Chapter Five 

Credit Reports and Credit Scoring
Made Much More Complicated

The obvious question is: How do I make my score higher than it is? That's the big question, isn't it?

In fact, you DO have an enormous amount of control over your credit score. Your control over your credit score requires either; a) a tremendous education in how the consumer credit system works; or b) someone with that knowledge to guide you.

The landscape of credit report correction and improvement has become increasingly complicated over the years. You have a huge stack of consumer rights. That's really good news for you because you're accumulating more and more opportunity to improve your credit. However, the flipside is that those same rights are becoming harder and harder to understand. Isn't that just like government: the more rights you're given, the harder they are to access. Again, an informed coach will make all the difference in the world.

The whole credit repair enchilada began with the 1971 passing of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (known as the "FCRA,") when Senator William Proxmire and other statesman banded together to do something about the tsunami of consumer complaints building against the credit bureaus. Proxmire started with high hopes, but after the FCRA passed, he was plagued with a sense of defeat. The law had been so thoroughly modified by credit bureau industry lobbyists that Proxmire feared that the statute had succeeded in nothing at all.

But Proxmire might feel differently if he lived today (he passed away in 2005). Since the first version of the FCRA, many amendments have built up a wall of consumer protection that, while not simple by any means, still provides an interesting and fertile array of rights badly needed by Americans.

Credit Revolution: Path of the Smart Consumer
© 2007 John C. Heath, Esq., Dr. Randy Padawer, Jayson R. Orvis. All Rights Reserved.
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