Who REALLY runs your life.

[Taichiliberal]

Here's one to ponder: We've had all this conservative and libertarian clap trap about "big government" and "nanny states"....and how the free market and private enterprise can save us all.

Well, why aren't these folks raising hell about TRW like companies? You know, the folks who determine your credit rating and credit score? These folks are essentially acting like private detectives, who gather information on YOU that determines your financial status and future in this country. That means purchasing a home, apartment, credit card, and now even how you are evaluated in filling out a job application!

Currently, you can't do a damned thing is this country unless you have an optimum credit score or rating...all determined by private companies WITHOUT your knowledge or consent!

If the federal government ran such a program or office, you'd hear the wailing of protest from the Tea Party and Libertarians and current GOP conservatives to the moon! They would vilify EVERY Democrat, Liberal, Progressive and Independent who endorsed such thing.

But currently, not a peep is heard in the media (conservative or liberal) about this. Interesting.


*Note* TRW was a company that started this guff around 1965....they also have some heavy doings with the military and aerospace contracts. Since then, you have a multitude of similar companies that effect your life*

 

[canceled.2021.1]

Here's one to ponder: We've had all this conservative and libertarian clap trap about "big government" and "nanny states"....and how the free market and private enterprise can save us all.

Well, why aren't these folks raising hell about TRW like companies? You know, the folks who determine your credit rating and credit score? These folks are essentially acting like private detectives, who gather information on YOU that determines your financial status and future in this country. That means purchasing a home, apartment, credit card, and now even how you are evaluated in filling out a job application!

Currently, you can't do a damned thing is this country unless you have an optimum credit score or rating...all determined by private companies WITHOUT your knowledge or consent!

If the federal government ran such a program or office, you'd hear the wailing of protest from the Tea Party and Libertarians and current GOP conservatives to the moon! They would vilify EVERY Democrat, Liberal, Progressive and Independent who endorsed such thing.

But currently, not a peep is heard in the media (conservative or liberal) about this. Interesting.


*Note* TRW was a company that started this guff around 1965....they also have some heavy doings with the military and aerospace contracts. Since then, you have a multitude of similar companies that effect your life*

You are missing one salient point. You don't have to have a credit card. I don't even know what my FICO is. I don't care. I pay CASH for everything so they don't run my life. If you want a credit card and a good FICO score is the way to make that happen well the it is what it is.

Companies need a uniform way to determine credit risk. Cash is king therefore no risk ergo no credit score.

Glad I could educate you. I give you a B+ for one of the finer straw men on JPP in a while. Kudos me lady.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

Here's one to ponder: We've had all this conservative and libertarian clap trap about "big government" and "nanny states"....and how the free market and private enterprise can save us all.

Well, why aren't these folks raising hell about TRW like companies? You know, the folks who determine your credit rating and credit score? These folks are essentially acting like private detectives, who gather information on YOU that determines your financial status and future in this country. That means purchasing a home, apartment, credit card, and now even how you are evaluated in filling out a job application!

Currently, you can't do a damned thing is this country unless you have an optimum credit score or rating...all determined by private companies WITHOUT your knowledge or consent!

If the federal government ran such a program or office, you'd hear the wailing of protest from the Tea Party and Libertarians and current GOP conservatives to the moon! They would vilify EVERY Democrat, Liberal, Progressive and Independent who endorsed such thing.

But currently, not a peep is heard in the media (conservative or liberal) about this. Interesting.


*Note* TRW was a company that started this guff around 1965....they also have some heavy doings with the military and aerospace contracts. Since then, you have a multitude of similar companies that effect your life*

do you truly think that us Libertarians aren't also bitching about them????? if you really believe that, you're too stupid to use the internet.

 

[007]

I run my life.
I don't need credit.
All my homes are owned outright.
As is my buisness.
If someone is stupid enough to allow government or private institutions to determine their curriculum vitae, that is their choice.

 

[Canceled.2014.1]

I run my life.
I don't need credit.
All my homes are owned outright.
As is my buisness.
If someone is stupid enough to allow government or private institutions to determine their curriculum vitae, that is their choice.

"If someone is stupid enough to allow government or private institutions to determine their curriculum vitae, that is their choice"???

So you are saying "If someone is stupid enough to allow government or private institutions to determine their brief biographical résumé of one's career and training, that is their choice"?

Or are you using some other definition of "curriculum vitae"?

 

[Taichiliberal]

do you truly think that us Libertarians aren't also bitching about them????? if you really believe that, you're too stupid to use the internet.

I don't hear your tin gods like the Paul family say anything.....nor any teabagger politico or pundit for that matter. What YOU personally think sure as hell isn't reflected by your leadership, you witless windbag.

 

[Taichiliberal]

"If someone is stupid enough to allow government or private institutions to determine their curriculum vitae, that is their choice"???

So you are saying "If someone is stupid enough to allow government or private institutions to determine their brief biographical résumé of one's career and training, that is their choice"?

Or are you using some other definition of "curriculum vitae"?

007 is just some brain dead crank who talks all type of self aggrandizing BS that when properly challenged, he cannot logically or rationally defend or support or prove....which is why I have him on IA.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

I don't hear your tin gods like the Paul family say anything.....nor any teabagger politico or pundit for that matter. What YOU personally think sure as hell isn't reflected by your leadership, you witless windbag.

another one of your problems (along with most every other liberal on this board) is you believe Libertarianism or the TEA party is defined by who is the current hijacker of the month. you don't see me or Soc giving Rand Paul any praise over anything on this board and you won't. Nor do you see either of us quoting Beck or Palin. None of them define or represent the true Libertarians of the TEA party people of America.

 

[tekkychick]

Wait ... "libertarians of the tea party"??? those are two different things... you mean some libertarians have been sucked in by the tea party propaganda? huh

 

[Taichiliberal]

Quote Originally Posted by Taichiliberal View Post
I don't hear your tin gods like the Paul family say anything.....nor any teabagger politico or pundit for that matter. What YOU personally think sure as hell isn't reflected by your leadership, you witless windbag.

another one of your problems (along with most every other liberal on this board) is you believe Libertarianism or the TEA party is defined by who is the current hijacker of the month. you don't see me or Soc giving Rand Paul any praise over anything on this board and you won't. Nor do you see either of us quoting Beck or Palin. None of them define or represent the true Libertarians of the TEA party people of America.

Oh spare me intellectual cowardice of yours, STY. Every blessed time clowns like you are caught flat footed unable to find one blessed quote from ANY OFFICIAL spokesman for the political lean that you swear you're NOT a part of that advocates the baloney you spew, you allude to some murky "true Libertarians of the TEA party people of America".

PUH-LEEZE!

You're just some double talking right wing crank who talks all type of bullshit while living quite nicely via all the benefits the current American system has to offer. But if you are sincere, then currently YOU have NO representation in gov't, and there is truly no Tea Party or Libertarian Party. So that just makes you and "Soc" cranks howling at the wind.

Don't come on these boards with your worthless oather/threeper/libertarian bullshit and then not have the guts to admit that you are parroting the EXACT same dreck by the people and organizations YOU claim do NOT represent you. That just makes you a witless windbag, as I said earlier.

BUT, you do seem to agree with me that TRW's are NOT "legal" in the spirit of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and should be held accountable/supervised/altered by Congressional action and law.

Oh that's right, REAL oathers/threepers/libertarians don't want ANY gov't interference in their lives. So I guess it's okay by you to have a private industry dictate a part of your life choices without any imput or consent by you.

You can't have it both ways, bunky.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

and you don't get to have it both ways either. I gave you the facts of the issue, you chose to ignore them. your loss.

 

[DamnYankee]

...

Currently, you can't do a damned thing is this country unless you have an optimum credit score or rating...all determined by private companies WITHOUT your knowledge or consent!...

That's not true at all. You can always get your credit score from those companies, so they are not doing it "without your knowledge".

Secondly, if you don't want them to gather your credit information, then don't use credit. Pay everything with cash.

My guess is that you're bitching at this because you have poor credit. Accept personal responsibility, pay your bills on time and eventually you will improve your score.

I've been there with poor credit. It's a long story but it involves college loans that I let my parents keep track of, and my mother subsequently had some health issues and tossed the stuff in the trash. I've paid that off and every bill since, and now my credit rating is sky high. Many loan officers tell me it's the highest score that they've ever seen. When I want a loan I have banks begging for my business, and I choke them down for the best possible terms.

Payback's a bitch, and now I'm the one holding the cards.

 

[tekkychick]

So maybe you could say anyone who chooses to get a car loan, house loan, credit card is implicitly agreeing to have it tracked by TRW and others.

So then the question arises - what do they do with it? Are they selling it off to credit card companies so they can pitch us more cards? I'm not sure we know what they do with the data. And the next question is - what to do when the data is wrong? or there is something on there we don't know about? Luckily we can now pull free credit reports for ourselves annually and we can correct the data that way.

I did that a few years ago; pulled the reports. I found an overdue payment that had been reported to a collections company. I was quite surprised! Turned out - it was a copayment for a doctor's appt my husband had at a hospital. They didn't collect the copayment up front. They didn't have our mailing address, just our physical address (we don't get mail here) so we never got the bill. They had written our phone number wrong, so they couldn't reach us by phone. NOTE: My husband's name is unique enough that a quick phone search would have found the correct number in no time - the hospital said "they aren't allowed to search the internet". So they turned it over to a collections company....

The collections company never contacted us either. Not a very aggressive company, I guess. When I got the credit report with the overdue collections; I called them; a $35 copayment by then had ballooned into a $97 payment. Paid it so it's off our record.

Now that wasn't "incorrect" per se - but having it on the credit report could have affected us and our score for future loans/credit cards/whatever. The rest of the report was mostly accurate, although it had credit cards on it I had cancelled long ago.

So while I'm not thrilled with TRW and the like - they perform a necessary evil; having the law passed so we can pull free reports annually certainly opened up the system more than it had been; but I'm still curious what they do with all the data. It could be a gold mine for them...

 

[Don Quixote]

Here's one to ponder: We've had all this conservative and libertarian clap trap about "big government" and "nanny states"....and how the free market and private enterprise can save us all.

Well, why aren't these folks raising hell about TRW like companies? You know, the folks who determine your credit rating and credit score? These folks are essentially acting like private detectives, who gather information on YOU that determines your financial status and future in this country. That means purchasing a home, apartment, credit card, and now even how you are evaluated in filling out a job application!

Currently, you can't do a damned thing is this country unless you have an optimum credit score or rating...all determined by private companies WITHOUT your knowledge or consent!

If the federal government ran such a program or office, you'd hear the wailing of protest from the Tea Party and Libertarians and current GOP conservatives to the moon! They would vilify EVERY Democrat, Liberal, Progressive and Independent who endorsed such thing.

But currently, not a peep is heard in the media (conservative or liberal) about this. Interesting.


*Note* TRW was a company that started this guff around 1965....they also have some heavy doings with the military and aerospace contracts. Since then, you have a multitude of similar companies that effect your life*

i have heard two expansions of the initials trw, turkeys running wild and thieves rapists and whores

oh well

 

[Taichiliberal]

and you don't get to have it both ways either. I gave you the facts of the issue, you chose to ignore them. your loss.

What "facts", you witless windbag? All you did was just bark denial, to which I put to rest that bullshit. Like I said, you do seem to agree with me that TRW's are NOT "legal" in the spirit of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and should be held accountable/supervised/altered by Congressional action and law.
but according to YOU, REAL oathers/threepers/libertarians don't want ANY gov't interference in their lives. So I guess it's okay by you to have a private industry dictate a part of your life choices without any imput or consent by you.

You can't have it both ways, bunky. But it's fun to watch you squirm while trying to do so. Carry on.

 

[Taichiliberal]

So maybe you could say anyone who chooses to get a car loan, house loan, credit card is implicitly agreeing to have it tracked by TRW and others.

So then the question arises - what do they do with it? Are they selling it off to credit card companies so they can pitch us more cards? I'm not sure we know what they do with the data. And the next question is - what to do when the data is wrong? or there is something on there we don't know about? Luckily we can now pull free credit reports for ourselves annually and we can correct the data that way.

I did that a few years ago; pulled the reports. I found an overdue payment that had been reported to a collections company. I was quite surprised! Turned out - it was a copayment for a doctor's appt my husband had at a hospital. They didn't collect the copayment up front. They didn't have our mailing address, just our physical address (we don't get mail here) so we never got the bill. They had written our phone number wrong, so they couldn't reach us by phone. NOTE: My husband's name is unique enough that a quick phone search would have found the correct number in no time - the hospital said "they aren't allowed to search the internet". So they turned it over to a collections company....

The collections company never contacted us either. Not a very aggressive company, I guess. When I got the credit report with the overdue collections; I called them; a $35 copayment by then had ballooned into a $97 payment. Paid it so it's off our record.

Now that wasn't "incorrect" per se - but having it on the credit report could have affected us and our score for future loans/credit cards/whatever. The rest of the report was mostly accurate, although it had credit cards on it I had cancelled long ago.

So while I'm not thrilled with TRW and the like - they perform a necessary evil; having the law passed so we can pull free reports annually certainly opened up the system more than it had been; but I'm still curious what they do with all the data. It could be a gold mine for them...

No, they are NOT a "necessary evil"....because before 1965 the ONLY time a credit check was run on you was by your commercial bank if you went in for a loan in conjunction with purchasing a house or a car or apartment. Other than that, your credit was your business. And the country functioned just fine.

As credit cards became more accessible to the general public, the power of TRW's grew (with some nice "lobbying" on Capital Hill, don't cha know!). Bottom line: In the last 15 years I TWICE had my credit score coupled with retired father's by the SAME TRW companies. And yes, your credit score/rating information is sold by various private companies and the people you do business with WITHOUT your consent.

I am waiting for some Congressman to start complaining about this (mine tried, and got NO support). But hope springs eterenal.