My wife got denied a credit card from Kohls. Why ? We went online to find out. 18 "good" reports, 2 potentially not good reports, but specifically not bad reports.
What were they ?
One was a CC company we quit using. No outstanding balance, always made payment etc. The reason they listed us ? The address they had for us wasn't current, they couldn't contact us. Uh ... because we moved and didn't GIVE them that info - duh !
The other was a charge, a single charge, for a Toyota engine. The engine arrived damaged and I sent back. The merchant didn't refund the CC company for 3 months and they listed me as not having made payment. Screwed up deal there from the get go.
Anyway ... just thought I'd vent a little .... banks, lenders etc etc can ruin your credit without you ever knowing it for any reason they choose. I filed counter complaints to have that removed from my wifes record but none the less, pain in the ass, you know ?
I hate credit cards and haven't had one for years. What gets really irritating though, is how many things you can't do without one. We're going to Chicago later this month and were told we needed one to rent a car. I explained we didn't have one, so the woman said another option is to get a debit card and make sure it shows a $350 balance. I had to go apply for a debit card, since I've never had one of those either. To rent a motel room for our trip, I had to use my mom's credit card number, and we'll just pay cash when we get there. I realize the days of dealing only in cash are long gone, but it sucks.
Stealthy, are the bad reports on your credit going to be a pain to get removed? I've heard it's really hard to get it changed.
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I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know one time I secretly wanted to be a writer.---C.K. Dexter Haven
Yep, one could sum it up as government-sanctioned organized crime. I got rid of mine three years ago. If I don't have cash, I don't go shopping. Inconvenient, but I don't feel like playing games with my money (well, what's left of it after Uncle Sam has his way).
The good news is that there are a few steps that you can take to remedy this situation...
Since your wife was denied credit she should receive a written letter stating why she was denied and which credit bureau report(s) was used to reach the decision. With that denial letter you can go onto the credit bureau's website and get a free copy of your credit report. It's a good idea to get a report not only from the bureau that was consulted by Kohl's, but also get your reports from the other two credit agencies as well (you may have to pay for them, but they usually cost about $10 so it's worth it).
Once you have the three credit reports, you can dispute any or all of the reported information by writing the agency (some have online disputing, which is easier and faster) a letter disputing each entry and why you believe the information is not correct.
Once you've filed a dispute the credit agency is required by law to research the validity of the negative entry. They will contact the creditor and attempt to verify the entry. The creditor has 30 days to return proof that the entry is correct. In the mean time the entry is temporarily removed from your credit report pending the outcome of the investigation, and if the creditor cannot provide written proof, or if they do not respond within 30 days, the entry is permanently removed from your credit report with that credit agency.
I had to do this for a couple invalid entries on my credit report, and my wife had to dispute a couple of negative reports because her deadbeat loser mother used her SSN to get a couple of credit cards. We were alerted to something amiss when we were denied credit to buy my wife a car. After the dispute we went from having bad credit to getting a pretty good loan rate.
BTW, don't pay a "credit repair" company to "fix" your credit, because you'll just be paying them a lot of money to do exactly what I described above. They're not worth the money to do something you can easily do yourself for less than $30 (the cost of the credit reports).
I refinanced my mortgage earlier this year, and one of the credit card companies that I closed an account with earlier still showed that we owe them $149.00, even tho I got a letter stating that the account was closed and had a zero balance...gotta get that one cleared up !!!![:@][:@]
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It' s a dog eat dog world, and I' m wearing Milkbone underwear
SC,
Why in the Hell would you want a Kohls credit card? You ever hear of Sen. Kohl( D) from Wisconsin. I'm surpised you would do business with a Democrat owned company.
He's most likely supports abortion, but don't know that for a fact.
I'm not sure if the title of this thread should be "The power of credit cards" or "The benifits of having credit".
As a business owner, I will concede that almost all of my revenue is conducted via credit cards...It's a rare occasion indeed when a person comes in here and pays with cash...It's so rare that when a person does pay with cash, it raises eyebrows out of suspicion.
Gone are the days when an average person travels with enough cash to pay for several days of lodging, meals and gas...The fact is; that is often too much cash for a person to feel comfortable with while having it in their pocket.
There are many pro's and con's to having a credit card...but the benifits of having one tend to outweigh the benifits of not having one.
A good example of the benifits is: reservations.
When you reserve a room, car, plane ticket, or even a dinner reservation,,, you generally must produce a credit card number,,,In doing so... you are assuring that business that you are gonna be true to your word and show up...If you don't show up, or call and cancel, then your card is gonna be charged because you took up space and time that you neither used, nor had the courtesy to call and cancel. That is time and space that that particular business could have made money with if another costomer had been allowed to be in your space.
In a nutshell, having a credit card is the twenty first centuries way of looking someone in the eye over the phone and offering a good firm handshake.
As far as "fixing" your credit...Thats another thing.
About a year ago I received a call from American Express. The subject of the call was: there had been some unusual activity on my card.
Well, sure enough, my "Identity" had been stolen.
All kinds of things from all over the country had been charged to my card and delivered to various P.O. boxes around the country. If it had not of been for American express calling me and asking about the purchases, I would not have known about it untill the next billing cycle.
Since then, I have made it a point to purchase a credit report on myself every few months. While nothing like this has happened again, I have been amazed at the quantity of "Inquiries" into my credit. For every three or four cards that you get in the mail telling you about some "new and fantastic" card, one of them actually seems to have the ability to check you out first.
It's really very eye-opening.
My advice is really very simple... Check your credit on a regular basis because you never know whats gonna show up on it.
As a business owner, I will concede that almost all of my revenue is conducted via credit cards...It's a rare occasion indeed when a person comes in here and pays with cash...It's so rare that when a person does pay with cash, it raises eyebrows out of suspicion.
Gone are the days when an average person travels with enough cash to pay for several days of lodging, meals and gas...The fact is; that is often too much cash for a person to feel comfortable with while having it in their pocket.
What??? Even if I weren't packing, I still would have no problem carrying a few hundred dollars at a time. Self-defense is one part force and two parts prevention.
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When you reserve a room, car, plane ticket, or even a dinner reservation,,, you generally must produce a credit card number,,,In doing so... you are assuring that business that you are gonna be true to your word and show up...If you don't show up, or call and cancel, then your card is gonna be charged because you took up space and time that you neither used, nor had the courtesy to call and cancel. That is time and space that that particular business could have made money with if another costomer had been allowed to be in your space.
The Power of Credit Cards
