Credit Repair Secrets That Work

Credit Repair Pays - The impact of bad credit can be significant. Over the years we have helped tens of thousands of our customers successfully repair their credit reports. Credit report repair takes effort and patience. But it is an effort that is well rewarded. We would like to offer some tips for those that would like to undertake the process themselves. It can be done!

Time for a Credit Report Check Up

The first step is to get copies of all three of your credit reports. In December of 2003 congress passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (also know as the FACT Act). One of the measures included in the FACT Act is the right for you to get a copy of your report one time per year from each of the credit bureaus.

The FACT Act was passed for your protection. It turns out that the credit bureaus are somewhat less than perfect. If fact, a recent study by the National Association of Public Interest Research Groups discovered that 79% of all credit reports contain mistakes.

It is also worth mentioning, for those that might not be aware, that the credit bureaus are NOT government agencies, nor are they operating under any special government mandate. They are just big business. And they are under constant scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission, who has fined the three bureaus millions of dollars for failing to cooperate with consumers in cleaning up the errors on their credit reports.

What to Look For on Your Report

If you want to do the job right you need to go though your report line by line. Your score is affected by much more that just the items that appear in the “derogatory” section. You especially need to check every account open date and high credit limit. The age of your revolving accounts as well as the relationship between your current balance and your high credit limit can have a major impact on your credit score.

Please don’t make the mistake of believing that because it is on your report that it is automatically true. If you don’t remember a late payment or possibly even an entire account, there is a very good possibility that it didn’t happen, or it is not yours.

What to Do

Dispute every single item that you don’t recognize as being correct. Dispute every item that you don’t recall. The law allows for you to dispute “questionable items”. Trust yourself. If you think it is wrong - it’s probably wrong.

How to Dispute

Don’t bother disputing more than three issues at a time. If you do, your dispute is likely to go right in the trash. The law allows for the credit bureaus to disregard any dispute that they feel is “frivolous”. Our experience indicates that if there are more than three items disputed at a time the probability increases dramatically that the letter will go in the trash.

Make sure that your letter is clear, concise, and follows any guidelines that the bureaus provide. If you don’t streamline your dispute, it’s also likely to go in the trash. Don’t tell them your life story. They don’t care. Just give them the bare facts, like, “I was never late”. You will find instructions with the copies of your reports. Read them carefully.

But That’s Not All

Be prepared to repeat the process a second time. And if you don’t get satisfaction after two disputes you have the right to demand that supporting documentation be produced. Don’t be shy to make this final demand; it is often the point at which you will get satisfaction.

Don’t Contact the Creditors

Deal strictly with the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus are responsible for the validity of the information that they report. Let them communicate directly with the creditors. They have open lines of communication designed for this very purpose.

Want Help?

Professional credit repair companies can make these efforts on your behalf. For many people it is well worth paying someone else to do this job. Before you hire a credit repair company take the time to interview them. Ask questions. Read their web site carefully. Make sure that you are comfortable.

Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Jim Kemish is the president and founder of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage company based in Delray Beach, Florida. Power Mortgage Corp was established in 1989 and serves the states of Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Jim is also the President of Sky Blue Credit, a national credit repair business.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 and is filed under Credit Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
« Bad Credit Unsecured Loan
Get The Best Mortgage Advice »

Leave a Reply

Sponsors

 

August 2008
S M T W T F S
« Jul    
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

How Credit Scores Affect Mortgage Applications

With a good credit score an applicant will receive prompt response from many lenders, all of them offering low interest rates and low down payment options. The loan amount offered also may be high. On the contrary a low credit score would result in a lot of rejection from various mortgage financers. Because creditors wouldn’t come forward easily to give credit to individuals that have a history of difficulty in repaying existing loans. After all, creditors take risk when they finance mortgages against the credit history of a debtor. Naturally, they will wish to remain on the safe side and pick up less risky ones that have good credit histories. A good credit score means less chance of missing on payments and therefore less risky.

But there are some real risk takers that will come forward to finance mortgages for individuals with bad credit scores. They would charge high down payments and always high interest rates though. They may also fix additional charges for every little paper work and may charge high closing rates. The loan amount offered will also be considerably less. The individual with poor credit scores will not have much choice but to accept the terms and conditions as there are no other alternatives. This is a tight situation and to avoid this you must have a good credit score.

People with bad credit may fall in to the trap of ’secured loans’. Secured loans are the ones where the loan applicant offers an asset as collateral security. The lender becomes secure about the repayment of the loan and not the borrower. Securing a loan with bad credit score becomes easy only when the applicant is willing to offer some asset as collateral security. This again is a very dangerous situation where an individual runs the risk of losing his entire collateral asset in case of failing to pay the loan installments in time. An individual should always avoid such type of a loan.

Resort properties normally require large amounts of finance which a person with bad credit may find it difficult to obtain. So it is always advisable to keep your credit score high. Incase the credit score becomes low due to unavoidable financial reasons it can be improved upon. There is no need to lose hope simply because a person has a low credit score. If the property that he intends to buy has good equity he should go out and try to obtain finances for it. There are many sub prime lenders willing to offer their services.

For a review of your credit report as it relates to a mortgage loan and a consultation on the best loans available to you, give us a confidential, no obligation and no cost call.