A follow up to Banktastic that will make you wonder what’s going on, sometimes.
Remember how I was set to move my loan? Well, I finally did so this week. Imagine my surprise when I was nearly turned down… because of a bad credit score. Never mind that I have never had a past due notice or a late bill in my life; my credit score was saying that I was a big big loser, and was untrustworthy… certainly not loan material.
I called Old Kent and told them this, but they immediately washed their hands of it. "We can’t do anything about this", they insisted. I know how credit bureaus work; it’s like this: they report what the companies that are tied to your credit tell them. They are a middleman and nothing more. So here was Old Kent blaming it on the middleman. There was nothing I could do with them, allegedly, so I dealt with the credit bureau and launched an investigation.
If this was something minor, I wouldn’t have gone nuts about it… but a credit score is one of those magical things in life. I stopped by the local branch and spoke with the VP there, who couldn’t understand what was going on either. I got to see their internal files on me and, yes, everything was paid up thus far, on time. She was as courteous as possible about it, which was a nice contrast to the fellow on the phone who not only couldn’t help me, but had to check if he could give out his last name when asked for it!
It’s the same problem that all big corporations have. If an employee makes a mistake, they can’t admit it unless it’s in their favor. If it’s in your favor, or involves a good sum of money, expect less. -pm
Posted in Miscellaneous