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Public Assistance. You may not be denied credit just
because you receive Social Security or public assistance (such
as Aid to Families with Dependent Children). But--as is the
case with age--certain information related to this source of
income could clearly affect creditworthiness. So, a creditor
may consider such things as:
-- how old your dependents are (because you may lose benefits
when they reach a certain age); or
-- whether you will continue to meet the residency
requirements for receiving benefits.
This information helps the creditor determine the
likelihood that your public assistance income will continue.
Housing Loans. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act covers
your application for a mortgage or home improvement loan. It
bans discrimination because of such characteristics as your
race, color, gender, or because of the race or national origin
of the people in the neighborhood where you live or want to buy
your home. Nor may creditors use any appraisal of the value of
the property that considers the race of the people in the
neighborhood.
In addition, you are entitled to receive a copy of an
appraisal report that you paid for in connection with an
application for credit, if a you make a written request for the
report.
Discrimination Against Women
Both men and women are protected from discrimination based
on gender or marital status. But many of the law's provisions
were designed to stop particular abuses that generally made if
difficult for women to get credit. For example, the idea that
single women ignore their debts when they marry, or that a
woman's income "doesn't count" because she'll leave work to
have children, now is unlawful in credit transactions.
The general rule is that you may not be denied credit just
because you are a woman, or just because you are married,
single, widowed, divorced, or separated. Here are some
important protections:
Gender and Marital Status. Usually, creditors may not ask
your gender on an application form (one exception is on a loan
to buy or build a home).
You do not have to use Miss, Mrs., or Ms. with your name
on a credit application. But, in some cases, a creditor may ask
whether you are married, unmarried, or separated (unmarried
includes single, divorced, and widowed).
Child-bearing Plans. Creditors may not ask about your
birth control practices or whether you plan to have children,
and they may not assume anything about those plans.
Income and Alimony. The creditor must count all of your
income, even income from part-time employment.
Child support and alimony payments are a primary source of
income for many women. You don't have to disclose these kinds
of income, but if you do creditors must count them.
Telephones. Creditors may not consider whether you have a
telephone listing in your name because this would discriminate
against many married women. (You may be asked if there's a
telephone in your home.)
A creditor may consider whether income is steady and
reliable, so be prepared to show that you can count on
uninterrupted income--particularly if the source is alimony
payments or part-time wages.
Your Own Accounts. Many married women used to be turned
down when they asked for credit in their own name. Or, a
husband had to cosign an account--agree to pay if the wife
didn't--even when a woman's own income could easily repay the
loan. Single women couldn't get loans because they were thought
to be somehow less reliable than other applicants. You now have
a fight to your own credit, based on your own credit records
and earnings. Your own credit means a separate account or loan
in your own name--not a joint account with your husband or a
duplicate card on his account. Here are the rules:
-- Creditors may not refuse to open an account just because
of your gender or marital status.
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