Barclays Bank in the UK got bad news coverage a few years ago for refusing to lend a pen to a customer. To counteract this bad coverage, they got rid of all the pens-on-a-chain and now have disposable ballpen dispensers throughout their branches. You can just walk in off the street and help yourself to a pen, no questions asked. I must have a dozen by now. They have amusing mottos down the side such as "Steal me" or "Bank swag".
Highlighter yellow on white... I'm colour-blind and that hurts my eyes, god alone knows what kind of pain that would inflict on a colour-sighted person.
I'd suggest that I need some kind of replacement retina implant after viewing that, but no doubt GNU purists would argue that there aren't any available without patents.
Whilst there are probably a dozen practical and legal reasons why this probably isn't enforceable, the one that immediately springs to my mind is that Burning Man is taking place in a Black Rock Desert, which is government-owned and criss-crossed with historic trails open to the public. There are likely to be large areas of Burning Man which are visible from these public areas, and thus, according to Kantor's Legal Rights of Photographers (PDF), open to photographer to take photographs from as they see fit, without restrictions.
Must be nice to have your ideology subsidized by the Federal Government.
Er... I'm British.
And I've had my debit card copied several times. Chip-and-PIN is totally, totally hacked; because I know this, I am responsible and watch my bank statement online at least once a week, and immediately report any suspicious payments to my bank. It happens about three times a year. They refunded me in every case, and I still have a maximum credit score. In several cases, my bank (Barclays) have notified me before I was even aware of the fraud.
Barclays are still dreadful in person, mind. I'd never want to visit their branches, it's just miles of queues and incompetent misinformed staff (you used to be able to pay extra and get your own dedicated staff, but they dropped that and bunched us all up with the business tills). But online and over the phone, they're pretty good.
My joint account with my wife is for money transfers only, it has no overdraft facility and typically contains less than a hundred quid. So if one of our identities gets nicked, or one of us goes a bit wild at the shops, it doesn't affect the other person.
The only loans I have are secured against capital (ie. mortgage). I only use a credit card for business expenses, which gets paid off in full each month; for personal payments I use a debit card which goes straight to my bank account.
It really isn't hard, nor much effort, to take responsibility for your own finances. A little bit of effort goes a very long way.
Are US hospitals duty bound to have an Accident & Emergency department?
If so, how does this work for small hospitals or specialist hospitals?
Private hospitals in the UK simply don't have an A&E ward. Emergency services are solely run by the NHS. Smaller NHS hospitals don't have an A&E anyway.
Do most countries provide free health care (hell, even low cost care) to foreign travelers?
For non-European visiting foreigners, for example Americans visiting Britain, if you go to hospital you will be charged, but if you do not have medical insurance and do not have funds to cover it, it is highly unlikely that persuing the cost would be "in the public interest" and would in most cases simply be written off. I certainly wouldn't advise Americans to turn up in Accident and Emergency with a credit card in your wallet but no health insurance. That'd end up being expensive (by British standards).
As a non-EU citizen visiting the EU, if you require non-emergency treatment, such as a doctor's visit, you can only get it if you have medical insurance. You won't even get an appointment without it.
But presumably you will either be able to afford private medical insurance, or your government will provide subsidised or free medical insurance. If not, you won't be seen for non-emergency stuff, simple as that.
Some Commonwealth countries (former British Empire colonies and islands that have kept the Queen as their head of state, or have other close formal ties with Britain) also qualify for free treatment under the NHS. America is not one of those (you should have thought of that before you wasted all that tea).
If you are a European citizen, all hospital care within Europe is free. You do not need pirvate medical insurance. If you are visiting a foreign country within the EU, then all you need is your passport and an EHIC card, and your home country's health service will be cross-billed. Been there did that, when my daughter fell down some steps in France in June and needed two stitches.
As an EU citizen, once you're admitted to state-run hospital, there is no charge for anything. (Well, there are payphones, and you can pay extra to rent your own TV, buy candy from vending machines etc. But everything from basic meals and drinks, to medicine, to surgery, is free.)
For an EU citizen visiting a doctor, it varies. Either it's free and you just turn up (eg. UK) or you visit the doctor and then claim the vast majority of the costs back from the government (eg. France).
If the doctor prescribes medicine, then in some countries like the UK have a flat-rate charge (UK: about 7 quid per item per month, or you can get a pre-pay subscription for a tenner a month if you use more than one item per month on average), whilst other countries (eg. France) have a subsidy system where cheaper items are bought entirely privately (eg. asthma inhalers, antihistamines) but you can claim back costs for more expensive items (eg. antivirals, antibiotics).
The doctor may refer you to hospital to see a specialist. As soon as you touch hospital, it's all free. However if your condition is not urgent, there may be a long wait. Sometimes a VERY LONG WAIT.
The main use for private medical insurance is to jump these queues and to allow you to see an outpatient specialist straight away. Usually this would be at a private hospital, not a state-run hospital. In some European countries, all hospitals are private so everyone uses the same buildings, it's just a question of waiting for an appointment. In the UK, there are usually (but not always) separate NHS versus private hospitals.
Most medium and big towns have a state-run hospital, although it won't necessarily cover all services (eg. my local Winchcombe hospital doesn't have an Accident and Emergency ward; I have to travel to Tewkesbury or Cheltenham). Only really big cities (eg. Birmingham) or very rich towns (eg. Cheltenham) will have private hospitals.
Ambulance, fire and rescue call-outs are free, but if there is other non-medical insurance covering the accident (such as buildings fire insurance covering a fire, or motor insurance covering a car crash), then the i
So if a poor person gets something that's random, unavoidable yet completely treatable, like breast cancer, the US government just lets them die, or just lets it get worse and worse until they're an emergency patient?
I'm sorry but I simply don't believe that. I may not know much about the USA but, never mind the moral view, surely that's not economically viable? Surely the economic costs of letting preventable diseases get worse to the point of requiring free emergency treatment, far outweigh the cost of preventative treatment?
(I mean, imagine if the NHS had to fund emergency care for end-scenario breast cancer patients. There's no way we could afford that. Much cheaper to screen and treat the cancer before it's an emergency.)
I must admit, I've always taken travel insurance when visiting the US just so my laptop is covered for theft, but... maybe I'll check the medical section of the insurance policy a bit closer next time. Is five million dollars of cover + repatriation enough or should I switch my travel insurance provider?
In the EU, each member state reimburses other states for healthcare costs of their citizens abroad. So as Brit, when I was on holiday in France in June and my daughter fell down some steps and required stitches, we just showed up at the local hospital with her passport and EHIC card. I brought along our travel insurance documents too, just in case, but all they needed to see was the EHIC card.
Surely there's a system similar to EHIC within the North America, that provides a baseline level of healthcare across states and nations?
I'm still not quite getting this. Why would you need to "qualify" for state-run hospitals? They're available to all, surely? That's the whole point of having the state run the health service. Rich or poor, if a doctor or medic thinks you need hospital care, then they book you into hospital and you just turn up. Other than the taxpayer footing the bill, there isn't much else to it.
Yup, credit reports exist in Europe. The main providers for the UK are Experian and Equifax, they may be familiar names in your country too.
You are correct in noting that someone with no credit history (ie. has always paid his own way) has an INDIFFERENT credit score.
An indifferent credit score will mean that you can get credit for small things (mobile phone contract, satellite TV subscription) but might have trouble getting credit for large things (mortgage, new car loan over GBP10k).
An indifferent credit score is NOT a BAD credit score. A bad credit score happens when you miss payments, or display activity which is extremely dubious, such as changing address several times in one year.
If you have taken no credit, you cannot miss payments (you have no payments to make) and you cannot have failed to inform your credit supplier of your change of address (you have no credit supplier to inform), ergo you cannot get a bad credit score.
Unless they make a mistake, which can occasionally happen, which is why all European countries, and I expect all first-world countries including those in North America, have data protection legislation which gives you the right to inspect, correct and clarify any data held about you, including your credit score.
I'm seeing a lot of these types of replies, "I didn't bother to check until it was too late."
If you've got a credit agreement, it is your RESPONSIBILITY to check that the payments are being correctly received on time.
If you fail that responsibility, you may get, and will deserve, a poor credit rating. You're demonstrably not managing your finances.
That's what a credit score shows. It distinguishes those who are responsible with their finances from BOTH those who are criminally reckless AND those who are simply careless.
Stop trying to push the blame onto other people! If the credit agreement is in your name, you're responsible for MAKING SURE the payments happen in full and on time!
Even if a payment gets missed, it doesn't take much to just read the statements they send out and spot the mistake. And yes, you're responsible for making sure they know your new address, if you move house too!
I'm aware that the US provides significantly less state-funded medical care than most European states, but surely there is a minimum baseline system that they run?
I've visited the US many, many times, and I didn't see the streets crowded with leprous scabious tramps.
If you get picked up in an ambulance and taken to the emergency ward, they can't expect you to pay for that, surely?
(Unless it's a car accident, which in the UK the NHS would charge back to your car insurance, which is mandatory for car drivers. Or if it were due to company/government negligence, in which case it the NHS may or may not charge it back to the guilty company/department's public liability insurance, which is again mandatory in most situations. There are other NHS charge-back insurance scenarios, almost all corporate; as a private individual you simply do not ever get a bill from the NHS.)
Why would a poor person need medical insurance? If they're poor they clearly can't afford private medical insurance. They should just use whatever the state provides by default, such as the NHS in the UK.
Because, of course, bills are something which appear by magic and not something which are charged for services received?
If you can't afford the bills, don't ask for the services in the first place.
Good lord, it's as if Slashdot commenters today are a bunch of whining teenagers who live their entire lives sponging off their parents and never actually learn how to pay their own way... oh wait... I see the problem now.
they are a good indicator of whose got on the wrong side of a credit agency.
Rubbish. Data protection law gives you the right to see all information held about you, other than national security stuff. Data protection law also gives you the right to correct any incorrect data. It also gives you the right to put a personal statement challenging any dubious data which you cannot disprove. All of these corrections must be displayed and acknowledged by anyone making a credit check on you.
The only way you can get a bad (as opposed to good or indifferent) credit score is for you to rack up debts you don't pay off in time. These missed payments are reported by the companies to whom you owe money. The credit checking agencies don't just randomly make stuff up, and where they do make the occasional mistake, you have the right to check and correct it.
If you haven't guessed by now, I spent a number of years programming credit scoring systems.
Agreed. Unless you have a job, how are you going to fix your credit?
Oh, I dunno. Maybe... not spend money you haven't got in the first place?
Credit scores are a good indicator of responsible attitudes. Admittedly, they can also a good indicator of whether mummy and daddy are rich, too. But if you're poor, you don't automatically get a bad credit score. You may start with a lower score than a rich person, but your score will only go bad if you do something irresponsible, like buying something on credit which you don't pay back.
Domain name: DEFINITESOFTWARE.COM Administrative Contact: Davis, Lance lance@definitesoftware.com Mowbray House Mowbray Street Stockport
...
Stockport
...
STOCKPORT
His businesses seem to be collapsing.
Stockport's on the southern outskirts of Manchester.
Manchester Linux Users Group (ManLUG) would seem to be a good place to start, to find someone geographically close enough knock on his door. Ideally someone very polite, sensible and well-mannered, given that it looks like he may be going through a stressful time.
Yup. Not only did my daughter struggle to take her first breath, but her hair was "henna'd" poop-colour.
(She's was absolutely fine after they vacuumed out the gunk. And she went blonde after a few washes. But, YE GODS, I will never forget the smell of placenta blood, birth fluid and baby poop. I thought soil sterilisation smelt bad, it has NOTHING on that. Ho hum. Twins due next month!)
After 10 years, it is paying for my, my wife's and my daughter's entire lives, and will shortly pay for my newborn twins entire lives too.
I spend half my waking hours doing stuff I don't care about, and most of the rest of my waking hours doing stuff I care about but don't necessarily enjoy; changing nappies/diapers, trying to persuade a 3-year-old to go to bed, reading the same damned favourite fairy tale over and over again, pretending that I enjoy playing "Doctors" and being poked with plastic implements, unblocking the septic tank after my daughter emptied a whole bottle of anti-bacterial cleaner down it.
But then for a few hours a week I have moments which I enjoy more than anything else I could imagine. Taking my family to the safari park, that was amazing watching my daughter interact with a giraffe. A birthday party. Making sandcastles on the beach. A long boat trip. Playing with my daughter in the swimming pool.
Grow up. Not everyone wants to be a loner with no responsibilities for their entire life. Being the breadwinner for your family of dependants is the role of the vast majority of adult males in the world. Just because you and your small community of like-minded folk choose to do otherwise won't change that majority.
The answer to your problem is... reduce your risk, massively. Don't go anywhere where there are thieves. Move away.
Except...
This whole urbanisation thing bothers the hell out of me. Weren't we all told that ubiquitous internet would mean we could telecommute to our jobs from wherever we wanted? Shouldn't we all be living in the countryside with WiMax, mesh and fast-latency low-altitude satellite connections? Y'know, a long, long way from the thieves and the druggies and the traffic and the idiots who queue for coffee?
I wouldn't work in a big city or commute along a busy train line if you paid me, and believe me plenty of people have offered. I've been offered three times my salary to work 20 miles distant from London. No effing chance. Too many people too close together, all getting on each other's nerves and that leads to crime as sure as night follows day.
And yet, the rollout of cable fiber slows to a crawl, the PSTN telcos write small print about fibre-to-cabinet never getting past 80% of the population, and our government's sum total of technology horizon is that one day, one day, every house in the UK might, just might, be entitled to a whopping 2 megabit Internet connection (with indeterminiate latency), the temptation of the urban life becomes more and more irresistible every day.
Me? I've stopped believing in telecommuting like I stopped believing we'd live on the moon. I grew up and had kids. The wife's up the duff with twins and our cosy little Victorian country cottage now looks distinctly pokey. I've had the same ADSL connection speed for over five years and it just ain't gonna change any time soon. The closest we came to 3G was one distant and barely visible hilltop got upgraded to EDGE last year. I can now get 128kbps from outside Winchcombe fish and chip shop. Woo effing hoo.
I'm looking at new build box houses, three storeys high with five bedrooms AND a study, hot and cold running fiber, built on the edge of town between the motorway and the flood plain, the developers keep knocking ten grand off the asking price, and I'm thinking, I'm going to have to call time on this rural adventure sooner or later. It just ain't happening.
Garden the size of a matchbox, though. No orchard, I'll miss that. And streetlights. I'll miss the Milky Way, it'll be like a dagger through my heart when I look up one night and see nothing but angry orange fuzz.
Slashdot Mirror
Barclays Bank in the UK got bad news coverage a few years ago for refusing to lend a pen to a customer. To counteract this bad coverage, they got rid of all the pens-on-a-chain and now have disposable ballpen dispensers throughout their branches. You can just walk in off the street and help yourself to a pen, no questions asked. I must have a dozen by now. They have amusing mottos down the side such as "Steal me" or "Bank swag".
And they write pretty well.
http://www1.banner-online.biz/whybanner/barclaysbank_175.html
http://images.onesite.com/my.telegraph.co.uk/user/bent_society/20080206111643.jpg
Highlighter yellow on white... I'm colour-blind and that hurts my eyes, god alone knows what kind of pain that would inflict on a colour-sighted person.
I'd suggest that I need some kind of replacement retina implant after viewing that, but no doubt GNU purists would argue that there aren't any available without patents.
Whilst there are probably a dozen practical and legal reasons why this probably isn't enforceable, the one that immediately springs to my mind is that Burning Man is taking place in a Black Rock Desert, which is government-owned and criss-crossed with historic trails open to the public. There are likely to be large areas of Burning Man which are visible from these public areas, and thus, according to Kantor's Legal Rights of Photographers (PDF), open to photographer to take photographs from as they see fit, without restrictions.
Must be nice to have your ideology subsidized by the Federal Government.
Er... I'm British.
And I've had my debit card copied several times. Chip-and-PIN is totally, totally hacked; because I know this, I am responsible and watch my bank statement online at least once a week, and immediately report any suspicious payments to my bank. It happens about three times a year. They refunded me in every case, and I still have a maximum credit score. In several cases, my bank (Barclays) have notified me before I was even aware of the fraud.
Barclays are still dreadful in person, mind. I'd never want to visit their branches, it's just miles of queues and incompetent misinformed staff (you used to be able to pay extra and get your own dedicated staff, but they dropped that and bunched us all up with the business tills). But online and over the phone, they're pretty good.
My joint account with my wife is for money transfers only, it has no overdraft facility and typically contains less than a hundred quid. So if one of our identities gets nicked, or one of us goes a bit wild at the shops, it doesn't affect the other person.
The only loans I have are secured against capital (ie. mortgage). I only use a credit card for business expenses, which gets paid off in full each month; for personal payments I use a debit card which goes straight to my bank account.
It really isn't hard, nor much effort, to take responsibility for your own finances. A little bit of effort goes a very long way.
Are US hospitals duty bound to have an Accident & Emergency department?
If so, how does this work for small hospitals or specialist hospitals?
Private hospitals in the UK simply don't have an A&E ward. Emergency services are solely run by the NHS. Smaller NHS hospitals don't have an A&E anyway.
Do most countries provide free health care (hell, even low cost care) to foreign travelers?
For non-European visiting foreigners, for example Americans visiting Britain, if you go to hospital you will be charged, but if you do not have medical insurance and do not have funds to cover it, it is highly unlikely that persuing the cost would be "in the public interest" and would in most cases simply be written off. I certainly wouldn't advise Americans to turn up in Accident and Emergency with a credit card in your wallet but no health insurance. That'd end up being expensive (by British standards).
As a non-EU citizen visiting the EU, if you require non-emergency treatment, such as a doctor's visit, you can only get it if you have medical insurance. You won't even get an appointment without it.
But presumably you will either be able to afford private medical insurance, or your government will provide subsidised or free medical insurance. If not, you won't be seen for non-emergency stuff, simple as that.
Some Commonwealth countries (former British Empire colonies and islands that have kept the Queen as their head of state, or have other close formal ties with Britain) also qualify for free treatment under the NHS. America is not one of those (you should have thought of that before you wasted all that tea).
If you are a European citizen, all hospital care within Europe is free. You do not need pirvate medical insurance. If you are visiting a foreign country within the EU, then all you need is your passport and an EHIC card, and your home country's health service will be cross-billed. Been there did that, when my daughter fell down some steps in France in June and needed two stitches.
As an EU citizen, once you're admitted to state-run hospital, there is no charge for anything. (Well, there are payphones, and you can pay extra to rent your own TV, buy candy from vending machines etc. But everything from basic meals and drinks, to medicine, to surgery, is free.)
For an EU citizen visiting a doctor, it varies. Either it's free and you just turn up (eg. UK) or you visit the doctor and then claim the vast majority of the costs back from the government (eg. France).
If the doctor prescribes medicine, then in some countries like the UK have a flat-rate charge (UK: about 7 quid per item per month, or you can get a pre-pay subscription for a tenner a month if you use more than one item per month on average), whilst other countries (eg. France) have a subsidy system where cheaper items are bought entirely privately (eg. asthma inhalers, antihistamines) but you can claim back costs for more expensive items (eg. antivirals, antibiotics).
The doctor may refer you to hospital to see a specialist. As soon as you touch hospital, it's all free. However if your condition is not urgent, there may be a long wait. Sometimes a VERY LONG WAIT.
The main use for private medical insurance is to jump these queues and to allow you to see an outpatient specialist straight away. Usually this would be at a private hospital, not a state-run hospital. In some European countries, all hospitals are private so everyone uses the same buildings, it's just a question of waiting for an appointment. In the UK, there are usually (but not always) separate NHS versus private hospitals.
Most medium and big towns have a state-run hospital, although it won't necessarily cover all services (eg. my local Winchcombe hospital doesn't have an Accident and Emergency ward; I have to travel to Tewkesbury or Cheltenham). Only really big cities (eg. Birmingham) or very rich towns (eg. Cheltenham) will have private hospitals.
Ambulance, fire and rescue call-outs are free, but if there is other non-medical insurance covering the accident (such as buildings fire insurance covering a fire, or motor insurance covering a car crash), then the i
So if a poor person gets something that's random, unavoidable yet completely treatable, like breast cancer, the US government just lets them die, or just lets it get worse and worse until they're an emergency patient?
I'm sorry but I simply don't believe that. I may not know much about the USA but, never mind the moral view, surely that's not economically viable? Surely the economic costs of letting preventable diseases get worse to the point of requiring free emergency treatment, far outweigh the cost of preventative treatment?
(I mean, imagine if the NHS had to fund emergency care for end-scenario breast cancer patients. There's no way we could afford that. Much cheaper to screen and treat the cancer before it's an emergency.)
I must admit, I've always taken travel insurance when visiting the US just so my laptop is covered for theft, but... maybe I'll check the medical section of the insurance policy a bit closer next time. Is five million dollars of cover + repatriation enough or should I switch my travel insurance provider?
In the EU, each member state reimburses other states for healthcare costs of their citizens abroad. So as Brit, when I was on holiday in France in June and my daughter fell down some steps and required stitches, we just showed up at the local hospital with her passport and EHIC card. I brought along our travel insurance documents too, just in case, but all they needed to see was the EHIC card.
Surely there's a system similar to EHIC within the North America, that provides a baseline level of healthcare across states and nations?
[fx: Google] Medicaid. Isn't that it?
Sorry, are you saying that there are no state-funded hospitals in the US?
Where do people go who can't afford private healthcare?
If the answer is "nowhere", how can that system possibly work?
It sounds like your healthcare system needs fixing, not your credit scoring system. That's an entirely separate debate to credit scoring.
this country
Which country? I'm in the UK.
I'm still not quite getting this. Why would you need to "qualify" for state-run hospitals? They're available to all, surely? That's the whole point of having the state run the health service. Rich or poor, if a doctor or medic thinks you need hospital care, then they book you into hospital and you just turn up. Other than the taxpayer footing the bill, there isn't much else to it.
Yup, credit reports exist in Europe. The main providers for the UK are Experian and Equifax, they may be familiar names in your country too.
You are correct in noting that someone with no credit history (ie. has always paid his own way) has an INDIFFERENT credit score.
An indifferent credit score will mean that you can get credit for small things (mobile phone contract, satellite TV subscription) but might have trouble getting credit for large things (mortgage, new car loan over GBP10k).
An indifferent credit score is NOT a BAD credit score. A bad credit score happens when you miss payments, or display activity which is extremely dubious, such as changing address several times in one year.
If you have taken no credit, you cannot miss payments (you have no payments to make) and you cannot have failed to inform your credit supplier of your change of address (you have no credit supplier to inform), ergo you cannot get a bad credit score.
Unless they make a mistake, which can occasionally happen, which is why all European countries, and I expect all first-world countries including those in North America, have data protection legislation which gives you the right to inspect, correct and clarify any data held about you, including your credit score.
she never told me it was going to happen
I'm seeing a lot of these types of replies, "I didn't bother to check until it was too late."
If you've got a credit agreement, it is your RESPONSIBILITY to check that the payments are being correctly received on time.
If you fail that responsibility, you may get, and will deserve, a poor credit rating. You're demonstrably not managing your finances.
That's what a credit score shows. It distinguishes those who are responsible with their finances from BOTH those who are criminally reckless AND those who are simply careless.
Stop trying to push the blame onto other people! If the credit agreement is in your name, you're responsible for MAKING SURE the payments happen in full and on time!
Even if a payment gets missed, it doesn't take much to just read the statements they send out and spot the mistake. And yes, you're responsible for making sure they know your new address, if you move house too!
I'm aware that the US provides significantly less state-funded medical care than most European states, but surely there is a minimum baseline system that they run?
I've visited the US many, many times, and I didn't see the streets crowded with leprous scabious tramps.
If you get picked up in an ambulance and taken to the emergency ward, they can't expect you to pay for that, surely?
(Unless it's a car accident, which in the UK the NHS would charge back to your car insurance, which is mandatory for car drivers. Or if it were due to company/government negligence, in which case it the NHS may or may not charge it back to the guilty company/department's public liability insurance, which is again mandatory in most situations. There are other NHS charge-back insurance scenarios, almost all corporate; as a private individual you simply do not ever get a bill from the NHS.)
Why would a poor person need medical insurance? If they're poor they clearly can't afford private medical insurance. They should just use whatever the state provides by default, such as the NHS in the UK.
Would an employer really want to employ someone who couldn't even work out how to pay their bills?
Managing your finances correctly is a good indicator of how responsible you are.
Because, of course, bills are something which appear by magic and not something which are charged for services received?
If you can't afford the bills, don't ask for the services in the first place.
Good lord, it's as if Slashdot commenters today are a bunch of whining teenagers who live their entire lives sponging off their parents and never actually learn how to pay their own way... oh wait... I see the problem now.
they are a good indicator of whose got on the wrong side of a credit agency.
Rubbish. Data protection law gives you the right to see all information held about you, other than national security stuff. Data protection law also gives you the right to correct any incorrect data. It also gives you the right to put a personal statement challenging any dubious data which you cannot disprove. All of these corrections must be displayed and acknowledged by anyone making a credit check on you.
The only way you can get a bad (as opposed to good or indifferent) credit score is for you to rack up debts you don't pay off in time. These missed payments are reported by the companies to whom you owe money. The credit checking agencies don't just randomly make stuff up, and where they do make the occasional mistake, you have the right to check and correct it.
If you haven't guessed by now, I spent a number of years programming credit scoring systems.
I don't understand. Why would being in state hospital cost anyone, other than the general taxpayer, money?
The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".
Agreed. Unless you have a job, how are you going to fix your credit?
Oh, I dunno. Maybe... not spend money you haven't got in the first place?
Credit scores are a good indicator of responsible attitudes. Admittedly, they can also a good indicator of whether mummy and daddy are rich, too. But if you're poor, you don't automatically get a bad credit score. You may start with a lower score than a rich person, but your score will only go bad if you do something irresponsible, like buying something on credit which you don't pay back.
You can be poor and still live within your means.
Domain name: DEFINITESOFTWARE.COM
Administrative Contact:
Davis, Lance lance@definitesoftware.com
Mowbray House
Mowbray Street
Stockport
...
Stockport
...
STOCKPORT
His businesses seem to be collapsing.
Stockport's on the southern outskirts of Manchester.
Manchester Linux Users Group (ManLUG) would seem to be a good place to start, to find someone geographically close enough knock on his door. Ideally someone very polite, sensible and well-mannered, given that it looks like he may be going through a stressful time.
http://www.manlug.org/
Yup. Not only did my daughter struggle to take her first breath, but her hair was "henna'd" poop-colour.
(She's was absolutely fine after they vacuumed out the gunk. And she went blonde after a few washes. But, YE GODS, I will never forget the smell of placenta blood, birth fluid and baby poop. I thought soil sterilisation smelt bad, it has NOTHING on that. Ho hum. Twins due next month!)
After 10 years, it is paying for my, my wife's and my daughter's entire lives, and will shortly pay for my newborn twins entire lives too.
I spend half my waking hours doing stuff I don't care about, and most of the rest of my waking hours doing stuff I care about but don't necessarily enjoy; changing nappies/diapers, trying to persuade a 3-year-old to go to bed, reading the same damned favourite fairy tale over and over again, pretending that I enjoy playing "Doctors" and being poked with plastic implements, unblocking the septic tank after my daughter emptied a whole bottle of anti-bacterial cleaner down it.
But then for a few hours a week I have moments which I enjoy more than anything else I could imagine. Taking my family to the safari park, that was amazing watching my daughter interact with a giraffe. A birthday party. Making sandcastles on the beach. A long boat trip. Playing with my daughter in the swimming pool.
Grow up. Not everyone wants to be a loner with no responsibilities for their entire life. Being the breadwinner for your family of dependants is the role of the vast majority of adult males in the world. Just because you and your small community of like-minded folk choose to do otherwise won't change that majority.
Ah, good. I can stop posting as AC then. ;-)
The answer to your problem is ... reduce your risk, massively. Don't go anywhere where there are thieves. Move away.
Except...
This whole urbanisation thing bothers the hell out of me. Weren't we all told that ubiquitous internet would mean we could telecommute to our jobs from wherever we wanted? Shouldn't we all be living in the countryside with WiMax, mesh and fast-latency low-altitude satellite connections? Y'know, a long, long way from the thieves and the druggies and the traffic and the idiots who queue for coffee?
I wouldn't work in a big city or commute along a busy train line if you paid me, and believe me plenty of people have offered. I've been offered three times my salary to work 20 miles distant from London. No effing chance. Too many people too close together, all getting on each other's nerves and that leads to crime as sure as night follows day.
And yet, the rollout of cable fiber slows to a crawl, the PSTN telcos write small print about fibre-to-cabinet never getting past 80% of the population, and our government's sum total of technology horizon is that one day, one day, every house in the UK might, just might, be entitled to a whopping 2 megabit Internet connection (with indeterminiate latency), the temptation of the urban life becomes more and more irresistible every day.
Me? I've stopped believing in telecommuting like I stopped believing we'd live on the moon. I grew up and had kids. The wife's up the duff with twins and our cosy little Victorian country cottage now looks distinctly pokey. I've had the same ADSL connection speed for over five years and it just ain't gonna change any time soon. The closest we came to 3G was one distant and barely visible hilltop got upgraded to EDGE last year. I can now get 128kbps from outside Winchcombe fish and chip shop. Woo effing hoo.
I'm looking at new build box houses, three storeys high with five bedrooms AND a study, hot and cold running fiber, built on the edge of town between the motorway and the flood plain, the developers keep knocking ten grand off the asking price, and I'm thinking, I'm going to have to call time on this rural adventure sooner or later. It just ain't happening.
Garden the size of a matchbox, though. No orchard, I'll miss that. And streetlights. I'll miss the Milky Way, it'll be like a dagger through my heart when I look up one night and see nothing but angry orange fuzz.
I wonder if I'll need a burglar alarm?