Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Your Tired, Your Poor, et al. [Mark Krikorian]
Catching up on last week's news:
* America's first case of “extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis” (XXDR TB) has surfaced — “a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English.” A TB doctor warns against crimethink: “It's not a foreign problem, you can't keep these TB patients out.” Actually, this guy could very easily have been kept out. And this: “His treatment cost Florida taxpayers an estimated $500,000.” And finally: “The last time doctors saw him, he was walking out of the sanitarium into south Florida's soupy heat.” Think he went home once his visa expired? Me neither.
* An illegal alien in Florida murdered a co-worker for speaking English instead of Spanish. An argument for 287(g) if there ever was one: “Escalante provided four different names to detectives before he was identified through fingerprints at the jail.”
* A “university” in California was selling student visas to enable people to come to the U.S. The school's founder has been arrested but, for some reason, the “students” aren't being prosecuted, though ICE assures us they'll be deported. Yeah, and I'll respect you in the morning.
* Under a new one-year pilot program, temporary workers leaving from two points in Arizona will now have to register their departure to make sure they don't overstay and become illegal aliens. Oh, you thought they had to do that already? Ha ha ha ha!
12/29 04:13 PMShare
Dear Credit Score Report,
I know if I have even one 30-day late payment, my credit
score drops. Question: How long is the penalty? When can I expect to see my
score increase again? — Mike
Hey Mike,
Experts say you can expect a late payment to hurt your
credit score for seven years, with your score gradually recovering over that
time frame as you make smart borrowing decisions — though exactly how much and how fast your score recovers isn't
entirely
clear.
The federal Fair
Credit Reporting Act says that negative items can only appear on your credit report
for seven years,
but it doesn't say how the credit industry should treat the impact of those
items after they happen. That vagueness, combined with the secrecy and complexity
involved in credit scoring, mean that it's tough to say exactly how a
borrower's credit score
will recover from a late payment. Still, provided the
borrower makes smart decisions following a slip-up, time will heal those credit
wounds.
"Every consumer's situation is different, but
generally speaking, the impact from a negative item, such as a late payment,
will lessen as that item ages" says Steve Katz, spokesman for credit bureau TransUnion.
While FICO, creator of the
most-widely used scoring
model, largely keeps the details of its scoring model a secret, we do know the
approximate damage a late payment will cause. FICO pulled the curtain back a bit
on its scoring model recently when it acknowledged just how much certain credit
mistakes can hurt a borrower's credit score. For example, in the case of two
hypothetical consumers, FICO said that a 30-day late payment would reduce a
FICO score of 680 by 60 to 80 points, while an identical late payment would
reduce a FICO score of 780 by 90 to 110 points. (For more on this topic, see
our story on FICO's damage points.) You can run FICO's
credit score simulator to get an idea of how much damage
various mistakes, including a late payment, may cause to your own credit
score.
But when it comes to the recovery process, it's still largely
a mystery. FICO spokesman Craig Watts says your score will recover over time because
the scoring model factors in when you made your errors, how bad they were –
for example, was your payment late by 30 days or by 90 days? — and how often
you made them. However, FICO's mathematical formula can't predict exactly how
fast your score will improve. Watts says there are simply too many changes that
can happen over time in a consumer's credit report, both due to the
cardholder's own actions and changes that are beyond the consumer's control. For
example, you wouldn't have any control over the continual aging of your
existing accounts.
Still, FICO's Web site gives some clues as to how a
credit recovery might play out. FICO says that for negative
items on a credit report, "a collection that is 5 years
old will hurt much less than a collection that is 5 months old." Please
note the use of the phrase "much less" to signal that five years out
from your late payment, its impact will be seriously lessened.
In discussing a foreclosure's
impact, FICO says "it's a common misconception that it will ruin your
score for a very long time. In fact, if you keep all of your other credit
obligations in good standing, your FICO score can begin to rebound in as little
as two years." Based on the fact that a foreclosure is much more damaging
to a credit score than a late payment, it would make sense that in your case, your FICO score would also begin to recover
within two years of your late
payment.
Although FICO leaves it somewhat unclear what a
recovery from score damage looks like, the steps you need to take to recover
from that mistake are clear: "The best way to minimize the impact is to
catch up on the payment and then continue to make all of your payments on
time," says Rod Griffin, director of public education with credit bureau
Experian.
By always making on-time payments from now on, as well
as keeping debt levels low and only taking on additional lines of credit when
necessary, that late payment will become just a minor slip-up on the road to an
improved credit score.
Good luck!
— Jeremy
More from CreditCards.com:
- Improving
a great credit score comes down to timing - Why
cell phone payments don't help your credit - Decade-old
credit mistakes shouldn't appear on your report
hockey jerseys,
discount nhl jerseys
Mosquitoes breakfasted on my legs and it was hot. 7:30 a.m., and little curlicues of hair were already pasted to the foreheads of my two girlfriends. We tumbled off the rickety green bus, pausing to check that our backpacks and limbs were still present and intact. Gathering our daypacks, we waved goodbye as the bus driver and her cargo of nonchalant passengers continued down the winding highway, a sputtering cloud of exhaust that disappeared into the misty green mountains of northern Thailand. A giant stone archway stood before us, guarded by the statues of three mild-looking Asian elephants. We had arrived at the National Elephant Institute, a huge national park 90 minutes by bus south of Chiang Mai, Thailand’s northern capitol. Also known as the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, the Institute was established in 1991 to protect and care for the endangered Asian Elephant, a creature both revered and abused in Thai culture. Booked for a “One Day Mahout Training” course – mahout means “elephant handler” – we had traveled to the Institute for a genuine taste of life with elephants. It was an experience we were unlikely to have anywhere else. Though nearly every travel agency in Thailand boasted “elephant trekking” as a feature of most day tours, visitors typically got little more than a short pony ride in a basket atop a sad looking elephant. We wanted to bond with the elephants. We wanted to interact with the stately creatures and gain their trust. We wanted to get our hands dirty. Later that afternoon, up to my elbows in mustard yellow elephant dung, I realized that we had gotten our wish. It didn’t get much more personal than this. This was how our morning as mahout trainees went: We hitched a ride into the main camp with some camp workers piled in the back of a pickup truck, all clad in the heavy denim pajamas that would become our official mahout uniform. Squishing the dung through our fingers, we watched as J.R. swirled a lump of gooey dung in a bucket of water, breaking it up into a thin, fibrous liquid. He then emptied the bucket onto a framed piece of screen, tilting it so that the liquid spread evenly over the screen, and carefully lay it in the sun. “And in a few hours,” he told us, brandishing a dried screen, “you have dung paper!” The morning consisted of “mahout training” Unsure what exactly a “mahout” was and how that involved interacting with elephants, we allowed our English-speaking guide, J.R., to explain. Mahouts are trained elephant handlers. They traditionally pair up with a single elephant for life, an arrangement that ensures that each is dependant on the other for employment and survival. Typically employed in the logging industry until the practice was banned in 1989, mahouts and elephants alike have suffered the loss of income from logging. Now employed by the Institute, some of these mahouts utilize their skills to help conservation efforts and educate visitors about the elephants. We met our first mahout after hitching a ride with some denim-clad workers headed for the camp’s center, about 2 km from the tourist information building at the entrance. J.R. spoke fluid English and was to be our guide for the “Mahout Training” day we had arranged through the travel agent in Chiang Mai. Food and shelter for these two-ton mammals does not come cheap, and organizers have had to invent ways to insure the steady flow of funds to the Institute. One creative solution has been to offer opportunities to tourists like us who desire an intimate but eco-friendly experience with these awesome creatures. Another way the Institute supports itself is through “Mahout Training” and “Home-stay” packages offered to visitors like us. For $33 each, we had the unique opportunity to get up close and personal – and dirty – with our own personal elephant for the day. I met my elephant, Sat-tit, after a brief discussion of our itinerary with our English-speaking guide, J.R. Wearing our supremely attractive training uniforms – baggy denim pajama pants and a parachute-like jacket – we gathered nervously at the show ring and waited for our elephants to be brought out. My petite girlfriend, Dawn, was the first to be introduced to her elephant. Big as he was, I thought, okay, that’s not too bad. I can handle this. Then came Katie’s elephant, a slightly larger, medium-sized elephant to match her medium-sized frame. Detecting a pattern to the matches, my stomach began to flutter since, at 6 feet tall, I was clearly the grande in our trio. When Sat-tit arrived on the scene, our reactions were surprisingly understated. “Whoa,” Dawn observed. “He’s a big one.” Towering above the other elephants, Sat-tit was an undulating wall of gray flesh welded together by a maze of leathery creases sparsely covered with spiky hair. Like a crazed mountain climber shunning ropes and safety harness, the tiny Thai mahout who was to become my guru uttered a fluid command, grabbed hold of Sat-tit’s ear and grinned down at me from his perch aboard the giant elephant’s head before I could say, “What the–?” Seconds later, he stood on the ground next to me and motioned up, towards the head of the elephant. Uncomprehending, I stared at him as he motioned a few more times. Finally, I understood that I was to mount the elephant. What, no introduction? I thought. No saddle? Where’s the stirrup? Never one to back down from a challenge – and unable to say “no thank you” in Thai – I tentatively grabbed an ear, mumbled “Song soong!” and scrambled for traction as my feet slid fruitlessly along Sat-tit’s abdomen and obligingly uplifted leg. Firmly on the ground again, I watched carefully as the mahout motioned Grab his ear firm! You no hurt him! and scampered on and off the elephant’s back a few more times to prove his point. After much exertion and inelegantly hurling myself at his shoulders, I finally succeeded in mounting Sat-tit’s massive body. Atop this lofty perch, I felt a temporary surge of confidence. With his boulder-sized head clenched between my knees, I marveled at my minor accomplishment. I was high above everyone! Now all I had to do was hold on! “Hap Soong!” the mahout commanded, shattering my confidence as he motioned that now I would have to climb down! Playing at the up and down game for most of an hour, I was at last left alone aboard Sat-tit, subject only to the elephant’s will and the confines of the show-ring. As he ambled towards a large water trough, a great river of urine erupted beneath me. Large colonies of ants were washed away as my elephant relieved himself and I hurried to pull my legs up and away from the backsplash. In 2002, Princess Galyani of Thailand took the Institute under her patronage, providing some relief to the financial burden of feeding and caring for the 2-ton mammals and their handlers. However, fundraising is still a problematic and ongoing process. The Institute puts on an elephant show twice daily, where the mammoth residents display their various talents at painting, log-pushing and even musical performance. Though more interesting that the average circus-style performance, the Institute’s real draw is not these rehearsed shows but the one-on-one time with the elephants. Being elbow-deep in elephant dung or bruised and battered from encounters with your new pachyderm friend may not sound like your ideal vacation, but let me advice you: try it. Try it. I wouldn’t have traded a single sweating, stinking moment of it.
Francis Cantrell