BiggerPockets

25% Americans have FICO scores below 599

Saturday, August 14

Greetings everyone, I've come by some information that I thought I'd share with everyone. 25% of Americans have FICO scores below 599. That means that there are a lot of people out there who have a hard time getting credit cards, and an almost impossible struggle getting loans for a vehicle or home.

Now, people who have stricken credit due to a foreclosure from a job loss do not fit in the same category as those who were fiscally irresponsible and were foreclosed on. Rules on credit scores are not mature enough to adequately analyze the reality of today's market. This is why we see people with great jobs and some good savings renting homes because their credit was demolished a couple years ago when they were let go from a job and couldn't afford their home when it took them a year to find similar employment. Loan underwriters need to take into account these situational factors.

What do you think about this information and what are your experiences involving good people with bad credit? 

A humorous way to deal with junk mail

Friday, August 13

Here is an effective and humorous way to deal with junk mail: send it back! Yes, when you get a bill from your insurance or electric company and it contains ads for irrelevant things you don’t care about from companies that are not your insurance or electric provider, just pack those nice colored advertisements back into the return envelope with your bill payment and let them throw away their own junk mail.

When you have junk mail from random companies save a bit of it and when you receive a “pre-approved for” this or that credit card with an application and a return envelope, just pile your junk mail in the return envelope and send it to them along with their empty application for a credit card. You pre-approved me for a second mortgage? That sounds great. You know what else sounds great? Coupons for this new pizza place down the road. They have pre-approved YOU for some great cheap pizza!

Send this to 10 friends or I'll have bad luck?

Friday, August 13

You know what most of the e-mails you get that tell you "forward this on to 10 friends or you'll have bad luck", "forward this on to 10 friends unless you don't care about (insert cause)" etc. have in common? Most of these e-mails have a tracking system connected to them. That means that each time you forward that message to other people their e-mails are recorded. This is how companies collect vast lists of "active" e-mail addresses to spam with advertisements.

 I know it sounds terrible but that's what 9 out of 10 of them are, just e-mail collecting campaigns. It started with actual mail campaigns back in the day that said: HEY, this little boy in Florida is going for the Guinness Book of World Records for most business cards, so send your card back to this address and mail this message on to as many people as you know! Do yourself a favor and don't let yourself and your friends' information be collected without your consent.

By the way, e-mail petitions are NOT ACCEPTABLE TO CONGRESS either. These are at best spirited but vain attempts at policy change but are more likely another great ruse to get your active e-mail address. Who wants to send e-mails to addresses that haven't been checked in years when they know you have checked your inbox in the last week?