MReport.com ......... "Half of Americans Believe Lenders Control Credit Scores"

George -- Many people will blame anyone but themselves for their problems.  I once heard someone who was purchasing way beyond her means say she will just file bankruptcy if it comes to that. 'Just' file bankruptcy?  Clueless.

Wow, that's an amazing stat George!  It points to a general lack of financial education as well as failing to take responsibility for our actions.

George, I dunno.  I get your point about personal responsibility and all that.  But there is life, and it throws a lot of stuff at a lot of people who, even though they handle it as well as they can, a sick kid or layoff can create havoc.  I think we need to combine a bit of compassion with an expectation that people will be responsible - or at least as responsible as they can be.

George - I had no idea that people believed this.  It doesn't even begin to make sense to me.

Interesting post, George.  I had not read the article, but have read client's explanations of problem items on their credit report.  You're right - it seems to always be someone else's fault!  Check lost in the mail, credit card company didn't send me statements, set up on auto-pay but the bank didn't draft the payment, etc., etc.  And my all-time favorite:  "No, I haven't had any re-possessions.  I just gave the car back!"

George, I learned along time ago that we as lenders also put termites in the house, brought radon to the world, cause all title issues, and are too invasive...

Excellent post! Until we take ownership of our piece of the mess, we will never fully recover. We need to take responsibility and control what we can.

This is actually incorrect as these figures were quickly disputed after this survey....."The Web site was quick to call these beliefs “mistaken” in a related statement. “Consumers are in control of their financial lives, not lenders. And, the most important factor in maintaining good credit is to pay your bills on time. By being up-to-date on payments, consumers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to managing their credit status,” Carrie Coghill, director of consumer education for FreeScore.com, said in a statement. The results found that more than four in five consumers, or 80.8 percent of respondents, agree with notions that their credit scores remain firmly in their control.

That is an astonishing number indeed. There seems to be a thread here of agreement that too many think they should not be held responsible for their own actions. I'll add my own personal annoyance that we now have a 500 million dollar consumer finance protection agency at taxpayer expense, so those who don't read contracts can contact them,  have them contact the lender and resolve problems. Sometimes a lender may be pulling a scam, but for the most part consumers may make bad decisions and have to live with them.

Simply watch the news at night and you can see the entitlement generation demanding more and more for less and less effort on their part. It's disgusting.

That's not unusual, it's reported that over 47% of Americans don't pay any federal income tax and many more collect entitlements, therefore most of them are uninformed or misinformed, so until these Americans get educated, we'll always have a mentality of ignorance in our society.

I still find it hard to believe Lenders are blamed for the housing crisis.

Hi George, I agree.  I think it goes along with the "entitlement thinking" generation.

Dear George,

Indeed? I guess we have a new group of people to blame for our silly behavior then?

Humans...Can't change it. 

Although I understand your point, I do have to offer another possible reasoning for this statistic.

Consumer credit scores are TOTALLY DIFFERENT from mortgage credit scores.  All of these resources available to folks where they can get their free credit report or pay $15 for their scores.......these scores are calculated using totally different formulas that what most lenders use.

So when someone checks their own score online and sees a 705, but when the lender pulls it and it's a 620...can you blame them for thinking the lender has something to do with it?

Furthermore, lenders will say pay this off and pay that off (usually old bad debt) and we can get you a loan when your score goes up.  Sorry, but it just doesn't work that way.  In fact, many times doing such will LOWER the score!

So when someone pays stuff off and they see their scores go down on the next lender pull...what are they to think???

I've known several clients who in the very same spirit of personal responsibility you speak of, are frustrated because they can't get a straight answer on what their credit score really is.  Even many so-called credit repair companies have in their ultra-fine print that their scoring system is not to be confused with a FICO score that lenders use.  Many of these other scoring systems have a point difference of 100!

Personally, I'm beginning to be believe all this press on free credit reports, credit monitoring, etc is just a  racket and a very misleading consumer product.  Wish the author of your article would investigate & write about that!

HI George,

Great post, this has sparked some core driven comments. Here's a take on it that I haven't seen in the comments.

Some things are beyond a person's control and that is how life works, God has given us the ability to overcome adversity whether brought on by our-self, others or the cosmos.

When our leaders come in and bail people out they got you in their pocket. Who would ever vote out someone that is giving you stuff? If the leaders can bail out a big group all at the same time that's like fishing with a net instead of a hook. The problem is, you're still caught.

A perfect example is, a guy loses a job for no fault of his own. His fault or not, he needs a job to survive and he will do anything to make some income even if that means taking less money at a lower position. If the feds give him extended long term unemployment benefits, the guy does not need to take a lower position or less money. Great right?

What happens when better jobs become available? The employer is going pass over the applicant that hasn't worked for two years and pick the applicant that is currently employed but looking for a better position.

The guy on extended long term unemployment benefits for two years has been systematically de-skilled by our government, all in the name of his own protection. The weak will fall for this everytime and a leader without integrity will use it in his favor.

When you rely on other's to save you from adversity you deny God the chance to make you stronger.

George, it seems pretty silly that people would believe this, is it that they dont have responsibility or is it because we fail to teach finance in this country.  I am not a huge fan of credit scores though, generally they are not a very good judge of character, I have been burned by people with great credit scores just as often as those w poor scores, I think that more emphasis should be placed on witnesses such as landlords, employers, etc.

I think many credit card companies play games with things.  We don't have any.  I have had them "not get the check" and hit me with penalties and such.  I hate them.

It's no surprise. That's the byproduct of a dumbed down co-dependent society. Voila...........Greece! Here we come.