[hannah]

I think you are off base blaming the sub-prime mortgage mess on purchasing AU tradelines and/or lumping all credit repair companies together. Don't know what you've had in your coffee the past few days but get real. Loan incentives and the long-term trend of homes increasing in value encouraged borrowers to assume sub prime mortgage fully believing they would be able to refinance at more favorable terms later. Some borrowers were actually told that when they signed their mortgage papers but in 2006-2007 those people found that could not refinance as ARM interest rates reset higher not lower like everyone in the mortgage lenders biz believed would happen. For years houses sharply increased in value and consumers have borrowed at a subprime rate believing that the price of their homes would rise and they could refinance for lower payments. Money for mortgages was "loose" regardless of income. Money is not lent solely on FICO alone and you know that. If I have an 800 FICO and no job, should I be lent any money for any purpose? Many of those who have lost their homes in the sub prime mess did so because they could not afford to pay the actual payment plus interest on their mortgage which is what they should have been paying all along. They took a gamble that they could buy now and pay a year or so of nothing but interest then refinance at more favorable terms later and as with most gambling, they lost.

Were some of the sub primes mortgages based on purchased AU tradelines? Sure, no doubt, but they didn't cause this mess and probably didn't constitute more than 1% or 2% of the foreclosures, if that.

Here where I live, it was a rare thing to see a foreclosure in the paper in all the time I have lived here. Last month there were 44. I bet I could call each one of those mortgagees and I bet not one had a purchased tradeline.

Who put what in your Cheerios this morning?