Letter to Texas House Representative Charlie Geren

Dear Representative Geren,

I understand that you were denied an insurance policy due to the inaccuracy of your credit score. Due to a low credit score, the insurance company that you applied felt you were too much of a risk and as a result would not accept your application.

That actually surprises me. I thought that most politicians had a way around the system. Well, since you are experiencing the same problems of your voters and getting a taste of how the world works outside the capital, let’s take this opportunity to let this unfortunate mishap turn into a positive for all of us.

You might not be aware of some of the problems in the system of credit and credit scoring. As a State Representative you potentially yield a lot of power. Your colleagues in Washington have passed the buck to the states to pass the tough laws against the credit industry. This way they can still sit in the even more unrealistic world of career politician land and not have to do anything that disrupts their relationships with the credit industry who like to pay lots of money in campaign contributions. It is quite the cozy relationship.

Being a Republican you especially have a great opportunity to make a difference. Unfortunately, at least in Congress, it is the Republicans that love the political contributions from the credit industry. Unfortunately, they have lost power and now the Democrats (who have no love for the industry because the industry shows them no love) are actually starting to do something on a Federal level.

While that taste of reality is still fresh, take this opportunity to start a movement on the Texas state level that shuts down the anti-consumer practices of the credit industry. How about some new legislation that helps us out with unethical debt collectors? How about some help with usury laws on interest rates? How about some action on credit scoring?

You see in the real world consumers are struggling to get out of the debtors jail that politicians have helped build through the years.

You had mentioned that your score was low only because of inquiries of 4 major credit transactions. There is a low probability that those inquiries that you had during that time period would have done enough damage to lower your credit score to the levels were people are denied based on credit scores. Thus, you probably have many mistakes on your credit report that are bringing that score down. Of course, with better legislation, that also might not have ever happened.


Sincerely,


Bob Brooks