The Super Blog

I have started reading CreditBoards and FICO Forums frequently since I became interested in the topic of credit during the purchase of my house. I’ve learned a lot about credit, and I think I may actually go back to school for Financial Planning because of the interest in this topic I have uncovered. Conveniently, I work at UGA and would be able to go to school near where I work. Hopefully I can get back in.

*NOTE: Sallie Mae apparently has fixed the reporting issue, and should no longer be damaging Equifax credit scores. If you would like to check your Equifax FICO score, you can visit Coastal FCU for a discounted product selection.

If you have a Sallie Mae student loan, and you have chosen one of the graduated payment plans (plans that have a lower payment at the beginning and go up later in the life of the loan), then Sallie Mae is currently lying about you on your credit report. If you had good credit prior, your score could have already dropped as much as 150 points.

Basically, if you were on the lower payment plan, but paying as agreed, they have added a notation that makes it seem as if you are behind more than 60 days, and the entire balance is due in entirety, because they are reporting it like it is a charge-off. The wording added is something like this: Arrangements made with credit grantor to make partial payments. This thread on MyFico.com will help you see what is up. If you are having this problem, you should get in touch with Sallie Mae, local and national news organizations, Equifax, and your representatives in your state and national legislatures. Read that thread for specific contact information.

This is a serious affront by Sallie Mae. There are probably millions of Americans affected by this issue. Hopefully a class action suit is in the works, but unfortunately, that will not be enough to help you if you are in the process of buying a house or otherwise getting credit. If you are in the mortgage process, you should be upfront and let your mortgage officer know what is going on. Sallie Mae is being very nonchalant about the problem, and may not get it fixed in a timely manner. I’m not sure, but it appears that the problem is currently localized with Equifax. However, the score drops with Experian and Transunion may come any day now.

Good Luck.

So, I haven’t written anything on here in a long time. I’ve been relatively busy, but not that busy, mostly just lazy. I did buy a house between the last post and now, so that is something. You can see it if you want. When I started looking for a house at the beckoning of my wife, I wasn’t really ready for that step, so I spent a lot of time reading about credit issues, even though there wasn’t much I could do about mine in such a short period of time. I ended up having to do an FHA loan because we hadn’t saved up a down payment for the house. Looks like a refi will be in order in a year or two, as long as rates are still reasonable.

I’ve been reading a lot at FICO Forums, along with some at Credit Boards. Maybe I will spend some time writing up stuff no one will read that shows what I’ve learned from those places.

Remember, if you’re getting your scores from a three in one service, you’re getting worthless scores.

The house passed a version of the stimulus package sent back in a slightly revised form by the Senate. The bill will raise the American national debt by an additional $168 billion. (10^9). Here is CNN’s writeup.

The plan will provide tax rebates of up to $600 for individuals and up to $1,200 for couples filing jointly, with an additional payment for families of $300 a child, and a minimum payment of $300 for individuals who pay less than that in income taxes.

Payments will be reduced for individuals with adjusted gross incomes above $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, with the wealthiest taxpayers receiving nothing. The Treasury Department said checks would be distributed beginning in early May, after the crush of the tax filing season.

The rebates and the business incentives, including a doubling to $250,000 from $125,000 in the amount of expenses businesses can immediately write off, are intended to jolt the slowing economy with new spending.

I do not think that this a good idea, but I am not going to decline the check if I get it. I think that raising the debt even more is not an appropriate answer to our economic woes. I know it is complicated. Trying to take advantage of complicated and convoluted processes is what got the banks in this mess as it is. If you aren’t aware, the United States economy is doing a little woefully after a large swath of badly sold mortgages began going late and being foreclosed on. Part of the reason for the mess is called a CDO. Here is a story about Merrill Lynch on CNN that does a fair job explaining what those are. Anyone hoping to defeat pretenses about the viability of fully free markets need only look at the current mess, the growing disparity between rich and poor, and how much money has been sent to other countries to the detriment of most Americans. The worst part of all of this is that there are enough resources for just about everyone to live comfortably, but a few ultra rich, the top .25%, hoard enough money that it could provide for most or all of the bottom 20% that can’t afford to lead a reasonable life.

Two new studies have concluded what I believed to be the case all along. Biofuels release more greenhouse gases than standard fuels. The reason being is that there are environmental costs of requiring new fields to replace the food production that was displaced by earmarking a crop for ethanol production. These extra carbon figures have not, in the past, been properly correlated with biofuels. If you’re driving an E-85 Tahoe, you’re causing even more damage than if you just went with the Gas version. Murphy’s at the Walmart in my town has 10% ethanol in the gas. That means it is more polluting than standard gas.

Personally, I think the answer to the greenhouse problem lies more along the lines of our power generation than with our cars anyway. Switching our coal plants to nuclear may be the best answer of them all. Some, like this, think that coal and nuclear are equally bad, but most are not so disingenuous. Once people get past the activism and false propaganda floating around about how difficult and dangerous nuclear is, they tend to switch sides. Coal burned for energy production is the single largest contributor in the US, and China’s use of coal has pushed it ahead of the United States in greenhouse emissions.

Pretty graphs to follow! Source.

The first graph is general sources of greenhouse gases produced by the US.

This graph is a breakdown of the biggest line, the one that was truncated, from the above graph.

Once again, in my opinion, the two biggest bars from this second graph can be handled. I think the way to do so is to significantly reduce our reliance on coal for electricity by switching to nuclear generation at central locations, and requiring new and remodeled buildings to include some self energy production, primarily solar. The best ways to reduce the transportation usage, is to require cleaner, more economical diesels for transport trucks and to require smaller vehicles with higher fuel economy for regular transportation. It is difficult and expensive to retrofit effective mass transportation onto cities, but more people driving fewer vehicles would help a lot.

People who, like in the link above about neither coal nor power, advocate against all forms of electrical generation, really just hate all humans and want to move us pre-industrial revolution while killing most humans on earth. They are not so much into saving the planet, but rather, killing the humans.