In reading the new US Credit Reform Act... the lender (bank or non-bank) has a responsibility to determine the capacity of the applicant/client to repay any and all loans.

Going back to the late '60s into the early '80s obtaining and proving employment, income and housing stability was pretty common. If you were after the ever elusive "Gold" Bank Card with a minimum of $5,000 in CL you submitted an additional piece of information which was your financial statement containing your assets, liabilities and net worth. This included your living expenses and ongoing debt such as student loans, vehicle payments, personal loans and the like...

Continuing... in order to obtain a mortgage all of this was done and then re-verified within three days of the actual loan closing to ensure you didn't borrow money from your parents or someone else.

We really are not reinventing the wheel here... we are asking that a person have the three "C"s of credit which includes the capacity to pay. :

As one who has lived a lot of life and experienced the big "B", I can guarantee, I wish the rules had not been allowed to disappear. I was allowed a $57.5K Credit Line on a household income of $18K. I had no capacity to repay and I went "belly up". Stupid... you bet!!! After eight years... I am still suffering the hang over of the BK. So it is important to have capacity!!!

Additionally, many of the folks on this site are seeking credit guidance advice and some have experienced credit challenges. If someone had offered them some guidance or said no and explained they might not be in trouble today. That is one of the benefits of the US Credit Reform Act. Do I like it? NO! But, if someone had said no to me maybe just maybe, I wouldn't have been "stupid".

I would pretty much get rid of asking how much a person makes in a year. That can be easily traced by the credit card companies. At best, it can be tricky because a person's living situation can be different. One person can be living with thier parents and who really know what they make in a month or a year?

I agree, some people don't pay any kind of rent or housing costs.

I wish I could get an American Express with my young credit report. Although, if everybody could get an AMEX, it wouldn't be so superior right? I might apply for the Zync soon... Not sure yet.

I would pretty much get rid of asking how much a person makes in a year. That can be easily traced by the credit card companies. At best, it can be tricky because a person's living situation can be different. One person can be living with thier parents and who really know what they make in a month or a year?

i think a BIG change they should make is stop having to put employment info when you apply for a credit card

i think that its stupid for the following reasons.......

15 million americans are not working-on that note alone its a waste of time

you can put whatever you want on the credit report as far as jobs on your personal info when you dispute your credit- so this means everybody is lying about they jobs because if they go by what job is on your credit report then they see the job then boom the only REAl way they can find out is to goto DOL(department of labor ..or skip trace it and pull the job/number/etc..online with yellow pages,white pages, etc..and see if you work there

when it comes to wages everybody lies..so this is another waste of space on the application-luckly if the credit card company gets that far in the game to call your company its against the law to ask how much you make so it saves you there

change professions/careers--which basically means we as humans do this 3-6 times in our lifetime, sure you might have a job that pays 40,000 today but what about tommorrow when you get a job that pays 70,000 or if you are self employed and all of a suddan get 200,000 now...does that mean i can goto creditcard.com and apply for the AMEX now?
or if i just have a 30,000 job , but have 700 score...what would be the better fit/person they would look for

but yep, asking for the annual salry and your job is a big waste of time and thank goodnes not all of them ask for that

says...uzipolo-king of decatur

If you could make changes to how credit companies do buisness, how would you do it? I have not been able so far is to really get informed about the new CARD act.

These are the things that I would do

I totally agree with your 2 points, why do they have to do a hard pull, then its just another inquirty on my report

What I am talking about is for CLI's, not new loans or CC's. I can understand when you want a new credit card that there is a hard pull. My thing is that the CCC's are a little too interested with what is going on with your credit score and what you are doing with other creditors. My Victoria's Secret VIP card is basing all my CLI's mainly by the relationship and payment history with them. I think that is how it should be. I do think that people who have credit cards forget that they are playing with other people's money. I just think that the CCC's are just looking at things a little too closely because they lost big time for thier poor desicion making of giving people who could not afford credit cards realistically.

Yeah... agree wholeheartly with your perspective... and ... it used to be this way. As an aside, there were not as many sub-prime credit cards issued and to get a credit card you had to prove employment along with income level and a stable residence (the three C's of credit) ... in fact the gold cards (minimum industry standard was for a $5,000 CL) used to require (many moons back) a full financial with your networth and the creditor determined if you had the ability to pay. : I filled out many a networth eval to get a bank issued credit card.

What I am talking about is for CLI's, not new loans or CC's. I can understand when you want a new credit card that there is a hard pull. My thing is that the CCC's are a little too interested with what is going on with your credit score and what you are doing with other creditors. My Victoria's Secret VIP card is basing all my CLI's mainly by the relationship and payment history with them. I think that is how it should be. I do think that people who have credit cards forget that they are playing with other people's money. I just think that the CCC's are just looking at things a little too closely because they lost big time for thier poor desicion making of giving people who could not afford credit cards realistically.

You know what Eldarwen, I never gave an opinion on your thread ! I would give CLI's based on past use of your credit cards, i.e. if you have $40K limit on your cc and want a $10K limit, if you have shown that you have managed that $40K limit with discipline, you should be awarded the limit increase

Loans - I hate to say, but I wouldn't change, the status quo would remain. Not going to give you a loan for a Vette if you can only afford a Focus.

Eldarwen, read your post. Have to ask:

• Person A goes out and buys a new Benz, 6 months later Person A realizes that he would rather have a BMW and decides not to continue making payments on the Benz. He comes to your bank and speaks to you (Loan Officer) about a loan for the BMW. Now in the past, he has paid off loans through your bank on time without issue. He still owes $100k on the Maybach, do you consider him a wise bet and approve the loan for the $95k BMW 650 I ?
• While there Person A wants to increase his credit limit on his CC from $10K to $25K. Again you have known Person A for years and are unaware of his Maybach loan debacle. Do you increase his Credit Limit based on his fantastic relationship with your bank ?

If you are a publicly traded company and have to answer to shareholders, should you not be nosy as you have to answer to these shareholders in the end when all is said and done ?

Please understand Eldarwen I'm not trying in anyway to give you a hard time, I have always respected your comments and have learned many things from you, but in my opinion when your dealing with other people's money when it comes to making loans or increasing Credit Limits, without doing some type of background check it (Loan, CLI ) becomes nothing more than a "crap shoot".

On the flip though Eldarwen, I wish life could be so easy.............

If you could make changes to how credit companies do buisness, how would you do it? I have not been able so far is to really get informed about the new CARD act.

These are the things that I would do:

1. Creditors would give CLI's without pulling a hard inquire. I know that some companies mainly pull softs for inquires, but it should be straight across the board.

2. Creditors will base thier descisions on CLI's, CLD's, ratejacks based on relationship with consumers. It shouldn't matter too much about your payment history and the like with a person's other creditors.

It just seems that creditors are just way too nosey.