[centex]

The notion that someone could believe that artificial inflation of scores played no role is patently absurd. Many people were put into houses where their own scores did not justify their even having been considered for the no-doc liar loans. However, once they bought a score, they were then 'qualified.'

As to the issue of kids getting placed on accounts, you will note that I do not believe they should get full weight. I'm actually of an opinion that a kid should have no score benefit from an AU account, but I can only imagine the ration of shit I would have to fade for that. The AU process was never designed for the purposes of score inflation. Obviously Fair Isaac dropped the ball on that one. Rather, the legislation was intended to address the history of a class that historically had no history of their own because they often had no access to credit by virtue of their role as a SAHM. Many people have no idea that their kid benefits scorewise- they make the kid an AU so they have a card for emergencies.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that I have ever claimed to be a 'consumer advocate.' The reality is that I wound up dealing with credit crap after having been a victim of identity theft with losses approaching $200K. I was appalled when I found the boards and saw people routinely claiming 'not mine' despite the fact that they knew damned well they had opened the account in question. It was precisely because of crap like those dispute tactics that made my road (and that of other legitimate victims) much more difficult. Further, despite those losses and despite some of the accounts going to third-paries, I really have not seen the problems with third-parties that some described. The longest that I can recall dealing with one start-to-finish was roughly three weeks. Most of them did precisely what they were supposed to do after receiving a dispute. How do I rail against someone that complies with the law??? Answer: I don't.

You'll find that my two biggest rants outside of the AU nonsense are in the areas of frivilous litigation and the 'debt reduction' companies that rope people in through the television ads. The issues with litigation should be obvious...dockets clogged with crap benefit nobody. I have seen the debt reduction companies absolutely screw people's reports in instances where they were otherwise in good shape and making ontime payments- I had to help extricate a good friend out of one of those after she came to me with two suits pending in the local courts. The money that people waste in those programs is obscene...