The entire system is stacked against us! Sure, you must continue checking and changing inaccurate information on your credit. As a victim of identity theft in the amount of about $150,000, I placed a freeze on my credit reports and ended up being marketed by freecreditreport.com and its other names. Sadly, one of the leading credit reporting bureaus (Experian) owns this service. Even though I refused to sign up for it, I was still charged repeatedly by this company. When I sent in 5 plus copies of proof of identity theft throughout the years, the credit reporting bureaus said the docs weren't received even though I had fax confirmations and sent them by certified mail. It ran a great deal of money to hire attorneys to prove I was innocent and it took almost 12 years for the credit bureaus to remove these inaccuracies.

When I finally got the ID theft part worked out, secondary and third-party collectors were allowed to purchase the very ID theft debts that had been removed. These parties proceeded to call and threaten me with lawsuits and the destruction of my renewed good credit if I didn't pay. It made no difference that these debts were once removed or that the statute of limitations prevented them from collecting. The result was that they were allowed to place dings on my credit again. It's a catch-22 circle of frustration where it forced me to go through the entire process of reviewing my credit files and score repeatedly and unnecessarily. I closed credit cards I never ordered and got dinged. For example, someone ordered a Sears card, Macy's, and a JC Penny's card. I never had any of these cards. To date, I have never been late or failed to pay the full balance of a credit card and have paid mortgage and car loans in a timely fashion. I should have a perfect credit score. But no-----that can never happen as long as the credit reporting bureaus are free from either regulation or at worst, enforcement of regulations. Every time I dispute inaccurate information, down goes the score again.

If I didn't have money in the bank, I would likely be denied a loan. At best, I would be allowed to get a loan at a higher interest rate than my actual payment history should reflect. Fannie Mae should be forced into a policy change. It does not have the right to make these decisions that impact us, especially because it needed us to bail it out of its previously documented unfair and bad business decisions. The credit reporting bureaus are private businesses and should not be allowed to dictate the course of our lives. They have a vested interest in trusting business over the word of the valuable financial and personal information they are paid to utilize against us. It's absurd and the entire system needs a logical and just overhaul.