to be punished for doing it? For this very reason, every aspect of the American credit system is being destroyed.
Ignore your responsibilities and the punishment = 7 years
Accept responsibility for your debts and the punishment = up to 20 years!!
What is "fair" about that? Yes, you read it correctly, under the current UN-Fair Credit Reporting Act law, responsible citizens get as much as 13 years more punishment via a negative credit report than people who simply walk away and ignore their debts.
We believe that people should be treated fairly and that the punishment should fit the credit infraction.
Currently the UN-FCRA gives everyone a blanket minimum 7 year penalty no matter what the infraction. No other law in this great Country has a blanket "one size fits all" penalty except the un-FCRA. Congress has decided that everyone should be punished for 7 years and that a computer, using "a complicated logarithmic formula" (instead of common sense), should make everything fair.
If a computer is so accurate about making penalty decisions that affect our personal lives then why do we have judges? Why not just let a computer give everyone a blanket sentence no matter what the infraction? Well, that's exactly what the UN-Fair Credit Reporting Act does to each one of you and your credit report each and every day. Does that sound "fair" to you?
We believe that people should be responsible for their debts. We also believe that people should be given fair incentive to accept responsibility for their bad debts. Right now the UN-FCRA removes all incentive and penalizes anyone who accepts responsibility for their debts by adding on 7 years of negative credit reporting after you have paid the debt in full. That's the opposite of incentive.
We believe that people who are unemployed, suffer from an illness, suffer the death of a spouse or are in an accident should be able to get "pardoned" from credit penalty if they prove that they can make regular payments. Why not? Aren't we supposed to be responsible? As it the un-FCRA is currently written there is no consideration for anything that happens to ordinary people. Every misfortune is overlooked and good people are punished with 7 years of bad credit for simply suffering a normal human misfortune.
There is very little that is "fair" about the poorly written Fair Credit Reporting Act and it needs to be changed.
Note: While we don't necessarily approve of, or even agree with the tactics used by the three major credit bureaus, Trans Union, Equifax and Experian, they operate under the rules set forth by the Fair Credit Reporting Act as well as other Local, State and Federal laws. There are numerous smaller credit reporting agencies that also operate under these laws. The root of the problem is the FCRA. So, while we understand that many people feel frustration with these agencies/bureaus, please understand that blaming them for operating under the rules of this bad law, approved by Congress, will do no good. Change needs to come from our Senators and Representatives. A change needs to be made in the FCRA law and then these agencies will have to comply with the new law. Until then the focus needs to be on members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to make the change.
