July 11, 2022 | By Greg Fisher

An astounding amount of despicable, un-American behavior exists in people in lending and credit reporting. Incredibly, they suggest that lenders lie to credit bureaus. A magical instrument called a "goodwill letter" is still a popular notion for people giving advice on how to get a better credit record.

The federal law the Fair Credit Reporting Act states

(a) Accuracy and fairness of credit reporting. The Congress makes the following findings: (1) The banking system is dependent upon fair and accurate credit reporting. Inaccurate credit reports directly impair the efficiency of the banking system, and unfair credit reporting methods undermine the public confidence which is essential to the continued functioning of the banking system.

That's not an obscure, cherry-picked passage buried in the law. Those are the first words of the FCRA–the premise of the country's consumer credit record system.

James R. Schenck is the president and CEO of Pentagon, the federal credit union. His website states: "If you want to remove an account because of negative information, your best option is to write a 'goodwill letter' to the credit bureau asking to have the information removed. Whether the information is removed will be up to the bureau, but it doesn’t hurt to state your case politely. You’re more likely to have an account removed if it is older and your more recent credit history is strong."

Robert Dejong is the CEO of Credit One Bank. Linking to the internet domain thepointsguy.com, Dejong's website states, "If you call in to your card issuer and your request to remove a late payment is initially turned down by a customer service representative, consider escalating your request by asking to speak with a supervisor or manager."

This one turns the notion of trust in the system on its head. Sasan Goodarzi is the CEO of Intuit, the parent company of Credit Karma. His website quotes a representative of the credit bureau Experian, Rod Griffin: "'For example, if the consumer has never had any delinquency in the past, catches up immediately on the missed payment, and asks that it be removed from the credit report, the lender might oblige. Life happens, and they and Experian understand that.'"

Stupefying. Astonishing.

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