Citigroup just announced a plan to help homeowners who have been laid off. It is called “Homeowner Assist”. They said they would provide an opportunity for a homeowner to pay just $500 per month for three months. Note* this is a temporary solution. The catch…….the home owner must be unemployed under 6 months, provide proof of unemployment and has to be at least 60 days behind in their payments on their first mortgage, (2nd mortgages and home equity loans do not qualify). While it is a step in the right direction, the damage to a homeowner’s credit has already taken a huge hit. There is no work out for the newly unemployed who was previously current on their mortgage. So there is no way to save good credit when faced with an unavoidable situation…unemployment. One would have to let payments go unpaid for two months in order to qualify. At this point, the homeowner already will have 1 60 day late and a 30 day late hit on their credit report not to mention the past due payments for 2 months. In addition, Citigroup doesn’t specify what happens with the past due months nor do they guarantee that the previous and ensuing months will be reported as “current”. Furthermore, with long term unemployment this may be a matter of postponing the inevitable, foreclosure. There may be few unemployed in this economy that will find employment within 3 months thereby improving their own negotiation with their current situation. Is this program an actual help to the homeowners in this situation? While Citibank says that if you can’t find work in three months they will work with you on a case by case basis I would contend that this is merely an empty offer that really does little to help the homeowner avoid losing their home, creating an opportunity to save their home and avoid ruining their credit. There is little that will make a bank work with you in these situations. Until I see the results I would venture an educated guess that again, Citibank is positioning itself in the eyes of the bailout government by outwardly offering something that has virtually little substance.
Citigroup, I challenge you to make me take this opinion back by proving to me you are true to your word.
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Friday, March 27, 2009
Straight Scoop on Dating a Credit Score
You've seen reports from many media outlets on the most recent dating craze…using FICO (credit) scores as a criteria for a possible compatible match. From NBC News, ABC News and the Economist to Oprah Winfrey and Suze Orman you’ve heard the virtues of making sure you have a partner with a good FICO (credit) score. (Suze Orman among many other affiliates has a “deal” with Fair Isaac that promotes their version of a credit score called the FICO score.) It’s assumed people with high credit scores are much better financial matches. While a good credit score may be a plus to your potential love interest, the subjectivity of it makes a public credit score a possible vehicle for deception. So my advice is to beware. Credit scores are and should be as private as your social security number, driver’s license numbers, banking information and any personal information.
Upon hearing of a dating website based on everyone’s FICO score I started to wonder just how authentic the scores would be assuming that the site was set and sorted on a FICO score filter. Would a site like this ask to view your credit reports and scores to authenticate the scores or would they just rely on honesty when potential searchers sign up on their website? The site that has gotten all the hype is Creditscoredating.com and I thought I had better check it out from a consumer standpoint. Remember you can’t always believe everything you read or hear and being a proponent of that idea I thought it important to experience first hand whether or not this hyped site was true to its claims. More importantly is it authentic?
Signing onto the site you are first required to become a free member where you are prompted to enter a profile and all your preferences. Since this site’s name and claim to fame is the credit score of each candidate who signs up, I looked diligently for a place where they would either ask you for specific personal information to pull credit reports and scores for authenticity or a place you might enter your own credit scores. There was neither. I looked everywhere on the site including the profile, Preferences, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and Contact Us pages. I found nothing! I couldn’t believe that missing this in the FAQ’s was good business. So I decided to e-mail the contact and ask where this information was and how I might search on this information. I got a prompt reply back.
“ We encourage completion of profile information which includes a member adding their average credit score. This information would be shown when another member views their profile. Unfortunately some do add this information immediately and others will do it later or not at all. Thank you for bringing the subject to our attention. We have noticed that a field was turned off (about me) where we ask a person signing up to input their credit score.”
Well ok mistakes happen. However, now we know they do not pull anyone’s credit report for a score which means we now know that anyone can input any credit score they want based on their own honesty without any authentication. I’m more than sure people who have a 480 credit score are going to put that out into the dating universe! Probably not. And now that we heard from the site, can we assume those who don’t put their score out there are hiding something or maybe just believe that it’s none of anyone’s business in the beginning stages of the dating game? What intelligent consumer is actually going to put his/her score in their profile, especially a score that is considered questionable? How do we know that if this is such an important criteria for finding a match/mate we are getting truthful information? Sounds like just another area that can be left to the whim of the person who maintains his/her own profile. Let alone the validity of the argument that a lower score makes for a bad match choice, how many low scores are you going to actually see on this sort of a website? It would be relationship suicide to do so.
My two cents? This is just another way to make money by making prospective customers believe that matching by credit score is important in this economy. While credit scores and how one handles money IS very important to the survival of a relationship, let’s not put the cart before the horse here. There are so many reasons a credit score may be less than perfect and some is through no fault of their own. Take it from me, I’ve seen good people with low scores who have done most things right, some who have made little use of credit and are cash rich who have low scores because credit history was not on their side as far as calculating a score. I’ve met people who prefer to pay cash and make little or no use of credit cards (revolving credit) which again can lower your score since it is assumed revolving credit and its use is a good measure of a credit score. Membership and the need to pull one’s own FICO score may be profit enough for this site above but the real question…are you getting what you pay for? If you need to find a date online stick to the basics and approach the credit score issue when you both think there may be some compatibility.
Upon hearing of a dating website based on everyone’s FICO score I started to wonder just how authentic the scores would be assuming that the site was set and sorted on a FICO score filter. Would a site like this ask to view your credit reports and scores to authenticate the scores or would they just rely on honesty when potential searchers sign up on their website? The site that has gotten all the hype is Creditscoredating.com and I thought I had better check it out from a consumer standpoint. Remember you can’t always believe everything you read or hear and being a proponent of that idea I thought it important to experience first hand whether or not this hyped site was true to its claims. More importantly is it authentic?
Signing onto the site you are first required to become a free member where you are prompted to enter a profile and all your preferences. Since this site’s name and claim to fame is the credit score of each candidate who signs up, I looked diligently for a place where they would either ask you for specific personal information to pull credit reports and scores for authenticity or a place you might enter your own credit scores. There was neither. I looked everywhere on the site including the profile, Preferences, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and Contact Us pages. I found nothing! I couldn’t believe that missing this in the FAQ’s was good business. So I decided to e-mail the contact and ask where this information was and how I might search on this information. I got a prompt reply back.
“ We encourage completion of profile information which includes a member adding their average credit score. This information would be shown when another member views their profile. Unfortunately some do add this information immediately and others will do it later or not at all. Thank you for bringing the subject to our attention. We have noticed that a field was turned off (about me) where we ask a person signing up to input their credit score.”
Well ok mistakes happen. However, now we know they do not pull anyone’s credit report for a score which means we now know that anyone can input any credit score they want based on their own honesty without any authentication. I’m more than sure people who have a 480 credit score are going to put that out into the dating universe! Probably not. And now that we heard from the site, can we assume those who don’t put their score out there are hiding something or maybe just believe that it’s none of anyone’s business in the beginning stages of the dating game? What intelligent consumer is actually going to put his/her score in their profile, especially a score that is considered questionable? How do we know that if this is such an important criteria for finding a match/mate we are getting truthful information? Sounds like just another area that can be left to the whim of the person who maintains his/her own profile. Let alone the validity of the argument that a lower score makes for a bad match choice, how many low scores are you going to actually see on this sort of a website? It would be relationship suicide to do so.
My two cents? This is just another way to make money by making prospective customers believe that matching by credit score is important in this economy. While credit scores and how one handles money IS very important to the survival of a relationship, let’s not put the cart before the horse here. There are so many reasons a credit score may be less than perfect and some is through no fault of their own. Take it from me, I’ve seen good people with low scores who have done most things right, some who have made little use of credit and are cash rich who have low scores because credit history was not on their side as far as calculating a score. I’ve met people who prefer to pay cash and make little or no use of credit cards (revolving credit) which again can lower your score since it is assumed revolving credit and its use is a good measure of a credit score. Membership and the need to pull one’s own FICO score may be profit enough for this site above but the real question…are you getting what you pay for? If you need to find a date online stick to the basics and approach the credit score issue when you both think there may be some compatibility.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Are you kidding me...Dating a FICO Score?
Incredible... and what will they think of next to get our private information?Creditscoredating.com just got some national press as a way to convince us that a credit score makes or breaks a relationship. Yes, while financial diffficulties is one of the hardest challenges in any relationship I'm not sure I would be advertising my credit score in this market on a public site.
I'll be looking into the site a little more and report later but seriously be very careful when giving your private financial and credit information to any public site. Most sites are run by some sort of revenue and whether they admit it or not your information will be shared with someone leaving you ripe for offers both personal and financial.
A credit score can be a personal thing because they are not always correct. There are a meriad of mistakes that I have seen on the credit reports of perfectly responsible people. As one aticle puts it, even an unemployed lawyer with lots of debt is finding the credit scores dropping faster than the New year's Eve ball in NY.
I'll be looking into the site a little more and report later but seriously be very careful when giving your private financial and credit information to any public site. Most sites are run by some sort of revenue and whether they admit it or not your information will be shared with someone leaving you ripe for offers both personal and financial.
A credit score can be a personal thing because they are not always correct. There are a meriad of mistakes that I have seen on the credit reports of perfectly responsible people. As one aticle puts it, even an unemployed lawyer with lots of debt is finding the credit scores dropping faster than the New year's Eve ball in NY.
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