Posts Tagged ‘Fico Score’

The Credit Repair Myth

March 22nd, 2010



You have seen it on television oh so many times. A company promises to completely wipe things off your credit report and have your credit score fully restored virtually overnight. Well, unfortunately, real life is nothing of the sort. So called “credit repair” companies have the same powers over your credit report as you do. The simple fact is that you cannot just remove a legitimate debt from your credit report, period. You have to pay the debt or settle with the debt collector for an agreed amount. There are ways, however, to remove debts that are not legitimate. You do not need anyone to assist you to accomplish these tasks.

If there are erroneous debts on your credit report, you have to write to them with a formal letter and explain the discrepancy in detail. Tell them why you believe the debt is not legitimate, and provide copies of any documents and receipts to strengthen your case. When the credit bureau receives your letter, either they will remove it immediately (unlikely), or they will start an investigation into your claim. It takes about 30 days for this process to complete, and even a lot earlier sometimes. If you have used the same name and address for years on end, then they will have no trouble locating records about you, thus it is easier for them to complete the investigation.

After they are done, they send you a letter of decision. That letter will tell you that they found the debt to be accurate (it stays on the credit report), or they cannot prove the validity of the debt and remove it from your credit report. This is just an example of one of the simpler scenarios in dealing with the credit bureaus. Sometimes, the process can get complicated; getting to know the ins and outs of the credit industry can go along way towards helping you beef up your FICO score.

By: J. Junior

How To Clear Your Credit Report

March 18th, 2010



If you’re being turned down for credit left and right by every mortgage broker, credit card company, and landlord, or you’re not even able to refinance your own house, that is an indication that you have some negative items on your credit report that are scaring away lenders. You have two choices: You can either walk away and decide to wait out the next seven years until those negative items drop off your credit report, or you can take control over the situation and learn how to delete negative items from your credit report.

You may have seen those advertisements where those law firms or credit counseling companies promise to fix your credit, raise your FICO score, and get you a fresh start. How do you delete negative items from your credit report? The answer is based on a law passed by Congress in the latter half of the twentieth century known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This law was passed to protect consumer’s rights to access their credit report and play an active role in ensuring that it does not contain any inaccuracies or misrepresentations of your true credit profile.

If you have derogatory information contained in any of the credit reports issued by the “big three” credit bureau, you simply need to write a letter to each respective creditor disputing the accuracy of that particular entry in your credit report. By law, then the bureau must contact the creditor to verify that specific item that is in dispute. And here is where the law works in your favor: If the bureau is unable to verify the accuracy of the information within 30 days, they are required to delete that item from your credit report altogether!

Here is an example of how you would do this: Let’s say that you were late for your mortgage payment in May of last year, you simply write a letter to the credit bureau that is reporting that late payment, detailing that entry, and including your name, address, and social security number, in which you state that in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are disputing such and such entry as you believe it may be inaccurate. And in this letter, you must state that, in accordance with the Act, if the agency does not verify this information within 30 days, then they are required to delete the information from your credit report.

Now what if the bureau is able to contact the creditor and verify the information within the 30-day timeframe? Well, then the information stays on your credit report. What if the creditor is a little slow but gets back to the bureau within 45 days? Then yes, even though the bureau deleted the item after 30 days, the information can be added back in the subsequent month. But through patience and persistence, if you follow this method, you will eventually be able to improve your credit score. There is no 100% guarantee, however, which is why shouldn’t pay anyone to fix your credit for you, unless they offer a money back-guarantee if your credit score doesn’t improve within a specific period of time.

A couple of bits of advice: Write one separate letter to each bureau for each disputed item. For example, if you have five derogatory items on your report, that were reported to all three bureaus, then you should write fifteen letters. This way you can track the progress of each dispute, plus it guarantees that the credit agency will pay individual attention to each one. Give them more paperwork to process and they will be that much more backlogged to meet their thirty-day deadline.

And one final bit of advice: The Fair Credit Reporting Act also allows the bureaus to disregard your dispute if it s frivolous in nature. In other words, if you do something to cause them to suspect that you are just filing disputes that you know are more than likely to be accurate, just for the sake of flooding them with requests, then they can disregard your inquiry and not take it seriously. Therefore, be careful not to do things like repeatedly dispute the same item over and over again if it keeps on getting verified. The law was passed to protect the legitimate needs of consumers against credit fraud or data entry errors.

By: Hyder Khan

Is Self Credit Repair Possible?

March 18th, 2010



Bad credit repair takes a little effort, but with our credit repair program, your credit score a/k/a your FICO score will greatly improve. We use a credit report dispute system to get your FICO score up. Please avoid a payday loan or debt consolidation when you say “fix my report”.
Ready to say “Fix My Report”? Bad credit repair is basically a play by the numbers system, you just have to keep playing. First, obtain your credit report and your credit score (as we said previously, this is also known as your FICO score).

Once you have your FICO and credit report you begin the process of credit repair. Remember, payday loans and debt consolidation companies are a “no no”. If you want to keep getting in debt and messing up your credit report, go ahead and start visiting these companies.

The secret to sound debt consolidation and a higher credit score is to find the bad credit repair items on your credit report and disputing them using our techniques. In this way, your FICO score will go up, short of you having to take out the dreaded payday loan. When you tell us “fix my report”, we respond with the tools for solid bad credit repair!

There is nothing a credit repair agency will do that you cannot do yourself with some time and patience. There some credit repair tips and tricks for you.

One way to remove negative information from your credit file is to contact the credit bureau and dispute the information. Each item on your report must be proven or it must be deleted. If the credit bureau cannot verify the item when investigated, it cannot remain in the report – it must be deleted. The credit bureaus delete negative notations from credit reports every day. By law they are required to do so whenever a particular item reaches a certain age. If you dispute an item on your report, they must investigate and delete information that cannot be reverified.

There are more ways on credit repair at ebookslife.com/credit

By: Ray Lei