Who gets the Credit for That?

As part of stabilizing the economy, the money people sitting in their high-rise offices have made a bit of noise about 'fixing' credit-money-grubbing mean old banks. They have busy-busy-busily passed laws that 'correct' the way these greedy places up interest rates and weasel out of paying skymiles and the other nonsense that add to the appeal of using certain credit cards as opposed to others. (What's in your wallet?)

Down here on the ground, we're glad to see these changes. Someday, they may change something for those of us who survive paycheck-to-paycheck and pay cash, check, or money order.

We'd like to see some real credit reform.
Something that matters.
Something that makes sense.

Credit reform could start with credit reports not being used for non-credit reasons. Such as getting a job. More and more often, even in retail work, hard-working candidates are being refused jobs because their credit is bad. (You know, possible employer, that just might be why they are looking for a job. Did that not occur to you?) Let's look at an employee's WORK RECORD to decide if he will WORK for us.

Then there's buying insurance. Why should anyone's auto insurance rate be based on their credit history? Shouldn't insurability and the cost thereof be based on the driving record? What do old doctor bills and unpaid utilities from childhood have to do with the need for auto insurance.

The next step is limiting credit reports to pertinent information for the situation. An example of this is apartment rental. Should an individual who has been renting for thirty years, never been evicted, never been sued for unpaid rent, never had to pay (extra) for damages -- should this person be turned away from an apartment because of unpaid doctor bills? What's right about that?

On that topic, some things just shouldn't be used at all. When the economy crashed, many people had to let their homes go into foreclosure. It was the only way the lenders would even look at refinancing. The people who did manage to refinance and are still managing to hold onto their homes are now being punished by following the protocols established by their lenders. They didn't want foreclosure, they wanted to pay a little less for a longer period of time.

Hooray for credit reform. Now that it's all been smugly settled in the bailed out offices, let's get it out on the streets, where real people can use it.