by
Carl Hampton
08/04/2006
In a country that prides itself on
innovation and a citizen’s right to
privacy, why are we still living with the
most antiquated personal credit scoring
system in the world? Our SSN (social
security number) is the key to our financial
existence. It allows the world to see the
good, the bad and sometimes the downright
ugly. We have no choice but to use this
system to obtain credit, mortgages,
insurance and even jobs. Having established
the importance of this 9 digit number to us
as individuals why are we still using a
system that appears to have been designed
for the sole benefit of thieves and robbers?
We may just as well walk around with a BIG
sign pinned to our backs telling any
criminal with half a brain “Great Credit -
Please Rob Me- All information required
listed below.”
Anyone who has had the terrible misfortune
to be affected by Identity Theft will know
only too well how completely useless and
ineffective our current system is. The pain
can and normally will go on for many years.
YOU ARE THE VICTIM OF A TERRIBLE CRIME! It
would appear that everyone knows you are the
victim of this crime, but the system has no
answers for you. What seems like a very
simple solution (remove these items from my
credit report) becomes a MAJOR and very time
consuming challenge. The demand letters just
keep arriving by the sack load and of course
your credit score, the thing we are all
judged by, keeps going down. It finally gets
to levels we never knew existed before this
nightmare began.
Before I outline a possible solution, lets
look at the problem. We are asked to give up
our SSN every time we need credit. How do we
know where that information is going. We
complete these credit applications and hand
over our life story to someone we have never
met before - our name, address, date of
birth, bank account and SSN. This person
normally takes the application to someone
else who either faxes it or puts the
information into an online system. We have
no idea where this information is going - IN
GOD WE TRUST.
With Identity Theft (the so-called “White
Collar Crime”) hitting record levels, it
time for the government to start looking
after the citizens it's paid to protect. Why
are we still using a system most 3rd world
countries would laugh at? If we must use a
credit score system as a measure of our
ability to pay debts, then at the very least
put in place a system that protects us from
criminals.
Why not make the SSN card a “Smart Card”
with all our credit information held by a
secure government agency. Before you all
start crying “big brother” they already
have it anyway.
Just watch Law and Order or any CSI program
and see how many times they trace someone
from a credit card or cell phone. The smart
card could have an account number, something
like a credit card number. This number plus
our zip code is the only personal
information they would get. The dealers or
stores would pay a small fee to the agency
each time they requested a credit score.
This would allow them to make a basic
decision, yes or no. Should they wish to
lend us the funds and we accepted their
terms they could give us an
account/reference number which we could
enter into a government run secured web site
allowing us to complete their application
form. This would ensure that only fully
licensed lending organizations would be
receiving our most personal information.
They (our leaders) get the chance to put
some real meaning into the words “Serve
and Protect” and we get to sleep at night
without the fear of being left pennyless,
seems fair to me.
Have an opinion or a question you would like
me to answer, then write me!
http://www.CarlHampton.com
