Per the Wall Street Journal, in "FICO Reclibrates Its Credit Scores", the credit scores that are used for accepting people for credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and the like are going to be changed, and in ways that probably favor many Kossacks.
From the article itself,
Fair Isaac Corp. said Thursday that it will stop including in its FICO credit-score calculations any record of a consumer failing to pay a bill if the bill has been paid or settled with a collection agency. The San Jose, Calif., company also will give less weight to unpaid medical bills that are with a collection agency.
This should help lots of people--I've read lots of anecdotes by people, here and on other forums, about medical collections. I've also read plenty--generally outside of the DailyKos--about people negotiating to get "Pay For Deletion" (PFD) of collection agency records, which this might effect (though potentially negatively for consumers).
Again, according to the article,
The moves follow months of discussions with lenders and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aimed at boosting lending without creating more credit risk. Since the recession, many lenders have approved only the best borrowers, usually those with few or no blemishes on their credit report.
While I'm personally in that "best borrower" category, I know from reading here and elsewhere the kinds of things creditors have been doing to those who have lesser credit profiles.