My credit rating took a serious hit two days ago...well, actually it started over 150 days ago but I only found out about it the other day from American Express. Today, Discover got in on the act and I fully expect a letter from Mastercard any time next week. My credit limits are being gutted. I didn't have much to begin with, but I suspect I will be down 70% from where I was starting next week all because I tried helping someone in need.
I don't dispute the debt. It's real. I took it on as a cosigner so I have to bear the consequences. I am mad that this creditor made zero attempts to contact me when the primary account holder went into delinquency because, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're owed money and more than one person is responsible for it legally and the first person stops paying for any reason, you would go after the other guy, right?
Apparently not. This account was allowed to go into major delinquency and it appears the creditor has written it off. They've also reported my friend's address as one of my own to all three of the credit reporting bureaus giving me more work to do.
Now my friend did not screw me over. I know that's the first thought you're likely having and I don't fault you for it. No, the best as he could determine was that his autopayments had been hijacked and since the hijacker did not change the amount of the payment, only its destination, the bank did not question it. Very suspect of the bank.
I ultimately blame TD North for fucking me over because had they stopped payment when the destination was changed and notified my friend about it, this would have been resolved immediately rather than it becoming a charge-off.
Now I, being old-fashioned in my mindedness, felt that we should make good on this debt. That would be the right thing to do, no?
The answer, as it turns out, is no.
See, both of us now have a black mark on our respective credit histories now. Those black marks will remain for seven years.
Having been raised with Christian values as well as the more worldly values of "do the right thing", I wanted to make good on the debt because I was working under moral and ethical considerations. I do not deny that wrong had been done nor do I deny the validity of the debt. I would happily pay it to have this stain removed from record. I would hope understanding would prevail, but even if it did not, surely paying off a bad debt would reduce the time a black mark remains on the record, right?
Wrong.
Whether you make good on a debt or not does not affect how long the black mark will remain on your credit report and that length of time is seven years.
So if the mark remains whether you pay the bad debt or not, what exactly is the incentive to make good on a mistake? Basically if you've fucked over a lender out of his money, yes, your credit history is fucked for seven years but...free money? It sure seems that way.
I want to do the right thing, but I will not be forgiven even part of my punishment for doing so, so why bother? Such draconian measures: they do nothing to inspire moral and/or ethical behavior.
The lesson I take from this is that businesses are immoral and unethical creatures. They forget (probably because they have to by law), but they do not forgive. They are not like this because they must be, but because we made them that way. This is what we get for putting pennies before people.
We have willed businesses into becoming people as legal fictions but we never, for some reason, thought it necessary that they ought to behave morally and ethically in addition to their profit-seeking. We reap what we sow and as for this particular creditor, what you have sewn is me not paying you back shit now.
I think what is bugging me secondarily is how my creditors all think alike. There's no evidence of consideration in their decision-making. It's all numbers I'm sure. Yes, I'm pre-blaming Mastercard and quite frankly I will kiss their ass in another entry if they alone do not slash my credit limit...but I know that ain't happening. The question will be by how much.
But it would be nice to believe that even one of these creditors could look at my payment history considered altogether and say, "Let's give him a break because the only account of his that ever went bad was one where he was cosigned. The accounts entirely in his name, he has never been late, not once...ever. He's the one who got screwed, not the other way around." Could I pretend a little humanity can exist in the minds of these people? I could...but then let's face it...it's all equations to them. I have always been a number...
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