Credit Reports: Despotic Financial Control by Corporate America

Kevin Drum rants on a growing problem that will, more likely than not, affect you at some time:

....The problem with credit reports is that they're strictly under the control of one side of the credit transaction: businesses. If a business requests a report, they get it, no questions asked. If a business reports a problem, it goes on the report, no questions asked. The consumer never knows any of this is happening, and that's the way the credit reporting companies like it. This needs to stop. If a business requests a report, the consumer should be notified — by email, phone, or in writing — and the report should go out only if the consumer authorizes it. If a nonroutine entry is added to a credit report, the consumer should be notified so that she can object immediately if she thinks a mistake has been made. Consumers should be full partners in the creation of credit reports, and any changes or uses of credit reports should be fully transparent to the consumer involved. These aren't just pieces of paper anymore. Credit reports are minutely detailed resumes of your entire life, and credit reporting companies shouldn't be allowed to arrogantly treat your life as if it's their sole property. After all, an improper use of your credit report can do you tremendous damage. It should fundamentally be considered joint property, as much yours as the credit reporting company's....

As a victim of Identity Theft (and the subsequent tials and tribulations involved in repairing my illegally stolen credit), I can assure you firsthand that credit agencies are not "user-friendly". Their primary objective, or at least the strong impression they give, is that they are out to make a lot of money from you and me by charging us for information about ourselves, information for which we should not have to beg and pay, but should always be freely or reasonably available to us. And rather than assist us in fixing errors in our reports, they make it one of life's hardest endeavors. Today's credit-reporting agencies are corrupt, corporate-friendly and in desperate need of complete overhaul. So when will that be added to the Democratic Party's agenda?