I never had much regard for Lizzie Warren’s brainchild — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It was created with a devious form of funding (profits of the Federal Reserve) to keep it away from the control of our duly elected officials (Congress) and has been funded illegally for the past couple of years as the Fed has had losses, not profits. It claims it has saved Americans over $21 billion. You would think they would be able to work toward getting Americans coherent credit reports as a basic function. Here they have failed.
I have never pulled my credit report to inspect it. Do not need to. I have all the credit I need. Occasionally, a lender or my bank pulls a report and tells me there are a couple of write-offs on it. I told them they were phony baloney charges I refused to pay. I do not bow to the threat, “We are going to report it to the credit report companies.” I tell them to go right ahead. I tell the lender I pay the bills I owe. The lender then approves my credit.
This issue at hand involves the Beautiful Wife (BW). She is being declined a credit limit increase that she needs because the card is used for business purchases. Things have become more expensive because of Biden bucks, and her business has increased. She has repeatedly found herself at the card limit despite the balance being paid monthly.
She has a blemish on her credit from a self-inflicted wound. Best Buy offered a deal if she took out a card and paid it in full the first month, there was an incentive bonus. That bonus was enough to cover several new appliances during a recent kitchen remodel. The problem is there was a fraudulent purchase that occurred and got charged off. Now she must clear that wrongful charge to get approved on her credit increase for her main card.
After a couple attempts, she thought she had accomplished that. We got to the point that she received a “revised credit report” from Equifax. Equifax is one of the three major credit bureaus along with Experian and TransUnion. BW had tried to understand the report and threw up her hands. The financial professional (me) arrived home and she asked me to interpret the report for her. I get all the rotten assignments.
I started to dig in, which is indeed what I had to do. Eighteen pages. Really? Do these people think they can baffle us with horse manure? The first eight pages are all about our rights. Nowhere in the definition of our rights does it address the fact that we should have a right to a simple, clear definition of what the issue is, how it was managed, and the effect on her credit score.
We did get notice that my beloved state of California is also protecting us. If our dispute has not been rectified, we can contact them “with a brief statement, not to exceed one hundred words.” Gosh, I wish they explained our situation in one hundred words or less. They do not even tell us where to send this statement. You cannot make this stuff up. Whatever California entity is doing this is a definitive waste of money.
Equifax starts with a statement, “We are pleased to let you know that the results of your dispute you recently filed are complete.” Oh, goody they managed it. The issue is over. But not if you read on. All they did was contact Best Buy and ask them to reply. Wow, you know that the good people at Best Buy put down everything they were doing and investigated the situation to alleviate the problem for their customers who had already closed their credit card account. Sorry Ms. Johnson, I cannot sell you that refrigerator, I am resolving the Bialosky fraudulent credit card charge in this report. Can you come back on Tuesday?
They next have a section; how do I know that all this is happening? They tell us that is when the reporting company replies to them and updates our information. They do not say they will notify us at that time. But they do say it is the law that Best Buy must reply. Again, there goes the refrigerator sale. It is the law that we at Best Buy must reply, so we are on it.
Otherwise, sometime in the next millennium this issue will be resolved. That is after you, the harmed person (in this case the BW), checked with us four hundred times or completely forgot about it.
In summary, something that could have been communicated to us in a one-page letter was sent to us with the direct purpose of baffling us in an 18-page letter. They really have yet to accomplish anything, and we really have no idea whether they will or when they will because they will not be contacting us to tell us this has been resolved.
Or maybe they will with a 22-page letter this time. Wonderful job cleaning this up CFPB. Thank God you are on top of this.