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SusanLarson

(284 posts)
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 12:41 PM Jun 2016

Civil fines and fees no longer affect your credit reports

Under rules that took effect last week, government agencies and businesses may no longer lower peoples credit scores over unpaid civil fines and fees.

Examples include, but are not limited to: towing charges, vehicle storage fees, parking and traffic tickets/fines, toll road fines/fees, ordinance violations, library fines, eviction fees, and unpaid taxes."

Other things that formerly affected credit scores that will be now rejected include health club dues, karate club/martial arts dues, magazine subscriptions, DVD/book club fees, prepaid debit/gift cards, checking/savings account activity/balances, and Home Owner Association dues.

Credit data from Bail Bonds companies, check cashing companies, and payday loan companies will also be rejected outright.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/49/4987.asp

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Civil fines and fees no longer affect your credit reports (Original Post) SusanLarson Jun 2016 OP
The former condition was pretty screwed up. JonathanRackham Jun 2016 #1
next to go: any claim or judgement not found valid by a court hearing/trial nt msongs Jun 2016 #2
Good. Not paying your bills shouldn't affect your credit scscholar Jun 2016 #3
How's that work? Igel Jun 2016 #4
Where did the information for other than....... WillowTree Jun 2016 #5
A memo from Xerox explaining the changes SusanLarson Jun 2016 #7
What about fines for public drunkeness, public indecency, assaulting a cop with a giant pickle? NightWatcher Jun 2016 #6
Next items up for exclusion should be any debt incurred Snarkoleptic Jun 2016 #8

JonathanRackham

(1,604 posts)
1. The former condition was pretty screwed up.
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 12:47 PM
Jun 2016

I have a bill and I pay it so it (formerly) counted against my credit score.

Glad to see Big Brother is watching me so closely.

Hey, there goes my credit score for criticizing the system.........................

 

scscholar

(2,902 posts)
3. Good. Not paying your bills shouldn't affect your credit
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 01:02 PM
Jun 2016

For one thing, it's in the past, and you are agreeing to make payments in the future.

Igel

(35,191 posts)
4. How's that work?
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 01:31 PM
Jun 2016

So if next you you report back that your employer didn't pay you for the last 6 months, it shouldn't affect things going forward? After all, it's in the past and as long as he agrees to make payments in the future ...

However, if he didn't pay any employees it may be because he's using what cash he has to keep his credit score up. Meanwhile, that debt is piling up in the background and can force him into predictable bankruptcy. Predictable to those with information, but not to those who look at the "permissible" information.

Meanwhile, that large loan he took out a few months before the forced bankruptcy ... Based on government-imposed ignorance.

We've learned nothing from the mortgage debacle. There was no way to evaluate the trustworthiness of a lot of lower-ranked tranches because there was no way to evaluate how reliable the mortgages they were based on were. Too many people falsified information or omitted information. It was too easy to get loans, and that was because there'd been a bad racial skew to the previous way of doing things.

We tightened up procedures and requirements. And you know what? People found there was a strong racial skew again. Can't have that.

Now we're told it's a good thing to leave out information, making it easier to falsify what's required on loan applications. But that's okay--we can more easily hold accountable those we're telling aren't allowed to have information for making a reasoned decision as to credit worthiness of an applicant. Gotta find a guilty person, but we've already ruled out a priori a lot of candidates.

WillowTree

(5,325 posts)
5. Where did the information for other than.......
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 03:39 PM
Jun 2016

......."towing charges, vehicle storage fees, parking and traffic tickets/fines, toll road fines/fees" come from? I refer to things like "eviction fees and unpaid taxes" and "health club dues, karate club/martial arts dues, magazine subscriptions, DVD/book club fees, prepaid debit/gift cards, checking/savings account activity/balances, and Home Owner Association dues". I don't see any reference to such things no longer affecting a person's credit rating. It does say that "The credit reporting agencies will eliminate the reporting of debts that did not arise from a contract or agreement by the consumer to pay, such as tickets or fines". But, at least in most cases, most of the things on that list do, in fact, involve a contract or agreement to pay. And if there is an agreement to pay, I don't see why failure to abide by that agreement would not result in an entry on the credit report.

NightWatcher

(39,343 posts)
6. What about fines for public drunkeness, public indecency, assaulting a cop with a giant pickle?
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 03:52 PM
Jun 2016

It was all a misunderstanding and I'm not going to pay those damn fines. For one thing, I was not drunk, only naked from the waist down, and it was a zucchini not a pickle.

Oh, and I don't want that to pull my stellar 243 credit score down into bad territory.

Snarkoleptic

(5,995 posts)
8. Next items up for exclusion should be any debt incurred
Thu Jun 23, 2016, 07:59 PM
Jun 2016

for basic medical care/transport. I'm referring to ambulance, ER, and other basic medical needs.
Skipping out on non-reconstructive, elective cosmetic surgery, that's an entirely different story.

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