Aubrey Clark asked:


Credit scores are the determining factor on how good the deal is for most of the major purchases we make in life. Managing your credit wisely can save thousands of dollars over one’s lifetime and even contribute to a comfortable retirement. Think about this, improving your credit scores by 50 points can save around $33,000 over the life of the average mortgage. If you also consider the likelihood that you will also pay higher rates on car loans, and credit were talking about a huge sum of money. What if you were able to put all of that money into a retirement account, wow!

Before we get started, I would like to touch on the “companies” that advertise that they can magically clean your credit and have your scores up in a matter of days. In my opinion any company that makes such a claim is less than legitimate at best. The simple fact is that it’s ultimately the credit bureaus that will update your scores via the information they receive. By law, credit bureaus cannot treat you any differently than the people you hire to clean up your credit. This means that Know-how and hard work are the only differences between you and credit repair companies. So if you are willing to learn a little and roll up your sleeves you can save some money.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of legitimate credit repair companies that perform great a services for their clients. Depending on how bad your credit is repairing your credit can be a lot of work. If you are unable to spend the time or you lack the “stomach” to deal with collection agents then I suggest that you look into hiring a legitimate credit repair company. The only downside is that it can be very expensive and the money you spend paying them to repair your credit can be used paying down debt.

3 Tips for Fast Credit Report Repair

1) Opt out of all credit bureau solicitations – Have you ever wondered how you get “pre-approved” credit card and mortgage offers? Credit bureaus actually sell your information to companies to solicit you. These leads are furnished to the solicitors by credit type and a credit score range. The credit bureaus then “ding” your credit score 3 – 10 points for the inquiries! The good news is that you can “opt out” from this practice and it will raise your credit score 3 – 10 points within a week. You can find the website here: www.optoutprescreen.com.

2) Validate all debts as real debts on your bureau – This action requires that you have a credit bureau in hand. If you are serious about cleaning your credit it is crucial that you have one it will be your blue-print. You will need to pony up about $40 bucks to get a credit report with all 3 bureaus and scores. Many companies offer “free” credit reports if you join their credit monitoring service that ironically cost around $40 bucks.

With Credit report in hand, you need to validate ALL debts with collection agencies that are reporting on your credit bureau. Look for debts that are older than 7 years old, (from the charge-off date) the credit bureaus have remove these by law. Dispute these debts with the credit bureaus NOT the collection agencies. Next, look for duplicate collections, many collection agencies will package and sell your debt to other companies and never remove their original report. Send a letter to the credit bureaus with an explanation asking that they remove the debt.

3) Dispute ALL debts with the credit bureaus – Dispute all late payments, collections and negative remarks that appear on all 3 credit bureaus, not the collection agencies. In the dispute letter simply state that you do not believe the debt is yours and ask them to have the reporting agency to prove that you owe the debt. In the event it is a late payment simply say that you weren’t late.You can find a good letter by following the link above.

Note: When I say dispute all items I mean all negative items whether they are a legitimate debt or not. By law the collection agencies have to prove that you owe the debt within a reasonable amount of time or remove the remark on your bureau. Many collection agencies are too busy or unable to respond to the credit bureau’s request. When this happens the credit bureaus have to remove the negative remarks regardless of their legitimacy.

10 Ground Rules for Dealing with Collection Agencies

1- To use an analogy, credit collection agents are the Devil incarnate and they are on commission.

2- Arguing with the Devil is fruitless; they hold the gold and will ultimately win the argument.

3- Speaking with the “supervisor” usually will not work; he got his position by being the meanest Devil.

4- The Devil will lie and cheat, it is his nature. Do not EVER give debit card numbers, checks numbers, credit card numbers, or bank accounts over the phone to a collection agency.

5- Make any and every payment you send to them with a money order or certified funds.

6- Send all correspondence via certified mail return receipt, leave a paper trail and make a file.

7- Do not accept a deal or negotiated payoff without having it in writing.

8- When negotiating a lower payoff take their first offer, they will almost always call back to sweeten their offer.

9- When negotiating a lower payoff always approach the collection agent from the position “this is all I can afford to pay” not “this is all I am going to pay you”. Refer to rule #2

10- Always have a copy of your credit report when repairing your credit!

Obviously, there is a lot more to know than we have mentioned in these three tips. However these three tips will almost always help you with fast credit report repair. NOTE: Executing these three tips you do not want to the collection agencies at this time. If collection agencies update the information on your bureau it can actually lower your credit scores. Do these three steps first before contacting the collection agencies and then you can dance with the devil later.



Jeffery

Vince Robertson asked:


You have a mortgage, and would like to refinance the loan. But you know your credit is not very good, maybe even bad. There are lenders in the financial market that will make loans to people with less than perfect credit. As a lenders risk goes up so does the interest rate, so if you got bad credit you can expect a high interest rate. If you can drop your rate by at least 2 % saving money is still possible.

            There are several questions you should ask yourself when considering refinancing your mortgage. First of all you need to know your credit stats. Has getting credit been a problem for you in the past, if so you will want to take control of your finances. Sign up for a credit monitoring service to look for ways to improve your credit. Try to bring the balance of some of the revolving accounts down before you refinance your mortgage. This will make lenders feel better about loaning money to someone with less than perfect credit. When you refinance your home mortgage you want to better the situation, instead of hurt it.

            You will want to calculate all of the costs before making a decision to refinance. When refinancing you need to be able to lower your interest rate and it is always great to get a shorter loan life. Sometimes people are only interested in lowering their monthly payments. However, you will need to remain in your home long enough to benefit from refinancing. There would be no reason to refinance if you plan on moving within a few years. Take the time to figure out how long it will take to recover the costs of refinancing your home. Loans may offer a lower rate of interest but have excessive closing costs and fees. You should find out all costs involved including any additional income taxes you may be charged.

The 2 % Mortgage Rule

            The two percent rule refers to your Home Mortgage rate, can you drop your new rate 2% below current rate. Lenders recommend that you refinance your mortgage if you can drop the interest rate two percent less than your current rate. This is just a general rule and should not be the only deciding factor when trying to decide whether to refinance or not to refinance. Are you planning to live in your home for over five years, or do you plan to move. This can be important factors when deciding to refinance.

            The average the cost of refinancing is at least 3 % of your home mortgage loan. Three percent of the mortgage is a lot of money to spend, so you want to be able to recover these costs when refinancing your mortgage. If you are making payments on your home and plan to buy a larger home in the near future, then a drop in the interest rates may be the perfect time to purchase a larger home. This could be a great time to refinance, into a larger home. There are always many decisions to make when purchasing or refinancing a existing mortgage. To find out more on mortgages visit this website “youhave2.com” for all the answers you need.



Gail

John Roy asked:


We’ve teamed up with the UK’s market leading credit reference agencies so that we can provide you with a fantastic range of services that enable you to check, monitor and improve your personal credit report. What’s more, all of these services are available to you online!

 

We appreciate that everyone has differing requirements when it comes to using personal credit checking services. In order to assist you in choosing the right personal credit reporting product for your requirements, we have provided a wealth of information on each of the credit reference agency services available.

 

The most popular online credit report services that we have on offer are summarised below. Use the links provided to learn more about what each service offers and to start gaining the benefit of using them to improve your credit rating and protect yourself from identity fraud.

 

1 Equifax Credit Report: An Equifax credit report provides you with a snapshot of your personal credit history as it stands at the time of you running the report. Access to this service is provided online. Read more about Equifax Credit Report and order your copy. Equifax will provide you with free access to their credit report for 30 days after registration.

 

2 Equifax Credit Watch Gold : This personal credit report monitoring service from Equifax provides you with a FREE 30 day trial period, in which time you have unlimited online access to your personal credit reports and are provided with monitoring update notifications within 24 hours of each change to your personal credit history. Read more about Equifax Credit Watch Gold and start gaining the benefits of monitoring your personal credit file.

 

3 Experian CreditExpert: A personal credit report monitoring service from Experian. This service offers a FREE 30 day trial period. The full service provides you with weekly alerts of significant changes to your personal Experian credit report. You can check your online credit report an unlimited number of times. Read more about Experian CreditExpert and start monitoring your Experian credit file.

 

4 Equifax Credit Rating: This service from Equifax provides you with a copy of your personal Equifax score. An Equifax credit score can range from 0 – 900. A higher credit score indicates you are likely to be a better candidate for credit. With your Equifax Credit Rating you also get a copy of your personal credit report.

 

5 Experian Credit Score: Only Members of the Experian CreditExpert monitoring service are able to purchase their personal Experian Credit Score. The Experian credit score is a numerical display of your level of credit risk. A higher score represents a lower credit risk. Experian credit scores range from 0 – 999.

 

6 Equifax Identity Watch: A credit monitoring service from Equifax, specifically developed for those concerned with the risk of identity theft & identity fraud. With this credit service you receive one Equifax credit report (with discounts on further Equifax reports). You then receive alert notifications within 7 days of key changes to your Equifax credit history. Read more about Equifax Identity Watch and start gaining the benefits of this service.

 

7 Statutory Credit Report: All UK Credit Reference Agencies offer the statutory credit report service. This is the most basic of all personal credit report products. You can order statutory credit reports for a small fee.

 

Learn More About Personal Credit Reports:

Accessing your credit report and signing up to credit monitoring services is one thing, but making the most of your credit file and improving your credit score is a whole other ball game. We’ve put together a number of articles to help dispel many of the myths regarding personal credit reports, to help you better understand credit reference agency services and to put you on the way to managing your credit record in the best possible way.

 

For further assistance on credit check UK, free credit report, equifax, experian, credit management, credit rating, credit reference agency, bad debt recovery, debt collection, debt purchase, debt sale, credit control, business credit check browse http://www.thecreditagency.co.uk/credit-report/check-my/ now!



Claude

swnkygirl asked:


My TransUnion score is 108 pts. higher than Exp. and 99 points higher than Equi. Yes, I have been over my credit reports 100 times. The info on all 3 is EXACTLY the same, except for one paid debt in the amount of $44 from 6 years ago that’s listed on Exp. I actually monitor my scores every day to see if they catch up. There are no discrepancies among the 3 bureaus, and nothing being reported on one that’s not on the others with the exception of the paid item mentioned above. I realize there will be differences in scoring and that they use different models, but 100 points??? How can I get Exp. and Equi. closer to TU’s score??? Thanks in advance for your help!

Nicole

Anna Josephs asked:


Free credit report online will help to know your yearly credit status. You can find numbers of online sites those who gives you free credit report, free credit scores and free credit monitoring but very few sites are legal sites and are authorized to issue such annual free credit report.

The Fair Credit Report Act requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies. There art three legal financial companies Equifax, Experian, Trans Union to provide you the free copy of your annual credit report at your request once every 12 months.

Free credit report online includes all the information related to you like where you live, how you pay your bills and whether you have been sued, arrested or field as an bankrupt.

This credit report helps you in doing big finance deals like purchasing furniture, property or vehicles at the same time it may be problematic to some of them if they don’t have a good credit report.

Free credit report online saves your time the only thing you have to do is they provide you with the annual credit report form you just have to fill it with all the correct information’s. take care that you don’t provide any false information regarding your credit card number or regarding your billing because if you fill the false information your will not be accepted and it will be rejected, so try to avoid all such things and save your time with free credit report online.

Anna Josephs is a freelance journalist having experience of many years writing articles and news releases on various topics such as pet health, automobile and social issues. She also has great interest in poetry and paintings, hence she likes to write on these subjects as well. Currently writing for this website Free Yearly Credit Report . For more details please contact at annajosephs@gmail.com



Lillie

sam asked:


I received a letter from a potential employer for which I applied for a job on-line. This employer stated that access to my personal information by individuals external to the company may have been possible. The information included my current address, social security number, driver’s license, and any previous names I provided. The letter further stated the problem has been corrected and that there is no evidence that my personal information has been misused. At the company’s expense they are offering a 12 month subscription to a credit monitoring and identify theft protection service. I took the company up on that offer, but should I still be contacting an attorney?

Danielle

anonymous asked:


The instant credit report is a service that has started off late. It gives the users a credit report from all three agencies at once. There are many more online services that these credit bureaus provide. Let us now look at the online services provided by most credit bureaus.

Online Services

The instant credit report service includes unlimited credit reports from all three leading credit bureaus, viz. Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. It also provides unlimited credit monitoring. So, it will give you an email alert if critical changes are made in your credit file. This service is really useful if you want to stay updated continually of any major changes to your credit report. Other than this, the service provider also gives you valuable tips to improve your credit. Some of the tools provided by the provider are really helpful and effective as well.

Top Mistakes by People

Most people make the common mistake of taking advice from so called experts in the credit industry. But these guys are not reliable and the advice might end up causing you more harm than help.

1. For example if someone suggests that you close all existing credit cards and it will improve your credit score, then it is absolute rubbish. Closing credit cards is in fact considered as bad as missing payments.

2. Missing payments is the worst thing that you can do to your credit scores. The last thing that a lender wants to see is that you have been irregular with your payments. This predicts that you are more likely to miss your future payments as well. If you have been missing payments regularly for the last few years, then you will have the worst scores. Also if you have missed a payment for 90 days rather than 30, it also looks worse.

3. Settlements are another thing that has a negative impact on your credit score. Settling means giving the company less than you owe them. It seems like the best proposition possible, as you do not have to pay them a huge amount. But then the deficit amount is reported to the credit agency as a settlement and it goes as a negative rating in your credit score.

So stay away from such advices and try to work slowly towards improving your credit scores. It will improve gradually and keep checking your credit scores from time to time.

Looking for Online Instant Credit Reports

Instant credit reports are available with many websites, but you need to look at the best site to give you this service. The site has to be safe and secure as it has some of the most personal details of your finances. The website has to be hacker proof as a hacker can get some very valuable details. Word of mouth is a good way to look for a site. Usually a site that has been around for a few years can be termed as real. Because there are less chances that they will runoff with your money after charging you. Also stay away from sites with a shady design. If at any point in time, you feel that the website is a fake then please refrain from doing business with them.



Rodney

LovinNY asked:


My husband went to the bank with me today to set up a joint account.He’s been with that bank for a few years now.When we gave them our SSNs, there were 2 different people with the same number, having accounts with that bank already. How can 2 people share the same Social Security Number?? They told us to report it to the Social Security, my husband monitors his credit reports but it has never come up. It’s a different name, address, date of birth -just the same number…

Jeff

The Dude asked:


I decided to pull up my credit report, and there is still a repo showing up on there, from 2002 (I believe, the account was opened in 2000, and I believe the repo was about 2 years later, maybe 3, my last late bill I have is from 02). However, it is listed as charged off in May of 2008, and in the other notes from Experian it also says purchased by another lender. Am I mistaken, or is this illegal for a creditor/CRA to list misinformation?

I don’t know if this makes a difference, but I’m using truecredit.com to monitor my reports. The other two bureaus are clean, and from what I’ve gathered Experian tends to make some errors.

I plan on sending a letter to dispute it since they won’t open up one online for me. What should I send them? Ultimately I’d hope they remove it, or at least correct that date. I have a feeling the charge off listed in 08 will appear as too recent if I decide to apply for a credit card.

Claude

dryann93 asked:


Thank you all for your great advice,especially you Emmitt. So I called the number the credit union guy gave me and it’s the credit union number,so he works for them. Does this make the situation any better since he’s not an outside company? I left him a message sounding very “stearn” and intelligent so he doesn’t try to bully me when he calls. I told him I had no problem paying the bill,I just want to get something in writing stating that the judgement will be removed as soon as it’s paid……what do you guys think? Is it better that he works for the credit union itself?

HELP AGAIN…previous message question.?
Just emailed my credit union,the guy I used to deal with when the loan was open emailed me back. He gave me the name and phone number of the person (lawyer I assume) that is handling my account. What do I say when I call him? Should I still try to deal with the credit union?

HELP……just found judgement on credit file!?
I had a loan with a credit union and paid it off (so I thought) back in Nov. 1007. The balance was around $14,000.00. Seems there was still a balance of $979.00 left. The loan was taken out in CA and I now live in NC. I have moved a couple times,had a couple different addresses,so my mail was messed up for a while. Since I paid it off,I haven’t received any correspondence. I just went into my credit monitoring and there is a suit/judgement for $979.00!!! What do I do……I can’t believe this! I never had any indication that there was still any balance and no phone calls….nothing! HELP Please!
3 hours ago – 3 days left to answer.
Additional Details
3 hours ago

I did a debt consolidation so I was paying off a bunch of stuff,then moved,changed addresses,email,phone,etc…just didn’t think about contacting them cause I thought the thing was paid off! If I pay it,will the judgement be removed,or do I have to do it by contacting the credit bureaus?
2 hours ago

If I work it out with the credit union and pay it…..will I be able to remove the judgement? It “just” showed up yesterday on my credit monitoring.

3 hours ago – 3 days left to answer.
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by Bibs Member since:
May 02, 2007
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Since you moved several times possibly without notifying ever one, they couldn’t find you. In these situations they have the right to give notification in the local newspaper. Too bad you didn’t see the notification. You may be able to reopen the case, but usually it is cheaper to just pay the amount. The balance that you owe is probably interest and court costs, and maybe legal fees. Call the telephone number you were given and arrange to pay the amount due. They will act tough and possibly nasty. They just want the money. When the amount has been paid they must give you a release from the judgment. This must be filed with the court. When you receive your copy, you may wish to sent a copy to the three credit reporting agencies.
3 hours ago
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by bdancer2…
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At this point you could spend a lot of money on an attorney to have the judgment removed due to not receiving a summons, but you would still owe the credit union unless you have some proof the debt was paid in full.

It would be cheaper to just call the attorney and work out payment. Once the judgment is paid, it will be noted on your credit report but the judgement will stay for 7 years or the statutory limit for the issuing state, whichever is longer.
3 hours ago
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by John M Member since:
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If you are willing to pay the amount if you believe its your obligation, then don’t worry about who you talk to first, just ask this guy the questions you need to be confident you really do still owe this money. Explain the understanding you had, and make sure its not an error from the consolidation effort before you agree to pay, but once you are convinced its your obligation, then offer to pay under the condition its immediately sent to the reporting bureaus for prompt removal from your record. Get a copy of that agreement in writing, subject to you making payment of course, and then attach a photocopy of your check of payment in full along with a copy of the agreement you get from the contact you’ll be speaking with. S

Amy