Jo's Cafe

I was reading around the front page of MSN earlier this week and found this story:

New threats to your credit score

Most people know, and can accept, that an unpaid credit card bill can wind up in a collections account that will devastate their credit scores.

But did you know that your credit also could suffer from an unpaid parking ticket, a traffic fine you ignored or a forgotten library book?

Holy smokes batman, that’ll make you run check the return dates on your latest withdrawals from the local library. Fortunately, I don’t use them. But still makes you stop and think doesn’t it?

Down in the article, the author Liz Pulliam Weston talks about having moved and a library book getting packed and sent with them. Late notices were not received because of the US Postal service’s wonderful way of handling forwarded mail, and wham — a 50 point drop in her credit score. And even after returning the offending book and paying the fine, it still took 7 years to fall off her report.

It’s been seven years, and the black mark has fallen off that report. I was fortunate that my strong credit history kept the damage from being worse. Others aren’t so lucky. Those with thinner or more troubled credit histories can easily find a single collection action prevents them from getting loans, or forces them to pay higher interest rates. That’s not the end of the financial effects, either, since insurers, landlords and employers also use credit information to evaluate applicants.

You know it’s bad enough that you have crooks out there stealing people’s lives and ruining said lives with bad credit and other damages, like criminal histories, but an unreturned library book??? I mean, okay — yes, it’s wrong to borrow a book and not return it, but it shouldn’t ding up your credit rating.

I wonder whose bright idea came up with this one? Makes it even more important for people to know what is on their credit reports. Grab up the phone and call TransUnion, Experian and Equifax and check on them overdrawn books.