Aaron, are you up to the task?

This is a big mess.

In the ridiculous, ubiquitous, growing, and out-of-control worldwide discussion about credit scores, some know what they are talking about, and some don’t.

And some should.  Employers are not permitted to check credit scores.  At least that’s what it says (verbatim) on Credit.com.

Well, eventually that’s what it said.

However, recently, riffing on a silly (and inaccurate) story in a fabulously New Yorky newspaper, the actual chairman and co-founder of Credit.com appeared on something called the Daily Ticker.  The Ticker is a video thing, and has a studio and everything (here’s your 15 minutes of fame, Yahoo!)!  The rambling host said, “So we know it can affect whether or not you can get a loan–clearly, your credit score–or, even, to get a job–now, possibly, whether or not you can get a date or a second date maybe–more importantly–or a partner, for that matter.”

Phew.

That disjointed blather starts at 50 seconds into the video.  In response, the interviewee was silent regarding the interviewer’s inaccurate setup.  The guest didn’t bother to set the confused host straight.

Guilt by association?  Abso-flippin-lutely.  And lest you think that this is unfair to the guest–the guy from Credit.com–here are his words (verbatim) in a piece preceding the video screed on Yahoo!:

Apparently, the new normal involves both sides of the dating equation coughing up credit score information heretofore considered sacrosanct except in economic transactions. It’s no longer about getting a job, buying a house, car, cell phone or insurance, nor is it about renting an apartment, or anything else — and it’s not personal. Wait, I guess it is… According to several interviews conducted by the Times, if you don’t have the right score, you may well be shown the door.

Credit scores, relatively speaking, have not been around very long.  The FICO score was first seen in 1989, but consumers were not given direct access until 2001.  Bank accounts, however, have been around a few decades longer, but there doesn’t seem to be any trend for swapping bank statements on dates.

What’s more important: Your qualifications to take on more debt or how much money you have?

But, stop the virtual press!  Not only is the interviewer the host of that little video show, he is the actual editor-in-chief of Yahoo! Finance! (!)  Hokey smokes!  Now we’re getting somewhere! (!)  If he can’t make a correction, who can?

If only he–He, as He sits atop of the great Mount Yahoo!–gets the word, we can start to make some progress.  The efficacy of a social media message is in question.  But–hold on.  Hold on a cotton-pickin’ New York Times minute.  Maybe there is something better.  Yahoo (!) is using (!) an ancient, long-forgotten medium of communication (!) called “email” (!).  At the bottom of the story, it says: “We’d love to hear from you! Send us an email [!] at thedailyticker@yahoo.com.”

Yes, please send them email.  They’d just love it.  And social media messaging doesn’t work.

Terrible, terrible, terrible!  What’s the world coming to?  “Twitter.”  “Yahoo!”  “Times.”  With names like that, how seriously can you take this grand discussion?  But, hang on.  Just.  Another. Dad-blasted minute.  Dude.  This is different.  Think about it in terms of top-level domains.  Credit.com owns the word credit.

If, by the time you read this, the video disappears, don’t worry.  That delicious piece of nonsense has earned a place in the next employers/credit score video coming to a screen near you.

Yahoo!

Powerful.

Blithering.

Non-responsive.

Inaccurate.

But, the myth is not their fault.

Credit score misinformation repeated over and over

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 4:48 PM
To: Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, News Corporation (via Julie Henderson)
Cc: Dr. Woody; Dr. Woody (via Tom Estley)
Subject: credit score, employers, Fox Business, Dr. Woody

You published, “According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 60% of employers check applicants’ credit scores for at least some of their job candidates as part of their hiring process.”

However, SHRM, itself, states, “A credit score is a number that gives a snapshot of a period of time; employers do not see this information.”

And, even you published, “Contrary to popular belief, employers can only see your credit report, not your credit score.”

We’ve been over this, Mr. Murdoch, but you keep publishing the same error.  What are you doing to keep from misinforming the public again and what are you doing to clean up your mess on Yahoo!?


Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

 

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 11:36 AM
To: Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation (via Rudnay address); Linda Carroll, The Body Odd, msnbc.com, Comcast
Cc: Jeremy Berneth, assistant professor, Robert H. & Patricia Hines Professorship in Management, Rucks Department of Management, E. J. Ourso College of Business, Louisiana State University; Shannon G. Taylor, assistant proessor, management, Northern Illinois University; Jack Walker, assistant professor, Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech; Daniel S. Whitman, assistant professor, Rucks Department of Management, Louisiana State University; Ashley Berthelot, Media Releations, Louisiana State University; Michael Kesterton, columnist, The Globe and Mail, Thomson; Globe and Mail corrections, Thomson; John V. Lombardi, president, Louisiana State University; Melba J. T. Vasquez, PhD, president, American Psychological Association
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, LSU, mainstream, Comcast NBC

You published, “Employers who use credit scores in their hiring decisions  might be weeding out some of the best applicants, a new study… [EMAIL ATTACHMENT]

Wall Street Journal accuracy, errors and corrections


When a member of the UK parliament asked News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch if he was ultimately responsible for a fiasco, Murdoch replied, “Nope.” (37:36)


(Source – BBC News / bbc.co.uk – © 2011-2012 BBC)

[alternate video (43:11)]

After contact with creditscoring.com, Murdoch made corrections of documents on two of his websites.

However, a syndication of the same article by Yahoo! remains uncorrected.

News Corporation erroneous report infects Yahoo!

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 12:40 PM
To: Yahoo! Media Relations
Cc: Melissa Rudy; Jennifer Waters, columnist, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation; David Callaway, editor-in-chief, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, News Corporation; Lex Fenwick, CEO, Dow Jones, News Corporation (via Bethany Sherman); Ashley Huston, senior director, Corporate Communications, Dow Jones & Company ; Corrections, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, News Corporation; Alan Murray, executive editor, WSJ.com, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, News Corporation; Sara Blask, manager, Corporate Communications, Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, News Corporation; Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, News Corporation (via Julie Henderson)
Subject: RE: credit score, utilization ratio, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation, correction V, employers, Yahoo!

Scott Thompson, chief executive officer
Yahoo!

Since your chairman Roy Bostock is a lame duck, you get this message.  Please forward it to the board.

Your website states, erroneously: “Increasingly, your score can help you land, or lose out on, a job, an apartment or utilities.”

Employers do not use credit scores.

You have been screwed, and it is because of the incompetence at News Corporation.  This has been going on for almost ten days, and the problem still exists.  Don’t be a yahoo(!).


Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

 

Rumor thread 1 – Rupert Murdoch (still) does not know how to use the internet

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 10:08 AM
To: Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, News Corporation (via Julie Henderson)
Cc: Melissa Rudy; Jennifer Waters, columnist, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation; David Callaway, editor-in-chief, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, News Corporation; Lex Fenwick, CEO, Dow Jones, News Corporation (via Bethany Sherman); Ashley Huston, senior director, Corporate Communications, Dow Jones & Company ; Corrections, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, News Corporation; Alan Murray, executive editor, WSJ.com, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, News Corporation; Sara Blask, manager, Corporate Communications, Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, News Corporation
Subject: RE: credit score, utilization ratio, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation, correction V, employers

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer
News Corporation

Neither you nor your reporter answered the questions I asked on June 21.

Didn’t you send out the memorandum I requested you send?

It appears that you did not because your material is still inaccurate.  On Yahoo!, a story with your brand MarketWatch on it still says, erroneously: “Increasingly, your score can help you land, or lose out on, a job, an apartment or utilities.”

If even ValueClick can elicit a correction on that website, then why don’t you?

What is the name of your contact at Yahoo!?


Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

[previous message]

 

Credit scores used by employers Nonbeliever: Experian

“Employers never receive a credit score.” – Experian U.S. public education director Rod Griffin on Bankrate, Inc.’s CreditCards.com (undated)
 
Experian is a Nonbeliever, sort of.
 
Meanwhile, in a related development, before the mother lode of all corrections (Oct. 25, 2011), Bankrate, Inc. flagship Bankrate.com used to say: “Credit reports and credit scores show up in the background checks employers increasingly order at the time of hire or promotion.”
 
That’s gone.  But, unfortunately–for Martin Halusa, Apax Partners CEO, Peter C. Morse, Bankrate, Inc. chairman and, foremost, readers–the residue of syndication lingers on the website of the company whose sucker chairman is Roy Bostock
 
Yahoo!*
 
*refers to the website, not the chairman