The Short List, Long Version
ARRIVING: Bank policies that will eat you alive and take a bite out of your credit score. Take for example this situation: just to be on the right side of the credit bureaus, an unnamed person makes a double payment on their second mortgage to their bank. Let’s call it Principle Bank…you know, just based on principles and the fact that the bank in question is headquartered in Des Moines. The double payment made was intended to ensure against any payment ever being late for any reason whatsoever, like a check in the mail that doesn’t get there on time, or complete forgetfulness. Then let’s say a subsequent payment is late by 8 days, so Principle Bank dings the customer’s credit score by 50 points. When the customer points out to the bank (via snail mail because Principle rests on its principles of not taking customer phone calls and not accepting email complaints) that she’d made an advance payment and therefore should not suffer a credit ding, Principle Bank’s spokesperson reports back that the double payment has been credited to the principal amount due, not regular monthly payments. Oh, P.S.; the banker adds that the bank doesn’t change remarks filed with the three major credit bureaus unless the bank is wrong, which of course the customer believes is the case or the customer wouldn’t have taken time to dispute the credit ding in the first place. Stop the presses! Principle Bank’s principal spokeswoman also adds a mention (smugly) that the customer can complete to sign up for online payments ongoing. Wow. What a thought. Wait, hold that thought until you finally listen to your customers. Customers have principles too. Bottom line: one can go too far trying to get on the right side of credit that one ends up circling the world, landing in the debit column after all. Our advice: bank with someone who has principles and doesn’t just capitalize the word. We at www.watchBOOM.com would like to suggest to all banks everywhere that they convert customers to their bank by offering the advantage of NEVER HAVING A LATE PAYMENT AGAIN, offering customers the opportunity to keep a second payment on file just in case. We think Boomers everywhere would put a run on that bank…in a good way.
DEPARTING: Trust in banks. ‘nuf said.
