The Great FICO Worshippers....and Identity Theft

Identity theft is rampant in the US these days. At our FPU class with Dave Ramsey on Monday night he spoke about how easy it is for a thief to access someone's personal information and social security number. He stated also that most of the time the thief is a family member or someone that you know personally.
My dad had his identity stolen just last year by his step brother. When my grandpa died almost 2 years ago, my dad's step brother was the one to go into the house and go through his belongings...basically so that he could weed through and take what he wanted before anyone else could get it. He came across a file that had my dad's social security number listed and used it to open several credit card accounts, a couple of cell phone accounts, and the list goes on and on. He opened them in his own name, but with my dad's social....if that makes any sense at all! The saddest part of this is that my dad had squeaky clean credit! I don't think he had ever been even a day late on a single bill his entire life, and I would imagine his FICO score was about as high as it could be. Now, because of his own family member, his score is in the mid 300's. The thought of it not only makes my dad sick to his stomach, but also makes him want to find his step brother! Of course, he is long gone.
Dave Ramsey teaches that your FICO score is completely meaningless. He speaks about how there are people in the world (like my father) who believe that your credit score means everything. I believe he calls those people the "Great FICO worshippers". Dave Ramsey has a ZERO credit score! In fact, in this past lesson he brought a letter that he received from a credit bureau when he tried to get a print out of his credit report. The letter says, in a nutshell, that in order for them to send him a credit report, he actually has to have SOME credit. They attempted to find a credit report for him, but couldn't find a single thing and therefore, his credit score was zero. This man is a multi-millionaire and hasn't paid for anything with credit in many many years.
For most of us, this is not a possibility. I don't believe in having credit cards and I haven't had a loan of any kind for over five years, so I also have a zero credit score! In fact when we had our credit reports pulled a little less than a year ago they gave me a copy of my credit report and the score was zero and it was blank. I guess that's a good thing??? However, I must add that there is NO way I could pay cash for a brand new car or a home right now. I must also add that this is not going to be the case for much longer....I will be paying Sallie Mae for a very long time, and this will hit my credit in a little over a year!
My point in all this rambling is that if you do have decent credit then it is extremely important that you do something to protect yourself from identity theft. I don't think that people realize just how common this is, and how easy it is for these thieves to hack into your personal information. Go to Dave's website to get more information about what you can do to protect yourself. http://www.daveramsey.com/

Another thing that Dave mentioned is that everyone is entitled to one free credit report per year from each credit bureau. In other words, since there are three credit bureaus (Equifax, Trans Union and Experian) you can have a free credit report pulled every six months and this is what Dave recommends. This will help you to keep track of what you owe and get your credit straightened out. Then, once you have your credit straightened out....STOP GETTING LOANS!!! People are so quick to get loans when they see something they want or have to have, and this is wrong Biblically. (Proverbs 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. Psalm 62:10 If riches increase, do not set your heart on them. Proverbs 28:20 A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.) In other words, we all want to receieve the blessings of God, but we shouldn't have to go into debt to get them! We should be faithful to God and allow Him to bestow his blessings upon us as He sees fit. If that means we go without....we go without! If the Lord wants us to have something, He will provide!

"Measure your wealth not by the things you have, but by the things for which you would not take money!"