This experience is a remarkable contrast with having someone I didn't know at my current branch bank cold-call me and tell me over the phone that they'd noticed I was carrying a high balance on my checking account, suggesting that I move some into an interest-bearing savings account.  When I backtracked the call and confirmed that it was from an unlisted extension at my branch bank, I found them to be clueless why I was disturbed by that call.  It makes me wonder why I'm not doing business at the place where the folks seem more-thoughtful about my concerns and I don't even bank there.  If I get to a point where I need to make some changes anyhow, I have a good candidate for a different bank.

A few years ago I subscribed to one of the reporting services that would provide alerts about actions against my credit report.  It seemed like a good idea except for two things.  First, the reports came long after the activity, so any damaging actions would have long since been completed.  Secondly, all of the activity was basically fishing by financial institutions probing for people who met their pre-approval conditions.  So I abandoned that service.

I did learn that my credit history never dies.  There were organizations that had me listed as an account holder in good standing years after I no longer had any relationship with them.  I don't like the idea that those inactive accounts might somehow be accessed by someone, but I mostly just forget about it.

In the two cases where there was something odd in my credit situation, knowing it was pretty useless.  When I sold my Sunnyvale, California, condominium, I learned there was a lien against the property placed there by the District Attorney of San Jose.  That was startling for me, but not for the title company.  I was told that judgments against people who've skipped are placed on the nearest approximately-credible alternative.  It was simple to file an affidavit asserting that I wasn't the person the judgment was against, and that was the end of it.  This did not increase my confidence in our civil authorities, however.

When I applied to rent a house in the Puget Sound area a few years later, the rental agent said there was a bad-debt claim on my credit report from TCI Cablevision (referring to a period of time when I was a good customer and continued to be one for a few years beyond that).  The rental agent was not disturbed about it at all.  I did call ATT Cablevision as TCI had become by then.  The person I reached insisted that I had to know which location of TCI placed the claim and they could do nothing otherwise.  When I said there was no such information on the report (but the number that I called was on the report), she argued with me about it and was completely unhelpful.  Since this didn't seem to impact my creditworthiness whatsoever, I let it go and subsequently delighted in telling all ATT Cablevision and Com-Cast folks who cold-called me (before the national do-not-call list was created) that I don't own a television (true) and that I am quite happy with the DSL service I receive from the telephone switching center 2 blocks from my home (also true).