Credit Repair Help

Today, I want to share with you an article I found that offers some tips for “do it yourself credit repair,” including how to get started, and what steps to take. The author of the article reprinted below also offers a software cd that can be bought relatively inexpensively to help you take these steps and do it yourself. The link for the CD is included with the author information, so you can explore it as an option. As I have said before, if you are in a bad credit situation, it’s important to get started taking some steps to improve it. It may be difficult, but it’s not as difficult as living forever with bad credit.

I haven’t looked at the product mentioned in the article and have not evaluated its content, so I’m neither endorsing it nor steering you away from it. It’s out there and it’s an option you can explore. My recommendations here generally have been to point you to Lexington Law, a firm of attorneys, for professional help - or to another professional law firm via the links here at the blog. But, not everyone is inclined or ready to go in that direction, and I can relate to it. So I’d like to offer some information for the do-it-yourself folks to explore, and here it is.

————————-
“Everything You Wanted To Know About Bad Credit Repair

It may not be possible to provide you with everything you wanted to know about credit repair in this brief article, but here we attempt to give you the do-it-yourself basics and the facts about the many credit repair schemes that are being advertised and should be avoided.

Some companies advertise that they have a credit report repair Software and also they will teach you credit repair secrets, for a fee of course. There is a lot of free information here, if you know where to look. Before you take a credit repair course or sign up for credit report repair, read the facts and the laws relating to credit repair. In this way you may avoid some disappointment and save some money.

Credit repair is a popular subject. It seems that almost everyone wants learn about credit repair. Books and software programs that claim to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair are being sold on the internet and in retail locations all over the country. There are some questionable credit repair schemes and some companies suggest action which is illegal. Consumers can learn to repair their own credit, but it takes time and patience. The safest bet when hiring someone to do the work for you is to hire a credit repair attorney. In this way, you can be sure that you will achieve results; they know everything there is to know about credit repair. You can also be sure that a credit repair attorney will not advise you to do anything that is illegal. Most of the popular credit repair lawyers do not charge more than the other credit repair companies and some offer money back guarantees.

One of the credit repair schemes investigated by the Federal Trade Commission involved a company that told their customers that they had a special valuable computer disc. This computer disc was supposed to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair, when in fact there was nothing unique about the disc or the services offered by the credit repair company. They charged consumers, before results were achieved. In order to protect consumers from these credit repair schemes, companies are not allowed to charge customers upfront fees. In addition, consumers have three days to cancel any contract that they sign. Of course you may not enjoy the same protection when buying a book or software program that claims to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair. So make your purchases carefully and look for money back guarantees.

The do-it-yourself basics for everything that you wanted to know about credit repair include reviewing and correcting the information on your credit reports. In response to a recently enacted law, the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, created a website to allow consumers easier access to their credit reports. Until this law was enacted, the credit bureaus were allowed to charge consumers a fee for a copy of their credit reports. You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once in a twelve month period. You are also entitled to a free copy if you have been denied credit recently, if you are unemployed and plan to apply for a new job within the next three months or if you are on public assistance. The companies pushing credit repair schemes will not tell you where to find the information that you need to repair your credit reports, before you pay them. One way to identify a legitimate credit repair company is to look at what they claim they can do. If they claim to be able to do things for you that you could not do for yourself, with time, patience and know-how, then they are credit repair schemes.

The first place to go for everything that you wanted to know about credit repair is www.annualcreditreport.com. The credit bureaus are allowed to promote other services and products on this site. These are not credit repair schemes, but they are usually credit monitoring services or newsletter subscriptions which may or may not be helpful to you in your current situation. Be sure to spell the website address correctly, this writer has written a number of articles about credit repair and has been advised that she occasionally misspells it. You can link directly to the site from Credit Fix Solutions or the Federal Trade Commission’s official website for consumer credit.

The Federal Trade Commission website is also a good place to visit for everything that you wanted to know about credit repair. Their advice is discouraging to anyone that hopes to attain immediate credit repair, because there is no such thing. But they do provide a sample letter that you can use as a guide if you are planning to dispute information in your credit reports. You can dispute any information on your credit report that you believe is inaccurate, misleading, outdated or unverifiable. Unverifiable means that the credit bureau cannot verify the information.

Disputing information on credit reports is the main topic of most books that claim to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair. Credit repair schemes may also focus on disputing negative items on credit reports. In fact the company that claimed to own the special computer disc, simply advised consumers to dispute every negative item on their credit report. It is not illegal to dispute any information on your credit report, but it is illegal for a company to make false claims about their services.

This is probably not everything that you wanted to know about credit repair, but it may be enough to get you started. Before you buy a book or software program, visit your local library. Experts have been writing books that are supposed to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair for a long time. The only information that may not be accurate, depending on the date the book was written, is information concerning fees charged by credit bureaus for copies of credit reports. But, this article provided you with that information. Remember to avoid the credit repair schemes, take your time and have patience. Good Luck.”

——————
Mark Henry is the author of this article and recommends the Credit Repair Software, “Bad Credit Repair Credit Repair Software Kit” discussed, available at www.creditrepairsoft.com. He recommends to buy Credit Repair Software to help you repair your credit rating, to help you raise your credit score and to help you maintain an excellent credit score.

———————-

I hope this article is helpful to you. If you need to get started doing it yourself. It contains enough information for you to begin. Especially important is the link for you to request your credit report for free from the three credit reporting bureaus, once per year. www.annualcreditreport.com.

Likewise, if it’s time for you to explore some professional help or advice from a law firm, (e.g., if your not sure which credit report items you really should dispute, or which items may be unverifiable, etc.) then you should explore Lexington Law. In any case, you should take some steps now to help your future along.

Can credit repair companies be trusted?

Many “credit repair” companies claim to remove negative credit with the flick of a wrist. Their advertisements make bold assertions and money-back guarantees: “Bankruptcy, tax liens, judgments… no problem!! One hundred percent guaranteed!! Credit report 100% cleared in 30 days!!” Can they really make such sweeping guarantees?

While some credit repair companies are outright frauds, others are not fraudulent and they use the dispute process to obtain impressive results. In fact, they delete thousands of negative credit listings every day. (There is a company called, Lexington Law who has been doing it for 15 years.)

Unfortunately, it is risky to trust anyone to help you restore your credit. It is estimated that fraudulent credit repair companies have bilked Americans out of more than fifty million dollars! The majority of credit repair companies were started by entrepreneurs with a penchant for marketing. Consumers flocked to these “credit doctors” only to discover that their advertisements proved far more impressive than their results. Hiring a credit repair company is like playing Russian roulette. Many of them are effective and legitimate, but it is difficult to tell a rip-off from the real article.

So, can credit repair companies guarantee results?

Not a chance! No credit repair company is so good that it can guarantee a specific outcome. It would be like a defense lawyer guaranteeing that the jury will find his client innocent. Guarantees are a sure sign of credit repair fraud. A warranty, where the credit repair company promises a refund if certain results don’t occur, is a better, more realistic claim.

Not surprisingly, the credit bureaus have declared war against the credit repair companies and those selling instruction on how to do-it-yourself. The bureaus lambaste credit repair companies in the media and send anti-credit repair literature to anyone whom they suspect of using credit repair services. The bureaus unflinchingly deny that accurate information can be removed from a credit report.

The simple truth is that you do not have to endure bad credit for seven to ten years as long as you feel comfortable challenging the accuracy or verifiability of your credit listings. If so, it is possible to restore creditworthiness within a much shorter time.

However you decide to address your credit challenges, realize that regardless of what you may hear in the news media, thousands before you have sought help and restored their credit. They can show you their homes, cars, and credit cards. Despite the newspaper articles, TV reports, and other credit bureau propaganda to the contrary, the simple truth remains: you can restore your credit.

Here’s another link to Lexington Law, a legal firm in credit repair that I can recommend with complete confidence.

Good luck and success to you in all your endeavors!

The Cost of Bad Credit

Often, if you have bad credit, you can’t get a car loan or home mortgage. For those lucky few who can get these loans with bad credit, the cost is much higher than it would be with good credit. Maybe they are not so lucky.

If you are making payments on a car, you are probably paying between $5,000 and $9,000 more just for having bad credit. This added interest shows up every month in a higher payment.

The following chart illustrates this:

Bad credit in auto financing can really hurt, but it is nothing compared to the cost of bad credit when a home is involved. A typical home can cost between $50,000 and $130,000 more in interest if you are buying the home with bad credit.

It’s unbelievable. You can’t get credit at all - and then when you finally can, it costs you much more than it costs the average person. And you probably can afford it least.

So this brings me to the big question. Wouldn’t you like to remove chargeoffs, judgments, or other Bad Credit from your Credit Report and get good credit?

Wouldn’t you Like to raise your credit score 50, 100, or even 200 points?

Wouldn’t you love to experience the feeling of being approved for a new car or home loan - and at good, money-saving interest rates?

How to Repair Your Credit

Bad Credit, such as chargeoffs, judgments, and other negative listings can be deleted and removed from your credit report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows a consumer to challenge the information on his credit report on the basis of “completeness and accuracy.” When a consumer files a dispute, the credit bureaus must contact the source of the credit information (the creditor) and confirm that the information is accurate, verifiable, and not obsolete. In some circumstances, the credit bureau is required to go beyond a simple verification of the creditor’s own computer record. If, within 30 days, the credit bureau has not received verification from the creditor, then the credit bureau must promptly delete the credit listing.

it is illegal to dispute every item on your credit report, regardless of nature. The Fair Credit Reporting Act specifically states that only items that are unverifiable, inaccurate or misleading should be disputed. Often, a person with bad credit may be unclear about grey areas, or just what these terms mean. That’s precisely why better results can often be obtained with professional help. Then, when dealing with something as important and sensitive as your credit, you should be very careful who you trust to help you. Whom you hire to represent you can have a profound effect on the outcome of your case.

Lexington Law is a law firm that specializes in credit report repair and has successfully deleted negative credit including Charge Offs, Judgments, Late Payments, Repossessions, Collections, Bankruptcies and more. They assisted their clients in the removal of over 600,000 items last year alone!

If you want to start Repairing Your Credit today, click on their name to go to Lexington
Law! Or explore another professional credit repair firm from the “Credit Repair” links in the right hand column of this blog.

For your convenience, the links are repeated here:

Credit Repair Firms

Veracity Credit Repair

Whose Side is the Law On?

Many consumers have the mistaken idea that credit bureaus are federally supported organizations backed by a vast array of laws meant to protect creditors. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Aside from the government simply recognizing the need for credit reporting, credit bureaus have absolutely nothing to do with the government. Credit bureaus are simply huge bureaucratic companies which exist for the sole purpose of making money by selling information about you-information they never bothered to verify.

Because of the vast potential for error in the credit reporting system, the United States Congress has enacted laws to protect the consumer from being victimized by the credit bureaus. It is your right and responsibility to make use of these laws.

The Law versus Practical Reality

As the credit bureaus computerized their processes and greatly expanded their reach and influence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, consumer complaints began to mount at the FTC and state attorney general offices. The credit reporting agencies quickly became huge bureaucracies second only in size to the federal government. The credit bureaus expressly served only the needs of their clients, the credit grantors. Many consumers were negatively affected by the credit bureaus, but they had no way to correct or change their credit information.

The American consumer lay completely at the mercy of the credit bureaus. The United States Congress enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in 1971 to insure that the credit bureaus investigate the credit items disputed by consumers. This federal law set procedural guidelines, which gave the consumer the right to challenge the accuracy, validity, and verifiability of the credit listings appearing in their consumer credit report. It also required that the credit bureau delete any credit listing if it was inaccurate or could not be verified. Learn More.

In theory, the FCRA charges the credit bureaus with responsibility to the consumer as well as the credit grantor. In reality, the credit bureaus resist, resent, and reject consumer disputes. The credit bureaus would rather be left alone to make a profit. And, each time a consumer challenges his credit, profit is lost.

The credit bureaus first defend their profits by erecting walls of stall tactics, including requests for more information, further clarification, and additional identification. The vast majority of consumers give up before they even receive copies of their credit reports. If a consumer manages to get a credit report, decipher the codified information, write a coherent dispute, and mail it, the bureaus may still find some reason to disregard the challenge. The entire dispute system is designed to frustrate and discourage the consumer.

Many consumers have the idea that the credit bureaus must complete their investigation within thirty days or be forced to remove all disputed information. They threaten to sue the credit bureaus if they don’t conclude their investigation in time. In practice, such thinking is delusional. Nobody forces the credit bureaus to do anything. However, if you manage to submit a valid dispute letter, and the credit bureau investigates your dispute, the chances of success are good.

If a credit bureau cannot verify an item before completing its investigation, that item will be removed. Many creditor grantors are simply reluctant to take the time to verify the data. While the credit bureaus are in the business of reporting credit histories, creditor grantors are not.

This article has been provided by Lexington Law.

Click Here to learn about Lexington Law professional credit repair help services.

In much the same way that a resume displays your work experience to a prospective employer, a credit report provides prospective creditors (and in some cases employers and insurers too) with a detailed picture of your credit history. And like a resume, your credit report can influence whether you will receive what you are applying for.

Ideally, your credit report is an accurate, up-to-date reflection of your credit history. However, since we don’t live in an ideal world, there are many reasons that your credit report could contain inaccuracies that might prevent you from receiving the credit you deserve. The good news is you can take action to keep your report accurate. Here are the top five reasons why you should make a practice of regularly reviewing your credit report:

Inaccuracies & Mixed Credit Files
Many inaccuracies on a credit report can be the result of simple human error, and are therefore are not difficult to dispute. Of course, if you don’t order your credit report, you might never know about it. Whether the inaccuracies relate to payments not credited, late payments, or data mixed in from the credit file of someone else with a name similar to yours, you will want to contact the credit bureau to dispute inaccurate information promptly.

Tracking Payments
One of the most important elements of credit is a demonstrated history of on time payments. Once you send the check though, anything can happen–a delay in the payment being received can kick you over to a 30-day delinquency. If you call your creditor and explain the situation, they might adjust the information. Of course, if you don’t read your credit report, you won’t necessarily know which payments are being received and reported properly.

Identity Theft
This issue alone is reason to order your credit report immediately. Identity theft is an insidious crime, involving a thief who assumes your name to open new accounts, divert your card statements to another address, and run up all sorts of bad debt without you ever knowing about it until collectors come calling. Over time, identity theft could jeopardize your ability to obtain further credit. The best way to catch a thief who is using your name is by getting a copy of your credit report, which will show you if there are accounts listed you know you haven’t opened. For example, if a thief has intercepted a pre-approved credit card offer in your name and sent it in with a change of address, your credit report will include the account. Inquiries

If you’re shopping around for a loan or more credit, you should know that when creditors check your credit, it places an inquiry on your credit report. Inquiries can add up, which is often interpreted as a negative by creditors. For this reason, too many inquiries can actually make getting credit more difficult. Moreover, if you didn’t authorize someone to look at your credit report and they did, they may have broken the law.

Credit Fraud–Unauthorized Charges

Credit fraud involves the theft of your credit card or account number to make unauthorized charges to your account. Though consumers are protected financially from this abuse, other creditors may take note of all this activity and decide to raise your interest rates or refuse to grant you a loan. Ordering your credit report will help you catch new activity on accounts that you haven’t been using, or may have closed.

When it comes to managing your credit worthiness, your credit report is your best resource. Ordering your credit report gives you the opportunity to manage your credit wisely today, while planning your credit strategy for achieving future goals–a credit-savvy move every consumer should make!

Information and opinions in the article were provided courtesy of Lexington Law.

To better understand what legal credit repair is, it would be helpful to understand a few types of illegal credit repair:

Illegal: Changing your social security number to obtain a clean bill of credit.
If any company should suggest this type of credit repair, report them to the authorities.

Illegal: Disputing every item on your credit report, regardless of nature.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act specifically states that only items that are unverifiable, inaccurate or misleading should be disputed. Items that are clearly yours, and reflect your credit history should not be disputed.

Illegal: Charging for services that have not yet been completed.
This is to protect the consumer from fraudulent companies that charge for services that never get completed (charging to “repair your credit”, then hitting the road…)

So, what exactly is Legal Credit Repair?

Legal Credit Repair consists of removing the negative items on a credit report. There are a few different methods of going about this, the most common and effective are:

“Goodwill” Negotiation Negotiating directly with creditors and asking them to “please” remove negative items from your credit reports is a viable method of credit repair for mild late-pay accounts. There are no laws that require that negative items stay on your reports for any amount of time, and creditors have the ability to simply remove these items if they see that it could somehow work to their benefit, even if that simply means a pleased customer.

Credit Disputation The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to contact credit bureaus directly and dispute items on your credit reports. Just as in a court of law, you have the right to plead “not guilty” to negative information on your credit reports, and leave the burden of proof to the credit bureaus. You can dispute any and all items on your credit reports that you feel classify as inaccurate, unverifiable, or misleading. If the bureaus can not verify that the information on your reports is indeed correct, then those items must be deleted.

This information has been provided by Lexington Law. Lexington Law is a law firm, an entity in which clients can trust their personal and sensitive information without fear of abuse. It takes years to gain an intimate knowledge of the laws and regulations governing credit repair agencies. Lexington Law has been practicing credit report repair for over 15 years because of their respect for and adherence to these laws. Learn more.

Can bad credit be deleted from your credit reports? Yes, it can. Despite what naysayers, bureaucrats and credit bureaus may sometimes say, the simple fact remains: negative credit listings are deleted from peoples’ credit reports by the thousands each and every day.

A few years ago, an attorney from Lexington Law visited with a regulatory agency for a casual conversation with two agents. The Agency’s office, as a matter of course, believed the credit bureaus’ claim that bad credit couldn’t be deleted. The visiting Lexington attorney asked, “How many negative listings would you have to see deleted from consumer credit reports before you would believe that bad credit can be deleted: ten? fifty? a hundred? one thousand?” The agents responded with only blank stares.

“How about 50,000 deleted listings, would that convince you?” continued the Lexington attorney. From his briefcase he pulled a stack of papers six inches high.

“In these pages, we have listed the permanent deletion of over 50,000 listings from our clients’ files in the last two years alone,” he explained. The agents pulled the stack across the conference table and began to pick through the pages, taking in the massive list.

“But have you deleted any bankruptcies?” shot back one of the agents, “we know that bankruptcies can’t be deleted.” The Lexington attorney leaned across the table and ran his finger down the first page.

“There’s one deleted bankruptcy… and, there’s another,… and another,… and another. Should I go on?” asked the Lexington attorney.

The agents sat back in their chairs. “You know,” began the junior agent, “I have this one listing on my credit report that simply must belong to somebody else…”

How is it possible?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows a consumer to challenge the information on his credit report on the basis of “completeness and accuracy.” When a consumer files a dispute, the credit bureaus must contact the source of the credit information (the creditor) and confirm that the information is accurate, verifiable, and not obsolete. In some circumstances, the credit bureau is required to go beyond a simple verification of the creditor’s own computer record. If, within 30 days, the credit bureau has not received verification from the creditor, then the credit bureau must promptly delete the credit listing.
Learn More.

At another law firm, Ovation Law, they answer the frequently asked question, “Why would your (Ovation Law) disputes succeed where mine would not?”

Ovation Law answers, “Our experience (and dedication to our clients) in working with the credit bureaus facilitates the credit repair process because we are more likely to anticipate the tactics and responses of the credit bureau. Members of our professional team of attorneys and paralegal case analysts have experience in interacting with the bureaus and creditors and have gained insight in regards to efficiently and effectively disputing credit report errors.”

“We stay current on consumer credit laws and economic issues, and we utilize the newest technology and proven techniques to ensure successful removal of inaccurate credit report information for our clients.”

Be sure to bookmark this blog and come back. Or sign up for the free guide and join my little blog email list. In a future blog I’ll discuss “Legal Credit Repair Methods,” and you’ll learn what the lawyers advise you can and can’t do according to the applicable laws.

I’ve posted on the side menu some initial Credit Education pages and a Tool labelled “Savings Calculator” that is a Loan Savings Estimator. What this tool does is show you an estimate, for a given loan, of how much you could be saving if you had better credit.

The Credit Education pages posted so far are:

“Credit History”

“What Makes Up Your Credit Score”

“What’s the Average Credit Score”

“How Your Credit Score Affects You”

“How to Improve Your Credit”

“Top 10 Credit Myths”

The tool and articles have been provided courtesy of Lexington Law. Lexington Law is a consumer advocacy law firm with a special focus on credit report repair. In practice since 1991, Lexington Law has helped over 300,000 clients improve their credit. In 2005 alone, the clients of Lexington Law saw over 650,000 items deleted from their credit reports.

• » Read comments... (3)

Have you ever wanted to do something that would make your life easier or better, but you felt would take too long, so you didn’t act? Or maybe it seemed too difficult and complicated to get started? With some things, taking that action can be life-changing.

Let’s say there were circumstances in your past that caused you to end up with bad credit. You may have fixed those circumstances long ago, but still are stuck with bad credit. You may be a model bill-payer, paying everything on time, even paying early, but something happened in the past that appears on your credit reports that makes your credit bad. Or maybe you haven’t fixed those circumstances yet, and because you have bad credit they just seem to multiply!

Maybe you got in over your head with credit cards when you were in school. Those credit card offers seemed irresistable, after all. And the card companies did flatter and pursue you. Maybe you had a good job and had everything under control, paying all your bills and, bam, your company downsized or went out of business, leaving you with no income. You had pay your most urgent expenses to survive. Maybe you even used your credit cards for cash advances or basic necessities until you got back on your feet… but it took longer than you expected.

Maybe you were expecting some money and charged something on a credit card before the money came in. And then the money failed to come in…it just evaporated. Mabye you used your credit cards to start a business or make investments that fizzled.

Or maybe you had marital problems or a divorce and your credit problems are all intertwined with a spouse who refuses or can’t pay his or her bills. Or maybe someone stole your identity or your spouses identity, and ran up charges in you name. Maybe somebody just made a mistake and it’s hitting your credit! Or maybe you just overspent.

If you have bad credit you probably can’t buy a car or a house. Or, if you can buy these things, they cost you more, sometimes lots more. And if you have bad credit, you are a person who can afford it the least for everything to cost you more.

If you could fix or repair your credit, it would probably change your life. Maybe you’re afraid you can’t do anything about it, so you don’t even want to find out whether you can repair your credit or not. But is it even possible to change your credit reports and your credit score? Well, this may come as a big surprise, but the answer is YES, DEFINITELY. You can do something about it! And when you do, you need take only one step at a time until the process is complete. And then the situation is changed. Everything is changed.

Once you have fixed your credit, you will think of it as a basic life tool, rather than as a means to buy things. Since you’ve had bad credit in the past, you know how important your credit is. It’s there for important things. It’s an important tool for important things. With it, you can start to get things working in your favor, like other people do, instead of working against you. You can buy a house, or a car at reasonable rates with reasonable payments.

There is no need to let a seemingly unsolveable problem remain outside your control. You can learn what to do. Others have gone before you. It is possible to do it all yourself. But when we do things ourselves for the first time, we suffer the errors that are a part of learning by experience. However, there is help available out there to make it easier and safer.

Not all avenues of help are safe, of course. There are people out there who promise to help but just take advantage of you because you have a need. But, don’t forget that ALL businesses and professsions exist for the very purpose of filling needs. So don’t be afraid to take the steps to get your needs met. Having and filling needs make the world go round.

On the other side of the coin, there ARE good people out there who are in a business or profession, with specialized knowledge and experience, for the very purpose of helping you with this problem. There are a number of firms, including law firms that specialize in this work. One such firm you can look into is Lexington Law. They have a history of successfully helping people and come with recommendations from others whom they have helped. They have helped some who believed they were beyond help. They have helped change lives for the better.

The purpose of this blog to help point you in the right direction to actually GET the help you need to FIX a credit problem that is holding you back. You have the legal right and YOU CAN DO IT! And there are ways to make it EASIER.

If you need to fix a credit problem that keeps you down, check out the recommendations, testimonials, links and other resources here. Bookmark this blog and come back later. It will grow over time.

Here is to your success. There is the past, and there is the future. Get going and start the future now!