Free Credit Report dot COM

If you’re a television watcher then chances are good that you’ve seen the commercial from Free Credit Report dot COM. There are at least four versions of the commercial I’ve seen. They all feature a guy strumming a guitar while singing about how he took his credit for granted. In one commercial, he didn’t find out that his credit had been messed up by someone who stole his identity until he went to buy a car. With his credit stolen and his rating so poor he could only afford a beat up, partially rusted, fifteen year old Geo Metro. He’s driving away from the dealership with his friends and is too embarrassed when he stops at a light next to some girls in a nice Ford Mustang GT convertible. They laugh at the guy and his friends as they pulled away when the light turn green.

In another commercial the guy had to take a second job to repay all the people who said that he owed them money on his credit report. He’s working at a knock off Captain D’s restaurant in a pirate costume and singing about not knowing his credit was bad. There’s a third commercial that’s not getting too much air time. But in the third one he’s singing because he didn’t know his girlfriend’s credit was messed up and when they went to get an apartment together they couldn’t do it. And in the fourth one he’s trying to buy a bike. Homey needs to chill and quit trying to buy so much stuff he can’t afford.

Talk about the power of persuasion. Don’t let your credit rating go astray. Log on to Free Credit Report and keep track of what other people are doing with your credit so that when you need it you won’t have to work so hard to repair any damage.

People have to understand that the entire credit system is designed to work against the individual to the advantage of the corporation. Corporate America designs a system of credit that is just way too easy to be manipulated and defrauded. This system is so easy to corrupt that all anybody needs to do is to get one of the many credit applications that the credit companies mail out in bulk to people like pizza coupons. The imposter only needs to fill the application out with a change of address and the credit company is more than happy to become the collaborator in the destruction of my credit. Somebody with my credit can buy things that I could only dream of. And then it becomes my problem.

If the mortgage meltdown has taught me anything is that the whole system of credit is skewed against the black population. Black people with good credit were given the more expensive sub prime mortgages just because somebody felt that they should be making more money off of black people. Maybe black people who are buying a house should have shopped around for a creditor. But I know without a doubt that some black people are so happy just to get somebody to take their application that the thought of shopping around just isn’t an option.

As much as possible we need to kick the credit card to the curb and do things the old fashioned way. Wait until we can afford it, put it in law away, or simply do without. Personally, I really like the idea of doing without until one can actually afford it. Not only do you avoid enriching somebody else for loaning you their money, you’re actually assured not to get in to too much financial trouble. Monthly payments for anything can easily hide how much you can pay for something. These days, car payments can be stretched out for as long as seven and eight years. Or you can lease a car for a few years, give it back, and have nothing to show for it. A lot of people who lease like the idea of getting a new car every handful of years. But people like me like the idea of not having a car payment.

If somebody uses my name to cheat some lending institution out of thousands of dollars then that is between the lender and the imposter. I had nothing to do with it and there is no way in hell I’m going to take responsibility for it. I am doing fine without a credit card. I will do fine saving up my cash to buy my next car. It may not be the latest with DVD encoded satellite navigation with the downloadable MP3 stereophonic sound system with forty speakers and xenon enhanced nitrous encoded backlights. The stuff they put in cars these days sounds like the techno babble from a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. I’ll do fine with what I can afford.

I plan to do my next house the same way. I will buy a fixer upper for cash. After I buy it, I might have to spend some time just getting it up to code so I can live in it while I continue to repair it. But, that’s okay because when I am through repairing it, it will belong to my family and me and not to the bank or anybody on Wall Street. If any lender wants to give somebody who pretends to be me any money then that’s between them. I do not have a thing to do with it. My credit is not my name and vice-versa.  I don’t have the time or the desire to protect a credit report that is so easily corrupted.