STARTING CREDIT REPAIR THE RIGHT WAY

Credit Repair Done Right

If you want your credit repair effort to succeed you need the right credit scores and credit reports. The wrong approach can put you on the path to lower credit scores and frustration. The information you are about to read may shock and amaze you. But if you do it right you will have a great advantage and avoid some serious frustration.

The Scores You Need

Do you know what your credit scores are? Are you sure? If you are going to begin a credit repair effort and want to benchmark your starting point you should do it right. Here’s the problem. The credit scores sold by the credit bureaus are not the same scores lenders use. Huh? That’s right; the credit bureaus created their own credit scores to cash in on the market opportunity. If you muddle through the fine print at the credit bureau websites you will discover the disclaimer.

Avoid Those Imitation Scores

This unfortunate fact applies to the army of credit resellers on the web as well. There is another problem with bureau scores. You may think that even an imitation score will serve your credit repair purposes, believing that your progress should be reflected in some way. I’m sorry to say that these scores do not behave the same as your real lender scores and are almost sure to result in disappointment.

MyFICO, the Right Score for Credit Repair

If you want your real scores you have to go to MyFICO.com the website of Fair Isaac Corp, the creator of the FICO score. The current cost of scores is about $50 for all three combined. A bit pricy, but it’s the only game in town. And for those intrepid credit repair warriors that want more detail, Equifax does in fact sell a FICO score. Unfortunately, they only make it available for your Equifax report, and you definitely want all three scores for your credit repair effort. Also, they use an older release of the formula, so the results will vary.

But Nix on their Credit Reports

So, head on over to MyFICO and get your scores right from the source. It’s the right credit repair choice. But there is another twist. Although MyFICO is the only way to get your scores, the credit reports they provide are the pits. For some strange reason MyFICO blocks out virtually all of the account numbers and offers only about half of the information that your credit repair effort will need. So get your wallet out again because you will have to buy your reports elsewhere. It takes few bucks to get your credit repair underway, but it’s worth doing it right.

The Right Reports

Although the credit bureaus peddle poor credit score products, they offer excellent tri-merged reports, full of all of the detail you need for your credit repair project, and when it comes to credit repair every detail matters. I’ve taken you down a twisty road so far, and I’m sorry to say that there is one more twist on this journey before we arrive at our goal.

Credit Repair and the Right Deal

Here is the final twist. The credit bureaus want to sign you up for monthly membership, hence the offers of free credit reports in exchange for joining this or that service. If you are not careful your free credit report will end up costing you hundreds of dollars. If you want to join a monthly service, that’s another story. There are benefits. But if you just want to get your credit repair underway and want a good cheap tri-merged report you have to look very carefully.

Hiding in Plain Sight

TrueCredit.com offers the best cheap one shot tri-merged report on the web. But it’s not easy to find, so don’t just run off to TrueCredit and think you’re going to find it clearly advertised. In fact, it’s about the last thing that they want you to buy. But it’s there, hiding in plain sight. Well, almost. Scroll down the home page. Look under the main picture for small print in light gray that says that coverage is not available for residents of New York.

Credit Repair Treasure Hunt Success

Right under that line you will find another line that says that you can also get your 3-bureau credit report without the free score. Click on the words, without the free score. It’s a credit repair treasure hunt. How hard can they make it? Wow. Make sure to uncheck the two boxes where they try to sell you two other ridiculous items that have no use for your life, not to mention your credit repair efforts. Now you have the tools you need to get started. Good luck!

Copyright © 2008 Ian Webber. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

by Ian Webber

HELP TO REPAIR YOUR CREDIT

The search for credit repair help can be a little scary at times. There are so many factors that come together to lower your score that it can be confusing as well. Your exact situation will always be just a little different from anyone else’s; you need to evaluate it carefully. Once you’re able to see exactly what’s wrong, you can start researching how to fix it.

Many services offer to help consumers: credit repair services, counseling services, debt consolidation, and even friends and family. There are so many it’s hard to pick the right one: who’s right for you? This depends on your exact situation as well. Some of these offered services can help and hurt at the same time: credit counseling often lowers debt but also harms your actual credit score.

Keeping your used-credit to under 30% of your available credit is a major part of a high score. For a lucky few, all they need to do to raise that score is to pay their debt down. The best way to pay debt down is to create a budget, live well below your income, and consider taking on a second job. Do your best to avoid paying high interest fees for late payments on your credit accounts. Transferring high-interest amounts to low-interest accounts is another way to pay them off faster.

If your problem is negative items on credit report, you may need to resort to credit repair. That repair happens through disputes filed with the credit bureaus in an effort to remove the negative items. Once you send a dispute form to the bureau, it has 30 to 45 days to find verification of the information. It’s also possible to dispute public records: judgments, foreclosures, tax liens, repossessions and bankruptcies are all fair game.

In addition to the dispute letter to the credit bureau, you should also send a debt validation letter directly to the creditors of any debt on your record. This request must be in writing, and they have 30 days to reply. If they fail to reply, or can’t come up with accurate documentation showing your debt, law requires them to delete the account from your credit report.

If the creditor is able to validate the debt, and if the bureau doesn’t remove it from your report for lack of verification, you don’t have many options left. One of them is to contact the creditor directly and negotiate with them. Some creditors may be willing to delete the account from your report if you’re willing to pay the account in full or in part.

A smart consumer always knows the status of his or her credit score before trying for a new credit account. If you apply for an account, but you know you have little chance of approval, you’re harming your score even more. It’s a good idea to sign up for a credit monitoring service, so you can stay aware at all times of your score and report.

by Chane Steiner

CREDIT CAR COMPANY

Ever since the credit crunch has been put into full effect, many credit card companies have been paving the way for the administering of some reactionary responses from their ends. To be honest, they’re a bit shook up by it all. And thanks to the jolt that has been placed before them they’ve found some serious reason to reevaluate consumer credit. However, for them, what’s happening post-reevaluation is something a bit expected, yet untimely…at best – the shrinking of card limits and increasing of interest rates.

The above is just a backlash coming directly from the financial world. This backlash is one with an undercurrent of filtering kept close at hand and in mind. Filtering here is primarily centralized toward borrowers, especially borrowers with too much attached risk. And, by lowering credit card limits and raising interest fees, they’re not done without reason; here, these specifics are carried out based on whether or not consumers give off an impression that they’re a latent risk.

Credit Card Companies Rewriting…

Means bad news for all you credit card consumers out there. With such rewrites the handle on which they once had upon the ways to deal with credit have completely been altered. Of these changes are three of the following in which you should know and familiarize yourself with: rate increases, credit card limits and consumer credit denials.

Card issuers are putting spikes into current rates thanks to a ballooned number of charge-offs sent directly from stacked up, delinquent payments. This is so much so that percentage levels can rise anywhere from 2-5 points. As far as credit limits are concerned, they are being shrank significantly, no matter how your balance was treated or currently stands; this is done to ensure that balances don’t bulk up more than they comfortably should. And, lastly, and most significant of all, there are denials being issued. Now, more than ever, some consumers are being denied credit or are having their accounts frozen and closed due to lack of balance payoff compliance.

Asking Why & Anticipating the Worst

The reason as to why these credit card companies are rewriting is to anticipate the worst, especially the prospect of upcoming federal regulations on consumer credit. As it is the Federal Reserve is in the process of consideration toward specific regulations wrapped up in prohibiting companies to raise existing balances’ rates. Prohibitions may also come into play concerning any and all changes to a consumers account based on uncorrelated financial transactions. Taking the possible said prohibition into mind, realize that no rate increases or additional (and quite erroneous) fees could be ushered your way after paying a bill late.

Avoiding The Rewrite Effect & Attached Problems

To avoid being effected here all you have to do is play the role of responsible credit card consumer; just make your payments on time, pay down your balances as soon as you can and monitor your credit use. Even beyond avoiding the current credit card rewrite situation, you should also consider the avoidance of a possible poor credit score in your financial future.

by E.S. Cromwell

CREDIT CAR LIMIT

Yep, you bet. Actually, if you haven’t been contacted by your credit card company yet you should be on the lookout for some form of a notice very soon. As a consumer, what you should expect is an envelope containing specific information that will outline the new terms of your credit card, including interest rates and credit card limits. Specifically, what you’ll be seeing in terms of your credit card limit being cut back are quite stringent and lessened actions. Even with consumer credit already being stretched to the absolute max, there currently are (and soon will be even more of) a plethora of Americans that may discover shrinking or lessened credit limits, despite rising interest rates.

But, the question here is simply “why?” Because, as it is, even those who are responsible in their cardholder positions are getting financially hit here. Having a polished track record and an unsmudged credit score isn’t even enough; to no avail and still, such esteemed cardholders are witnessing their credit card limits being curtailed right in front of them.

FICO Ways of Old and Greeting The New

The old way of determining rates and limits via outstanding balances and FICO scores are still in use, to a degree. But, what’s now being ushered in the door for determining rates and limits are anything including factors such as where you reside or even to the point of surmising how stable your particular job is. More or less, the stance here is directly from a mindset that’s being overly cautious, especially to at-risk borrowers.

Who Are Borrowers That Are “At-Risk?”

Those who would be classified as borrowers at risk include those who are unable to meet their balances. Of course. This makes sense. But, don’t get set on just this determinative classification. Here, cardholders who are deemed at a great risk are those under certain industries such as construction, home-building or mortgage brokerage. It is this set of professionals specifically that are seeing their credit lines being cut more than anyone else.

Also, credit card issuers seem to shrink limits and even deny credit lines for those consumers who live in the hardest-hit housing markets, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise; consider that major banks did the same thing a few months ago via shrinking credit lines for home equity loan products and services.

Expect Credit Ratings To Be Hit

Typically, when credit card limits fall the ratios of cardholders’ debt to their credit undeniably rises. This is not good though. Consider that a domino effect can take place. Just do some reasoning; less credit can lead to an easier means to target over-the-limit charges and subsequent penalties. Also, realize that credit agencies check into individual consumer credit percentages, as far as use is concerned. And, with lower credit card limits cardholders automatically use a greater amount of available credit. This, on its own, can possibly (and would most likely) spur a lowering of a consumers credit score.

by E.S. Cromwell