A rhumbline is a direct heading to a point. On a map it's a straight line. It looks like the perfect way to get where you're going. On a globe, though, it may be the long way around. For example, New York and Madrid are about the same latitude. On a map, a course due east from New York is the shortest distance to Madrid. On the round face of the earth, though, a curved path (called the great circle route) passing over Greenland and the northern Atlantic is shorter. Try it with a string and a globe if you don't believe it. That's probably what a lot of the comments on this blog will be like. Random? Disconnected? Circular? Probably. But maybe they will lead to a point eventually.



Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Check Your Credit Report, Especially if You've Been to the Doctor

In the last week I've shocked two different people by telling them what is in their credit report.  In both cases, they had several medical bills that had been sent for collection.  Both of them told me that they didn't have any outstanding medical bills and that their insurance had paid for everything.  Maybe so, but I'm sitting there looking at their credit histories that have been devastated. 

Maybe they really paid everything owed and the doctor's billing is in error.  Maybe they paid their part and the insurance fouled up and didn't pay everything it was supposed to.  Maybe they thought insurance was going to pay more than it did and they really do owe the money.  When they are at the point of applying for a loan, though, it doesn't matter.  Whatever the reason, if it's on the credit report they aren't getting the loan.

Medical bills are the most common errors I see on credit reports, but certainly not the only ones.  Check your credit report BEFORE you want a loan.  If there is an error it will probably take you 30 days or more to get it cleared up.  The website www.annualcreditreport.com will give you a free credit report from each of the 3 reporting agencies once a year.  (This is not the site you see advertised on TV that makes you sign up for a program with a monthly fee to give you your "free" credit score.)  This site will sell you your score, but you really don't need it.  Keep answering "no" when it wants to sell you something in in a few clicks you will see your actual credit history.  They even have instructions about how to correct any errors.
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