Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis credit score video review
Interaction with a central bank. A look inside the regional bank of the Eighth Federal Reserve District in the U.S.
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@truthandfalsity.com]
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 3:29 PM
To: Mary Suiter, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Cc: Barbara Flowers, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Education
Subject: credit score, closing, history, length #1503v
This message and your response will be published at http://creditscoring.com/interac... .
You state, "Don't cancel your oldest credit cards as length of credit history is important." (5:09)
What happens to the length of my credit history when I cancel my oldest credit card? https://twitter.com/credi... .
--
Greg Fisher
Truth and Falsity
truthandfalsity.com
Page A2
pagea2.com
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
skype fisher100
937-681-3224
From: Suiter, Mary C
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 3:49 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Subject: Automatic reply: credit score, closing, history, length #1503v
I will respond to you when I return to the office.
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@truthandfalsity.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 11:18 AM
To: Girresch, Laura E
Cc: STLS Economic Education; Suiter, Mary C
Subject: RE: credit score, closing, history, length #1503v II
I talked to Ms. Suiter and she told me to talk to you.
I left a message for you a moment ago, and marked it as urgent.
--
Greg Fisher
Truth and Falsity
truthandfalsity.com
Page A2
pagea2.com
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
skype fisher100
937-681-3224
From: Girresch, Laura E
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 1:41 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Subject: RE: credit score, closing, history, length #1503v II
Hi Greg,
Sorry I missed your call.
If your question is what exactly would happen to your credit history in that scenario, that's getting into a level of detail at which a credit monitoring organization would be a better contact for you. They could give you a better answer in terms of what specifically would happen to your credit in various situations.
Thanks,
Laura
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@truthandfalsity.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 2:17 PM
To: STLS Media Inquiries
Cc: Girresch, Laura E
Subject: RE: credit score, closing, history, length #1503v II
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
St. Louis
I just talked to your representative in the cc: line of this message.
I'm baffled by how a "credit monitoring organization" (whatever that is) should be engaged regarding a questionable statement by a Federal Reserve bank. But, name one.
What is the basis for your advice about canceling my oldest credit cards?
Or, did you just make it up?
Also, where in the world did you get the idea that employers use credit scores? They do not. I looked into it. But, again, the onus is yours, so name one.
If I asked you about a flying saucer that you said you saw, would you send me to NASA?
--
Greg Fisher
Truth and Falsity
truthandfalsity.com
Page A2
pagea2.com
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
skype fisher100
937-681-3224
From: STLS Media Inquiries
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 3:55 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Subject: RE: credit score, closing, history, length #1503v II
Hi Mr. Fisher,
Thank you for reaching out. I believe you spoke with Laura on my team a couple of times today. If you do not want to speak with a credit reporting company then my best suggestion would be to reach out to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Their contact information is available via the following link: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/contact-us/
Best,
Adriene
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@truthandfalsity.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 4:13 PM
To: Dempsey, Adriene L
Cc: Bullard, James B; Ombudsman, (Board)
Subject: RE: credit score, unanswered questions, #Myth4, CFPB (BCFP), your supervisor's name
I spoke with Ms. Girresch once, so your belief is false; a perfect metaphor.
Regarding your best suggestion, are you a credit score expert?
If not, your suggestion is bad. It would be bad even if you are such an expert.
Speaking of the proverbial so-called utilization ratio, another lulu: "Checking a credit report on a regular basis, contacting credit agencies to correct information, creating a plan to get out of debt and keeping credit card balances below 35 percent of the available credit all help to keep credit scores in the high range."
What's so special about 35 percent? Your video said 50 is best. (2:32)
Are you going to do anything about the false information on your website about employers using credit scores?
What is your supervisor's name?
--
Greg Fisher
Truth and Falsity
truthandfalsity.com
Page A2
pagea2.com
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
skype fisher100
937-681-3224
PS I don't "reach out."
From: Dempsey, Adriene L
Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2015 3:15 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Subject: RE: credit score, unanswered questions, #Myth4, CFPB (BCFP), your supervisor's name
Greg -- Regarding our FICO Credit Score video, here are links to several source materials and references for specific areas you inquired about.
Best,
Adriene
- Regarding "Don't cancel your oldest credit cards as length of credit history is important." (5:09). What happens to the length of my credit score when I cancel my oldest credit cards? Here are references.
nextavenue.org/article/201...
blog.credit.com/2015/01/10-credit-s...
myfico.com/crediteducation/questi...
bankrate.com/finance/credit-car...
money.usnews.com/money/bl... - Regarding the information that employers use credit scores, this should be credit reports-employers can pull your credit report-and we are correcting this immediately. Here are references for the corrected information.
nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/ca...
creditcards.com/credit-card-ne...
nerdwallet.com/blog/tips/empl... - General references for the video include:
creditkarma.com/article/wh...
creditkarma.com/article/credit-sc...
creditkarma.com/article/Understandin...
creditkarma.com/article/why-your-credi...
myfico.com/crediteducation/creditsco...
credit.com/credit-scores/what-is-t...
myfico.com/Downloads/Files/myFICO_... - Some sources use 35% credit card debt percentage as a benchmark, while others indicate that you must have less than 50% to obtain a mortgage. Our video says less than 50%, but we also indicate that lower is better.
investopedia.com/ask/answers/08...
bankrate.com/finance/credit-c...
blog.smartcredit.com/2011/02/1...
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@truthandfalsity.com]
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 1:42 PM
To: Adriene Dempsey, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Cc: Jeff Scott (for Fair Isaac), IQ PR; Yuliya Demyanyk, senior research economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; June Gates, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; Steven Richmond, editor-in-chief, BadCredit.org, Digital Brands Inc.; Kimberly Rotter; Sue Campbell, director, Editorial and Content, Next Avenue
Subject: RE: credit score, unanswered questions, #uFAQ, #Myth4, #n524, in the weeds, (in my backyard)
As I said, I'm with the media and I'm on deadline. I'm writing an article about your organization. Ensure that the top person of it gets a copy of this message, please. See it and your response at creditscoring.com/interaction/2015/04/ .
The first link in your list leads to this statement:
When you check your credit score and credit report with one of the three major credit bureaus, that's a soft inquiry and doesn't affect your score. However, whenever an outside party checks your credit score - typically when you apply for a new line of credit - that's a hard inquiry. In this case, you do receive a small nick to your credit score because you have the temporary appearance of not being able to meet your financial obligations.
Months before I contacted you, I asked the author about that. Ultimately, I wrote to him:
A man has an 850 credit score.
The day he finds out, he applies for 550 credit cards from 550 different banks. Is his credit score now 300?
What if he applies for 1000 cards? 10,000? A million?
I have no response. I'll send you that correspondence immediately. By immediately, I mean within the next day. The author said that he wants evidence supporting a correction, if warranted.
Months before I heard from you, I formulated a question to get the ultimate answer about Myth 1 (that every inquiry on my credit report and made by a lender lowers my credit score), and asked Fair Isaac. Here is the question and response:
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 3:55 PM
To: Jeff Scott (for Fair Isaac), IQ PR
Cc: Kimberly Rotter
Subject: credit score, inquiries, all hardDo all hard inquiries for credit cards cause FICO scores to go down?
--
Greg Fisher
Truth and Falsity
truthandfalsity.com
Page A2
pagea2.com
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
937-681-3224
From: Jeffrey Scott
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 4:02 PM
To: Greg Fisher
Cc: Kimberly Rotter
Subject: Re: credit score, inquiries, all hardNo
I just wish that had a period. I invited Mr. Scott to expound.
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@pagea2.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 4:43 PM
To: Jeff Scott (for Fair Isaac), IQ PR
Cc: Kimberly Rotter
Subject: RE: credit score, inquiries, all hard, statementSee Myth 1. The statement by Fair Isaac is not conclusive. Will you provide a statement that addresses my question? #Myth1
In the interim, your answer suffices. Thank you for your help.
Perhaps you could ask him. After all, it is FICO Friday, featuring fun with the Fed (& Fisher)-an interactive experience!
Engage, as you say.
Also, regarding the same first item of your source materials and references, you restated my question as
What happens to the length of my credit score when I cancel my oldest credit cards?
My question, actually, was
What happens to the length of my credit history when I cancel my oldest credit card?
Credit scores do not have chronological lengths, and the question has nothing to do with credit scores, anyway.
7 days ago, you told me, "Regarding the information that employers use credit scores, this should be credit reports-employers can pull your credit report-and we are correcting this immediately."
However, your website still states, "In today's world, landlords, employers, government agencies, and insurance, utility and cell phone companies all use credit scores to determine the character and creditworthiness of potential customers, tenants and employees."
What do you mean by immediately? As you can see, the gap is closing. The Federal Reserve system is catching up-and it is happening right in my backyard!
Will you forward this to the author of the piece on your website? How can she be reached? I made a few phone calls to no avail.
--
Greg Fisher
Truth and Falsity
truthandfalsity.com
Page A2
pagea2.com
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
skype fisher100
mobile/text 937-681-3224