You are not a number

[UM-Bot]

Phillip Tilley: "Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing."—Ralph M. Hawtrey. Lenders make a big deal out of your credit score, but what is a credit score and is it really important to you? Lenders often say your credit score is the most important three-digit number in your life. Why is it so important? Because it can affect many areas of your life, such as if you get credit extended to you or not, what interest rate you will pay, whether a landlord will rent to you or not, what the rate on your insurance is and whether you get hired for certain jobs or not.

So, just what is a credit score? It is a made up number using a formula created by a private corporation called “Fair Isaac Corp.” This number is important to them because they earn their income by selling that formula to the three major credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Esperian and Equifax. This number is in turn important to them because they earn their income by selling the final calculation to lenders that want to know your creditworthiness. As it turns out, my worthiness was discredited.

This number is also important to the banks and other lenders because they will derive their income from using that number to pick what interest rate they will change you. The smaller your credit score, the higher interest you pay. The larger your credit score, the lower interest you will pay for having credit extended to you.

We have seen the credit score is important to Fair Isaac, the credit reporting agencies, and lenders, but is it important to you? Well, only if you want to get credit extended to you. And since our currency is a debt based fiat currency our entire economic system revolves not around money, but around credit and debt. If you pay cash for everything, your credit score would mean nothing to you personally. Or does it?

Increasingly insurance companies tie the rate you pay to your credit score. To me that is just a form of discrimination. Your insurance rate for your car should be determined by your driving habits, such as how long have you been a licensed driver, do you get a lot of speeding tickets or not, have you been in any auto accidents in the past three years, do you smoke or text message while you drive? These are factors that should affect your insurance rate, not your credit score.

Even though I worked at one time for a property management firm, they would not rent to me because I have a low credit score. How ridiculous. They knew full well how many Federal Reserve Notes I earned every month from them, yet my credit score made me unworthy. You see, one key element not used to calculate your credit score is how much you earn or how many Federal Reserve Notes you have in your bank account. Even Fair Isaac knows there is no money, so if it equals nothing why count it? So they do not count it.

With the recent decline in the net worth of American households, the credit scores of most people have gone down as a result. Through no fault of your own, because I am fairly certain you did not cause the credit crisis, (Oprah did), you may have to pay more in interest and insurance and might not qualify to rent somewhere.

Another area your credit score may impact you is in the job market. With so many people unemployed, and being unemployed by its very nature makes you a credit risk, your credit score may go down. It is not uncommon for an employer to use your credit score to determine if they will hire you or not. 35% of employers in 2003 asked to see prospective employees credit reports and credit scores.

The first time this happened to me went something like this:

“Mr. Tilley, before we decide if we want to hire you we want to see your credit report and credit score.”

I said, “Before I let you see my credit report and credit score, I would like to see the size of your manlyhood.”

“That’s a little personal, don’t you think Mr. Tilley?’

“No more personal than me credit score and neither one has anything to do with my willingness or ability to do the job you offer!”

“I don’t like your attitude Mr. Tilley. We need your credit score to determine any risk in hiring you.”

I said, “We all take chances in life, I take a chance in going to work for an employer and the employer takes a chance in hiring me as an employee. If you want to eliminate all risk you should buy slaves. That is how China is able to compete with America. And if you pass up employees that could have been an asset to your company for someone else that has a better credit score it will not be long before China is ahead of America.”

Needless to say I did not get the job, but I would not like to work for some Nazi that wanted to see if my papers were in order. Is a credit score important to you? Only if you give it power over you. I choose to take that power back because you are and individual, you are not a number.

Wake up people, the money matrix has you.

Phillip Tilley is author of The Money Matrix of the New World Order and other articles.

[DigitalSentinal]

LOL - I love the end conversation you had with your prospective employer. Wish I had the cahones to speak to someone like that - wait a sec - I do. Still...absolutely priceless. Great article, mate.

[Leonardo]

To bring a little perspective to the pov being expressed here, I would like to ask if an addiction to spending of a prospective employee has any less serious an implication to a prospective employer than an addiction to gambling, alcohol, drugs etc?

[Space Commander Travis]

To bring a little perspective to the pov being expressed here, I would like to ask if an addiction to spending of a prospective employee has any less serious an implication to a prospective employer than an addiction to gambling, alcohol, drugs etc?

I don't see why it should. It's the employer's money up to the point when they give it to the employee, but after it's been handed over they can surely do whatever they like with it. As long as it doesn't inhibit their ability to do the job.

[KRS-One]

I said, “We all take chances in life, I take a chance in going to work for an employer and the employer takes a chance in hiring me as an employee. If you want to eliminate all risk you should buy slaves. That is how China is able to compete with America. And if you pass up employees that could have been an asset to your company for someone else that has a better credit score it will not be long before China is ahead of America.”

Sir! My eyes are rolling too hard to control the ship! AAAaaaaahhh!

[acidhead]

I've never owned a credit card in my life.

My second grand-mother grew up in war torn Germany and through the Depression.

She stressed over and over the importance of saving and paying in cash.

Its something I always have done and is a major reason why my opinions are not very popular with the in-the-know crowd.

I may think old-school as compared to those who have the huge house or second vehicle but at the end of the day I do not owe anybody nothing.

But I'm positive I sleep better than most who are drowning in debt and are clinging to Obama's WORDS OF HOPE AND OPTIMISTIC PROMISE.

He's the marketing advertisers wet dream and most are soaking in his false and deceitful propaganda.

[War Eagle]

I agree, we are not numbers but human-beings, not human-doings!

It would do our heads in to sit back and realize just how many different numbers from all aspect of society are attached to our names, from our Birth>>>to>>>Death Certificates.

What are we; products or people...IT'S INSANE!!!

btw:

Interesting and thought provoking article member # 2...

Well posted members; # 60102, 44240, 18342, 87686 and 50209.

[:PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR:]

OMG. I don't know where to start with this one. So many wrongs in this article!

Edited August 19, 2009 by :PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR:

[Space Commander Travis]

OMG. I don't know where to start with this one. So many wrongs in this article!

Care to enumerate a few?

[Oen Anderson]

I see today on MSN money watch that Michael Jackson's credit score was only 564! He was a multi-millionaire and his FICO scores sucked. Just goes to show how little credit scores mean when you are rich and how unfair they are when you are poor.