For consumers, 2009 will always be known as the year of the ‘credit crunch’.  One of the biggest things consumers will remember is how poorly their credit card companies treated them.  Almost everyone received letters in the mail about their credit limits decreasing, interest rates rising, and the like.  Of course, this abusive behavior led to the passage of the Credit Card Responsibility, Accountability and Disclosure Act of 2009, or CARD Act for short.

Here’s a brief summary of what this Act does for cardholders, among others…

• Credit card companies cannot increase interest rates on existing credit card balances unless a customer is at least 60 days late.
• A guaranteed 21 day grace period on payments.
• 45 days advance notice of any interest rate increases.
• Tough rules around issuing credit cards to consumers who are under 21 years old.
• In the event of an interest rate increase, the credit card company must revert to the original rate after the customer makes six months of on-time payments.  Clearer disclosure of account terms before an account is opened.
• Restrictions on over limit fees. If a consumer has not “opted in” to allow a credit card issuer to approve a transaction that puts you in an over limit positions, they have to either decline the transaction or not charge you the over limit fee.
• No additional fees because of the method of payment.
• Billing statements must be mailed 21 days prior to the due date, and companies cannot charge a late fee if a payment is late due to a delay in processing.  Applications of payments above the minimum now have to be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate.
• A credit card company cannot raise interest rates in the first year of a customer relationship, and promotional interest rates must last at least six months.

So what should I do in 2010 in order to position myself in the best place?  You can find yourself almost completely exempt from the credit crunch by doing two things:

1. Getting out of credit card debt, and
2. Increasing your credit scores.

By getting yourself out of credit card debt it allows you to escape the abusive treatment by lenders. Remember, things like interest rate and minimum payment increases only matter if you carry a balance. Getting out of and staying out of credit card debt puts you in a very enviable position.
A second byproduct of getting out of credit card debt is the significant benefit to your credit scores. “Debt” makes up a whopping 30% of the points in your FICO® scores, which places it a close second behind whether or not you have negative information on your credit reports. And as many people have learned the hard way, the minimum score requirements to not only qualify but also qualify at the best interest rates have become more difficult to satisfy.

This means higher FICO scores equals approvals where in the past a higher FICO score meant an approval with the best rates.

On November 29^th, Liz Weston from MSN published the following article on how FICO Score Damage Points are calculated:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/weston-5-ways-to-kill-your-credit-scores.aspx?page=1

Essentially what happened was FICO simulated the impact of a variety of credit behaviors on FICO scores of both 680 and 780.  This is layed out in the below chart: 

Unfortunately, this information is not entirely correct.  It holds true for some cases, but it leaves out some very important points.  What FICO did not disclose and the article does not convey is that four of the five actions listed above will cause your credit file to be scored in a new scorecard!

FICO scores measure your credit file’s potential risk by scoring it using a unique algorithm specifically designed for your file type, called a scorecard. That means if you have a bankruptcy then you’re scored in a bankruptcy scorecard. If your credit file only has one or two accounts then it’s scored in what’s referred to as a thin file scorecard, and so forth and so on.

Point being, all of our credit files are not scored the same way AND not all are scored using the same FICO formula. Four of the five actions above are negative. And, when a clean file suddenly is hit with something negative it will go from essentially a “clean credit file” scorecard to a “derogatory file” scorecard. The result is a completely different measurement for EVERYTHING on your file. So adding a foreclosure or a settlement or a 30-day late payment or a bankruptcy to your credit file doesn’t “cost” it the points you see above. It causes everything on your file to have a new value so the score change can’t be attributed just to the negative item. The score change has to be attributed to the change in scorecards.

Point differences for the exact same action on the exact same FICO score can be anything but exactly the same. John Ulzheimer, one of the creators of the FICO score, re-interviewed FICO’s Public Affairs Director, Craig Watts. He was able to confirm from Watts that the examples in the FICO chart were “hypothetical” and “could vary significantly” from consumer to consumer. You can Ulzheimer’s his full article here.

http://www.credit.com/news/experts/2009-11-29/real-fico-score-damage-point-amounts-clarified.html

In summary, not all credit scores and scorecards are created equally!  Be careful what you read out there!

No.

FICO scores are created to be as objective as possible.  According to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, lenders cannot use this type of information when issuing credit.  The scores do not consider your race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status. Other factors not considered are your age, your salary, occupation, title, employer, date employed or employment history.

According to Fair Isaac Corporation, “independent research has shown that credit scoring is not unfair to minorities or people with little credit history. Scoring has proven to be an accurate and consistent measure of repayment for all people who have some credit history. In other words, at a given score, non-minority and minority applicants are equally likely to pay as agreed.”