Only then did the company point to its little-known policy: If a credit file sits inactive, the consumer may be labelled "unscoreable" and their score reset to zero. Tregear says the last time he checked, before it disappeared, his score was around a more respectable 700.

Go Public has since found a major flaw in consumer protection rules — that there are no laws or oversight on how credit scores are calculated, leaving credit bureaus to do what they want.

Consumer advocate Geoff White says that gives credit bureaus too much power, with no transparency.

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[–] brightandshinyobject@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Credit scores are a scam. I've been unemployed for a year and my credit score has never been higher.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago

I dont think employers report to credit bureaus. As long you arent late on bills, (or have none) than your score wont change.

That said, yeah they are a scam.

[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)

If you fully pay off a debt that negatively impacted your credit, once paid, it should no longer hurt your score.

Credit scores should only be negatively impacted if you don't pay it back, and they have to write it off or take collective action.

I have seen too many credit scores ruined by a few missed payments and its very silly.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

This is not that. He didn't miss any payments. They just said "Hmm, looks like you haven't used your credit in a while. We're just gonna go ahead and set your score to zero then."

[–] tleb@lemmy.ca -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have seen too many credit scores ruined by a few missed payments and its very silly.

Very unlikely unless they already had a shaky credit history.

I closed my oldest credit card a bit ago, and it just dented my score by 30 for a few months before rebounding. I also missed a payment once (thought I had auto pay on, I didn't) and as far as I remember it didn't change my score.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Very unlikely unless they already had a shaky credit history.

The article says different.

I also missed a payment once (thought I had auto pay on, I didn't) and as far as I remember it didn't change my score.

You have to miss two payments (of any kind, not just a credit card) within a 12-month period for it to affect your credit score.

[–] tleb@lemmy.ca 0 points 11 months ago

You have to miss two payments (of any kind, not just a credit card) within a 12-month period for it to affect your credit score.

Yes of course it would, why wouldn't it? If they couldn't recover/rebound from that, then their history is already iffy

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

This happened to my wife too. She had super high rating like whatever the highest is 790? 800? She bought a telus phone and plan. They didn't have coverage where she lived, Telus blamed the phone, the phone manufacturer said it was the service carrier. She cancelled her account because she couldn't use it, so they charged her $300 cancellation fee. She refused to pay so it went to collections. She negotiated with collections to pay it and restore her credit that was suffering. Whatever they did ended up being a complete reset to 0, we only found out when applying for a mortgage and they were like, no you have no credit at all, like you never existed.

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The highest I think is 900, I'm capped at 835 because I don't own a house.

The whole thing is a system to keep poor people poor.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Which is weird right. No debt, lower score

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 6 points 11 months ago

Debt = good little consumer = higher score

I have an ultra low interest rate car loan I'm keeping alive strictly for the credit score benefits.

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

Dupe: https://lemmy.ca/post/44819583

[–] toastmeister@lemmy.ca -1 points 11 months ago

Renting is now better than owning. Buying is better than leasing. So nothing of value was lost, and a noose was avoided.