The imbalance of the credit system: an education issue

Like many people in this country, I have had credit issues in the past and have to “repair” my credit. As educated myself on how to repair, I realized that a lot of the tools used to repair credit are faulty tools. A lot of these tools can land you back in that credit trap that you just escaped from. 

If you were repairing your car, would you knowingly use faulty tools to the job?

Have you ever looked at the fine print on some of the myriad of credit card offers that come in the mail? $25 one-time processing fee, $79 annual feel, and $8 a month processing fee, all for a credit limit of $700! What is worse is if you are not educated on what is best for you and sales techniques, you can get bamboozled into signing up for one these cards. The sales people are very slick and they are fast talkers.

Credit involves risk; that I understand completely, but there are so many factors that can affect a credit score, and many of these factors are out of our control or require strict regular maintenance (not everyone has time for that).

However, why would you deliberately jack up the interest rate, add hidden fees including cancellation fees, maintenance fees, and usage fees for someone barely scraping by? The answer is simple, because they can, and there does not seem a whole lot that can be done to change the system.

I would love to say pay cash for everything, and in and ideal world that is great, but we live in a world where people struggle, we live in a paycheck to paycheck world. It is a system that sometimes traps, and once you are in that trap, it is hard to escape.

Educate yourself on your credit choices, you do not have to take the first offer that comes your way; and if it looks too good to be true, it probably is because nothing comes for free.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam