re: #199 TedStriker

Most of here are old enough to remember the time before the wide consumer availability of one’s credit report and scores, before the federal government’s annualcreditreport.com was available to get your credit reports from all three bureaus once a year for free.

Back in those days, having your credit report pulled could (and ofter did) negatively affect your credit score. Want to see your FICO? Unless you somehow got the chance to see the report someone pulled when you were applying for credit (car loan, etc.), it was extremely difficult for a consumer to get directly and, even if you did, it was like reading Greek, because it was meant for banks, not for laymen.

And it was inaccurate. All kinds of duplicate, incomplete and ancient data was included.
That’s why a whole bullpen of low level employees had to call to verify information the credit buyer needed. I had a rolodex full of numbers for banks and major employers all over the country. It was crazy.