Credit Repair services » Fraud

The Perfect Credit Dispute Letter

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:00:29 +0000

The key to repairing your bad credit is the Credit Dispute Letter. You’ve put so much effort (probably a lot of cash too) into eliminating old debts and creating good credit but if you want to rewrite history, credit-wise, you’ve got to convince the credit bureaus to take the eraser to your past. Getting the letter just right requires a lot more than perfect prose. As is so often true with life, success can come from what you don’t say, what you do, how you say it and never forget… timing.

When composing a Credit Dispute Letter remember the old adage: Less it more. Your letter isn’t meant to convince anyone but to point out errors. You are not saying “why” a debt is not listed accurately on your report, but rather “what” is not listed accurately. Start with a simple statement that will explain what you want the the credit bureau to do: On reviewing my credit report, I haved found these discrepancies. Please delete them from my credit report within 30 days as required by law and send me a report of the corrections” – that pretty much sums up everything, doesn’t it. The fact is you don’t need to beg them to remove old credit items, it is there legal responsibility to research anything you say is incorrect and IF they can’t prove it true they must delete it.

Now list virtually everything that could hurt your credit worthiness. It is up to you to decide if you want an item on your report but they probably won’t delete everything, so be aggressive. List the creditor, account number and amount of each item you would like gone. Use no more than three words of explaination: “account never late”, “duplicated account”, or “reported in error” should cover 90% of disputed items. Never say that a credit blemish is from fraud or criminal activity because you are saying that it is reporting true and you will have to prove you aren’t to blame. Say as little as possible.

It is the credit bureaus responsibility to act within 30 days but you want them to know when the clock starts. Send any Credit Dispute Letters certified mail with a signature required. From the moment someone signs for that letter they have 30 days to contact the reported creditors and get a written verification of the bad credit items. Time is on your side and you want the bureaus to know that.

By: Mitchell Torek

Credit Card Processing Floor Limit

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:48:37 +0000

A floor limit is the payment amount above which credit or debit card transactions must be authorized before being processed. The floor limit can vary from business to business and is specified in the merchant processing agreement.

The term floor limit was coined, and had a lot more significance, in the past when on the sales floor the point-of-sale staff had to call for authorization on any payment amount that was over a predetermined level. Back then credit card processing involved taking a physical imprint of the card and the authorization process required a personal review, making the process both time consuming and expensive. Today merchants can benefit from electronic authorization systems that merchant banks provide at a very low cost. Once a payment is authorized, the merchant has an additional and powerful assurance against fraud.

Still, even today, the floor limit concept comes into play occasionally. For example, if unable to connect to the merchant bank’s authorization system, a merchant will not be able to obtain an electronic authorization and will have no recourse against fraudulent activity or a chargeback-generating customer dispute. Yet, if the transaction amount is less than the floor limit, no authorization is required by the merchant bank. If, however, the amount is over the floor limit, the merchant must authorize the transaction and can do this by making a telephone call to the merchant bank and obtaining a “voice authorization.” In this case the merchant will be well advised to also take the card’s imprint and place it on the sales receipt.

For merchants that operate in a card-not-present environment, the floor limit is always zero. This means that all of their transactions always require authorization, regardless of the payment amount. All internet, mail order and telephone order merchants fall into this category.

By: Joe Cole

Credit Repair

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:04:04 +0000

There are no rules of erasing any information so far. But you can do any corrections if is necessary. You cannot terminate any negative information but the incorrect information can be erased from your credit. Then in the place the accurate information would be included and the report would be shown in your credit for seven years.

You can take the credit repair services if you need. There are credit repair services that are paid for their tasks. There are payment systems for them. But they can not take payment unless the fix your credit problems. Laws have also provided for such service. There are federal laws for credit repair services to aware you about your legal rights. They give you a contract which is written in details and that you can cancel if you want to with in three days. It is applicable for the non-profit services not for the non-profit organizations.

You can get the credit repair done through email service. You can also send and get emails for credit services. But be cautious about the emails because they sometimes might be fraud. You might get emails from the organizations that are fake and want to have their own profit.

If needed correction can be done in your credit report. You can also correct the mistakes yourself in your credit report. You can ask for a free copy of your credit report. By the state law you are allotted to get one free copy a year. Otherwise there is a small fee for the service. But it doesn’t cost anything if you ask question or if you have any queries. Thus you can do corrections, get copy of your own after corrections, ask questions and get your queries for free.

Explanation of any misdeed which is out of law can be added to your credit. If you want you can also add any explanation in your report. There are cases like when you are not able to pay your bills on time for a loss of job or a sudden illness or if you have any queries or any disputes about the system you can add an explanation in short in your file to the credit bureau.

There is no rule of opening a second credit file. There are many fraud companies who are in sake for opening a second credit file. In order to create a new credit file few fraud companies sometimes might come up to you provide different tax identification or various security numbers. It is an illegal task n it is called “file segregation”.

If you have credit problems you can go for counseling. You can get a good consult from the Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) to get a good credit report in your record. You can also get good advices from CCCS for your payment plans to your creditors if you fail to do so properly in some instance. You can get these services done in a very low cost or even at times free of cost.

By: George Burns

The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) Demystified

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:58:55 +0000

Have you heard any of the following claims? “We can repair your credit in just 10 days – GUARANTEED!” “We can remove negative items from your credit file and replace them with positive ones!” “We can help you create a new identity with perfect credit!”… If any of these claims sound too good to be true, that’s because they are. Don’t be scammed. If you commit fraud by following illegal advice, you could be subject to prosecution.

Major warning signs to look for from scam credit repair companies are companies that:

- Claim they are able to create a new identity, employer identification number, or social security number for you

- Claim you need to pay them to dispute inaccurate items in your credit report (you can do this yourself for free)

- Advise you to dispute ACCURATE items in your credit report

- Do not explain your legal rights and personal responsibilities when it comes to credit repair

- Do not provide you with a clear credit repair contract that includes all of the services they will provide along with a total cost and completion date

- Expect you to pay costs up front before completing any counseling or credit repair services.

In September 1996, the Federal Trade Commission enacted the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) to protect consumers from scam artists posing as credit repair companies. Some specific protections are:

- Credit repair companies cannot make claims about the services they provide that are illegal. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

- Credit repair companies cannot charge you for any services up front. You can only be charged once their promised (and legal) services have been completed.

- Credit repair companies cannot perform any services without a signed contract stating the exact measures they will take to help you repair your credit, how much it will cost in total, and how long it will take before you see results.

- All credit repair companies must complete a three day waiting period after you sign the contract to give you the opportunity to review and/or cancel the contract without obligation if you change your mind.

If you feel you have been a victimized by a shady credit repair organization, you have the right to sue them under the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA). You may be entitled to damages that you have suffered due to their unethical activities. You can file a complaint by with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) online at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP.

By: Ken S

Credit Repair Scheme Promises Fast Score Increases But May Be Illegal

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:18:55 +0000

Establishing a good FICO credit score isn’t all that difficult; all you have to do is pay your bills on time. But if you have a bad credit score from a history of not paying your bills promptly, repairing your score and building it up to a level where you can get competitive loan rates can take time. It can take several years of paying your bills on time to build up your score and it can take seven years to wipe out a judgment or a bankruptcy from your credit report. Most consumers, understandably, would rather not wait that long and there is not shortage of companies that promise to repair credit quickly.

Several companies are offering dramatic increases in credit scores of up to 200 points in as little as 60 days using something known as “seasoned credit.” The concept is simple – if you are added to the credit account of someone with good credit as a cosigner, that good credit will add to your own credit score. What these companies do, for fees ranging up to $5000, is arrange to add your name as a cosigner to the accounts of willing participants who have good credit of their own.

Adding a cosigner to an account isn’t illegal; husbands and wives add each other to their own accounts all the time. What is illegal about this scheme is that it is a deliberate effort to manipulate credit reports and credit scores. If it is done for purposes of qualifying for a loan for which the borrower otherwise wouldn’t qualify, such as for a mortgage, it constitutes fraud.

In addition to the questionable legality of the practice, there are some other reasons why this sort of credit “repair” should not be attempted. The idea of having someone else’s credit rub off on you works both ways. Customers of these companies have no idea whose accounts their names are being attached to, and if those customers stop paying their bills, then their credit score will go down along with yours. None of this is under your control; you are stuck with whomever they stick you with. Since these companies advertise that once your score increases, you can become part of their “good credit network”, it only stands to reason that you may have your name attached to that of a person who only recently had a bad payment history, too.

Increasing your credit score by 200 or more points in 60 days’ time sounds like a great idea. But the risks of paying someone thousands of dollars to do it for you are great. It is better to build your credit the old fashioned way. Take your time.

By: Charles Essmeier