While most blogs are probably planning their New Year’s Resolutions, I’m taking action. I just voted to support Uncrunch America campaign in Change.org’s Solving the Credit Crisis From the Bottom Up. That’s quite a mouthful (or is it ten-fingersful since I’m typing?). Allow me to explain a bit.
Obtaining credit is getting more and more difficult in this country. For so long, it was really easy to get credit – too easy. We found that out all too well with the sub-prime mess. In an attempt to right the wrongs, lenders have over-corrected… they are requiring pristine credit scores to lend. “Once bitten, twice shy” isn’t just a Great White song to them. Uncrunch America has a plan to solve that.
Uncrunch America is looking to get people to lend to other people. If you think this sounds like peer-to-peer lending, you are right, Lending Club is one of Uncrunch America’s partners. It’s not just Lending Club though. Supporters also include Credit Karma (of which I should note has a great credit blog that tell me what is a good credit score) and popular online budgeting tool, Geezeo – two companies that I’ve talked with extensively in the past. Throw in On Deck Capital lending to small businesses and a public relations firm and you’ve got an organization with some clout.
However, some clout isn’t always enough. This is where Change.org comes in. This nonpartisan group is simply trying to create a platform where the people can vote on ideas of change. The Top 10 ideas will be presented to Barach Obama on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009. After that Change.org supports an organization (in this it would probably be Uncrunch America) in getting the idea implemented. The details of all this are a little fuzzy to me, but you can read the FAQ here.
So if you think that this idea for helping make credit available should get Barack Obama’s attention, please vote for Solving the Credit Crisis From the Bottom up at Change.org. I would stress that this is the last day for round one (I just heard about the campaign myself), so you may have to put down your champagne for a minute or two. However, it’s close to reaching round two, and if it does votes there will be appreciated as well. Sadly, you do have register for the site, but the sign-up form is 4 input boxes and took me about 45 seconds of my time. I figure it’s the least I can do to give the idea a shot.