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Tips for a better credit report and score

October 20th, 2008

To get a good credit score the first tip is to pay your bills on time. It does not matter how bad your credit history is you must pay all your bills on time. This will help build a positive payment history on your credit report. This is the second most important factor when calculating your credit score.

It also matters how much time has passed between derogatory items on your credit report and when your score is calculated. After an amount of time, allegedly four years, negative items on your credit are not weighed as heavily. Thus it is very important for you to build a positive payment history.

The next tip is to remove any inaccurate information. Unfortunately our credit reporting system has many flaws. Often a divorce will result in bad credit. The divorce judge will divide the debts between both parties. Then if one of the parties defaults on a loan, even though they were court ordered to pay, it will be reported on both parties credit.

You can also have bad credit due to a lender mistake. It happens all the time, where the amount due changes and due to a mistake on the lenders side you are never notified and keep making your regular payments. Yet the whole time your credit is being ruined with derogatory marks.

You can also have a negative mark due to stolen identity, or just a credit reporting error. These are very common, where someone somewhere makes a mistake but your credit pays the price.

These are all inaccurate marks on your credit report. You should dispute and remove all of these marks.

Congress passed legislation to protect people just like you that find themselves in this situation. The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that inaccurate information must be removed.

To dispute an inaccurate mark you can hire a credit repair service. They will draft a dispute letter and send it to each credit bureau that is reporting the inaccurate listing. Or you can do this compose a letter yourself, however you should know that credit bureaus often do not conduct investigations based on one dispute letter.

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Do it yourself credit repair | Easier than you think and cheap!

September 16th, 2008

You can improve your creditworthiness and get legitimate resources for low or no-cost help.

You may get calls from telemarketers offering credit repair services. The Scam, companies’ nationwide, appeal to consumers with poor credit histories and who are desperate. They promise, for a fee, to clean up your credit report so you can get a car loan, a home mortgage, insurance, or even a job. Desperate consumers fall prey to this scam. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true. It is.

Some credit repair services get sleazy when they promise to do a job that’s just not possible. Unlimited credit report disputes, corrections, and removals with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and guaranteed deletions are just some of the promises you hear.

An ethical firm (usually reputable lawyers, not shysters) will not tout miracles, charge you in advance or make false promises. if they do, sooner or later the FTC will find them.

Just this past week, a credit repair company was shut down and fined by the FTC for making promises it couldn’t possibly keep, by assuring buyers that they could remove negative accounts even if accurate and for collecting money in advance for work yet to be performed.

That’s a key word. Accurate. The foundation of credit repair isn’t an industry trade secret. It’s using the law with your customized disputes to garner the best possible results. Period.

By using existing state and federal laws, you CAN remove negative information from your credit reports. The fundamentals aren’t whether the item is negative or positive. It’s is it accurate. The FCRA is quite clear on this issue. If it isn’t verifiable or accurate, it cannot remain.

It doesn’t matter what your history, background, or credit record is, you’ll be amazed at how simple correction can be. You’ve probably been told that your credit history will stick with you forever, or it takes years to clean up.

While no one can guarantee you a spotless credit record, real credit repair is a worthwhile investment, and if the bureaus, collection agencies, and creditors were doing their job, credit report repair wouldn’t be the top search online.

People are desperate because credit reports DO contain lots of errors. Nearly every consumer has an error in at least one credit report from one of the major credit bureaus. Credit bureaus generate your report they receive from your creditors; they don’t verify it… Unless you ask.

The simple truth is that the credit bureaus and even furnishers of information must comply with federal law. Doing so isn’t so easy for them. You need to leverage that. It will take time, but it’s a very worthwhile investment.

Don’t despair. It’s never too late to become credit worthy – just get started, and remember that it won’t happen overnight and you must commit to doing the work. Doing the work can be justified in how much money you are going to save if you don’t have to hire someone AND in rates if you do have an improved credit report.

While I can certainly understand the FTC warning us all to avoid credit repair and scams, what I don’t understand is why they don’t focus a campaign on just how difficult the credit system makes fixing your credit. The bureaus don’t work for us, they make billions and our disputes are a kink in there rhythm. They sort of help us because they have to, not because they want to.

So, what ends up happening, is the consumer gets frustrated and seeks out a service to fix their credit for them, and often, it’s a scam. The FTC moves in, shuts them down, and reminds us that we can do this ourselves. Trouble is, people get lost in the process and the FTC doesn’t tell us that communication with the credit bureaus, debt collectors, and furnishers of information can be a vicious cycle.

That’s why it’s important to educate yourself and if you are going to do the work, do some research online. You’ll quickly find there are only a handful a really good , reputable DIY sites and credit repair lawyers.

The highly effective letters that we offer have been proven to WORK in correcting negative items on your credit that may be outdated, obsolete, or inaccurate (unverifiable). When you combine the right letters to cut through the bureaucracy of the credit system, you’ll garner much better results, save money and avoid mistakes that can cause you more trouble and more time. Not to mention, you’ll understand the dangers of dealing with bill collectors without proper knowledge.

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Do it yourself credit repair including debt settlements

August 28th, 2008

Credit repair can be a very dirty word. Especially on the credit industry front. Credit repair companies are under siege for marketing and targeting people in serious trouble and for good reason. There are so many credit repair companies on line that claim to be able to increase your credit score or guarantee you perfect results.

It’s simply not true. You cannot guarantee what you cant control and thats the credit bureaus and collection agencies. You cannot promise a consumer that you can work magic on their credit, collect the money up front and then not deliver. That’s fraud.

What you can do is do the work yourself to bring your credit up to the best possible status. No one has better interest in your credit reports than you do.

There are good credit repair companies but I honestly only trust Lexington if you prefer to hire someone. I’ve already told you before, its the only credit repair company we promote and for good reason. They are lawyers who really do focus on nothing but credit repair and debt settlement. Their entire firm focus is credit repair so they do nothing but credit repair all the time. When you do something that much, you get really good at it.

If the do it yourself method is for you then I urge you to educate yourself with the process before you delve in. You can avoid costly mistakes by learning how the system works and how to use it to your benefit. By just taking little time to educate yourself about the topic, you can make great headway.

First, order your credit reports and review each one. Once you identify the negative items then start a strategy to target the items. Determine if you plan on disputing an old paid off debt thats negative or plan to attack one that still has a balance due. Both have very different strategies.

If the debt is negative but paid then you can start by sending your investigation to the credit bureaus and wait for their reply. The bureaus have 30 days to complete your investigation and send you the results. If the bureau is unable to confirm the items accuracy, the item will be removed. If they confirm it as accurate then you move on to the furnisher of information and ask that they provide you with the proof they provided the credit bureaus. They must be able to show you proof or the item will be removed.

If the debt still has a balance then understand that disputing it to the credit bureaus may wake sleeping dogs. The bureau will send the dispute onto the furnisher of information who will realize you are out there. that may cause them to start pursuing you very aggressively. But if you know the debt is not accurate or has been sold several times to collection agencies then you may stand a very good chance of having the item removed. Finding those records will not be so easy.

This is a solid strategy against debts that have gone to third party debt collectors and you should always try to remove anything thats being reporting from a collection agency because the rating is always negative. A paid collection account still looks bad so your purpose should be to question negative paid off collection accounts and collection accounts that still have a balance. The difference is you will move onto the collection agency reporting the item if the bureau verifies it as accurate.

More often than not the item will have some inconsistencies in it that will result in a deletion. If by chance the item is 100% verifiable then consider debt settlements to pay the agency in exchange for total removal. They do it all the time and its actually quite simple. Be sure they provide the agreement to delete IN WRITING!! If you don’t, kiss your money goodbye and your credit rating.

for more tips on deleting items from your credit reports visit our credit library.

Hot tip

debt snowball method, you put as much cash as you can toward eliminating your smallest debt, while paying the minimum on all other debts. When the first debt is paid off, you roll the amount of that payment to the next smallest debt, creating a “snowball” of increasingly larger payments on a decreasing number of bills. The reward? A feeling of accomplishment that many practitioners say helps them stay on track to pay off all their debt.

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Lexington Law delivers on its promise: 600,000 negatives removed in one year!

August 21st, 2008

You may be working on your credit at this very moment or you may have done it in the past with some good results, but let’s talk about the success of Lexington Law Credit Repair Attorneys.

I’ve been around since Lexington laws’ inception online. I started out in the online credit arena in 1995 and that’s about the same time Lexington came on the “online scene”. I’ve seen many credit repair agencies come and go since then, most have gone, but one thing remained solid and that was Lexington law’s results.

I remember when they first arrived on the scene and there was a lot of buzz about what they could or could not do. They were especially hated by the credit industry and for good reason. They were a real threat. By having law degrees, these attorneys were free to brand credit repair in a whole new way. A sort of revolution that we hadn’t seen online before.

The credit bureaus and even collection agencies began a massive “words” campaign to combat Lexington’s offer of cleaning up your credit report. The net was buzzing with rumor that they’d be shut down by the credit bureaus and be banned by almost every advertiser.

Little did they know then, that none of that mattered. Lexington stayed true to its promise to help the forgotten consumer and never relied on advertisers for income, so there was no real way of stopping them.

Some figured they’d get a bad rap with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But alas, no such luck for those nay-sayers, as Lexington is thriving even stronger today. What those nay-sayers were banking on, was that Lexington would Pre-Charge millions of people for credit repair, which you cannot do.

Part of the CROA (Credit Repair Organization Act) states that you cannot charge for the work in advance before its complete. Lexington never worried about that, because they allowed people to pay on a monthly basis and cancel anytime.

Long gone were the archaic days of credit repair where you could be duped into a lengthy contract and have to fork over up to $1,000.00 per person for the work. Even then, there were no guarantees that the items disputed, would be removed. It was an expensive gamble and millions got taken.

Lexington’s rapid online and affordable system kiboshed both of those situations and the product became more defined and even more technological advanced, giving consumers online access to their progress.

I remember the old days of getting your credit reports, photocopying them, sending them back to the credit repair company by mail, then waiting on them to send out all your disputes and make you sit by the phone and mailbox waiting to “pretend” you sent them and basically do their job for them.

Lexington leveraged the FCRA section that states, we as consumers have a right to hire someone to help us with our credit, so Lexington doesn’t try to hide that they’re the machine behind the consumer. It’s the persons’ right and its perfectly legal.

I’m sure the credit bureaus cannot stand the sheer existence of Lexington Law but most of us credit experts cannot stand the existence of the credit bureaus, so the feeling is mutual.

Their credit report repair soon began to prove itself. As other credit repair businesses began to fold from either lack of business or multiple complaints, Lexington honed its method and used technology to its advantage, thus creating faster, more accurate disputes, which equaled faster removal of negative items.

Once they were able to prove that they were a real contender for the credit bureaus, faith in their product began to rise. Consumers started talking to one another on message boards and chat rooms and asking questions about success others had using Lexington law.

It was clear that Lexington was able to prove their results in writing and post real testimonials (Both are on their website and the deletions record can be downloaded in PDF).

This only strengthened Lexington laws’ brand and made them the leader in online credit repair. I’ve seen some really impressive “looking” websites that try to copy Lexington’s look and approach, but it’s one of those things that you feel in your gut, and you just know, most are copycat web sites looking to coast of Lexington’s good image.

I’ve also talked personally to a lot of consumers who have used them, and that’s whats important to me. When I add up the happy clients I’ve seen, the clear and perfect BBB record, the hundreds of thousands of deletions, and the fact that they’re not afraid of the credit bureaus, that equals a success few can match.

I’m all for consumers taking their credit into their own hands and doing the work themselves. Heck, I was one of the first to create and offer such a DIY program online in 1995, BUT, there simply are people out there who do not want that burden or don’t have the skills to embark on that credit journey. For them, I’m glad Lexington Law is such an impressive and respected outfit, because hopefully that will keep thousands of people from landing in the hands of a fly-by-night or shady company looking to take them for every penny they can.

There’s a lot of consumer experts or so called advocates out there that simply believe no one should ever enlist help in fixing their credit problems, but to them, I say, you are either having your pockets lined by the credit industry or you are out of touch.

Despite most of their claims, credit repair is desperately needed and necessary, not because all of us consumers are losers and flakes who ruin our credit, but because the credit industry is a disaster and its record keeping a shame. That’s why credit repair is in such high demand to begin with. Erroneous collection accounts, misreported trade lines, identity theft messes, duplicate inquiries, incorrect personal information, and on and on. The credit bureaus are such a monopoly that consumers fear dealing with them.

I, unlike many credit experts, am not paid by the credit industry and I’ve lived the “credit of an American” nightmare and know firsthand how overwhelming and unsatisfying the whole credit system can be. To those people, firms like Lexington are a helpful avenue in a twisting, winding road.

If I want to take my car to a mechanic, I will. if i want to change my own oil, I will. Same goes for my credit. If I want to pay for a service that I don’t want to have to bother with, then that’s my right, and the credit industry should spend less time worrying about money a credit repair agency makes and clean their own house.

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Dealing with collection accounts

July 29th, 2008

I’ve seen it all with credit reports. Judgments, tax liens, charge offs and collection accounts. Those are the tougher items. You probably assume that a 30, 60, or 90 day late is much easier to remove than a collection account. Not so and here’s why.

An original creditor, say a Capital One, isn’t going to alter your payment history. They simply do not negotiate and alter credit ratings unless they’ve made a mistake, then they’ll update it.

A collection agency however, is much easier to deal with because they are a third party collecting the debt, so their sole purpose is to get paid. If that means negotiating with you, they’ll do it. Collection agencies are all about quotas. They deal in the masses of accounts and every penny adds up.

So, if you have a collection account on your credit here are some tips to deal with it.

Validation of debt. First, you should use the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collections Practices Act) to validate the debt. If the collection agency doesn’t have appropriate records then it will be removed with no need to pay anything.

When agencies buy accounts, they buy them in bulk. So your account may have been assigned with just basic information like your name, address, account number, and balance. if you send a letter requesting to verify the debt and the records are either too old from the original creditor or the agency never received any supporting documentation when they bought it, then presto chango! Deleted.

Negotiate the rating. This technique is often used because a collection agency wants to be paid at any cost. You can negotiate with them to remove the bad mark in exchange for payment. If they agree, get it in writing FIRST. Once you have the approval letter from the agency that they AGREE to delete the mark in exchange for money, then send in your payoff with a copy of the letter. Give them 30 days to update your credit history and then request a copy of your credit reports.

If the mark is still there, send a copy of the letter certified mail to the collection agency except this time, look up the Registered Agent online of the collection agency and send the copy to them demanding that the item be removed immediately as per your agreement. Send a request for investigation at the same time to the credit bureaus. That will trigger a dispute being sent to the collection agency which may speed up their reporting. Keep that letter as if your life depended on it. You will probably need it again in the future if the item somehow pops back up.

Settlements. If the balance is quite large you can negotiate with the collection agency to settle the debt for pennies on the dollar. If the debt is quite old, your odds are even better BUT be careful. Before you promise anything in writing make sure you have checked the debts statute of limitations. If it has expired then legally nothing can be done to you. You may still want to settle it to remove it from your credit reports, BUT, check that statute of limitation as well. If it’s nearing the 7 year time frame then why bother?

While you’re at it, feel out the agency for the removal method as well. You’ll have less leverage in this situation because they are already agreeing to take much less for the debt, but it cant hurt to add that request, especially if the agency thinks they have one shot at money from you.

And finally. NEVER EVER pay a collection account without attempting one of the above. If you do, you will simply end up with a paid collection account which is still very negative.

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Our new site is live!

July 21st, 2008

Over the past several months we have been working to migrate everything from CarreonandAssociates.com to N2Credit.com and today, we have completed most of the transfers and edits. We are still working out the bugs like a few bad links but it went pretty smooth, especially considering how large that website was/is.

Now, some of you may not be familiar with CarreonandAssociates.com, but we’ve been around since 1995 offering self help education for credit repair which includes dealing with the credit bureaus and collection agencies to get a better credit rating, or settle debts to improve the rating.

CarreonandAssociates has gone through many changes and we finally decided that a more advanced technology based site would be best for our members. Moving the domain to a site offering more technology was the main reason but also, we wanted a shorter easier name to remember.

CarreonandAssociates.com can be a mouthful on ads, flyer’s and for someone to remember off hand, but N2Credit is quite simple. We will miss the name though. It’s been with us as a domain name forever. But, times change, things need to change otherwise, you don’t grow.

We hope you enjoy our new site and blog and if you need credit help, consider joining N2Credit. You can go to our home page N2Credit.com and see what all you receive. it’s a lot and only for a one time fee of $39.95 for lifetime access and we have all the tools you need like credit dispute letters, legal research, ebooks, articles, tips, forum and more!

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Writing to a collection agency? Use caution

June 29th, 2008

I’ve spent many years writing a lot of letters. Not love letters unfortunately but letters to deal with credit issues. Letters to creditors, collection agencies and credit bureaus.

You’d be surprised just how many people do not how to write a letter, not because they’re uneducated but because these letters are tricky in nature. Anything you put in writing to a creditor or collection agency can come back to haunt you in a big way.

When a consumer uncovers a negative entry on their credit reports, their first instinct is to contact the source and try to improve it or remove it. But if your dealing with a collection account that is a big mistake unless you know what you’re doing.

The collection agency can easily get you to admit the debt is yours or worse, pay it before you’ve even had a chance to determine if its truly accurate. I don’t think you’d pay someone else’s bills so why pay an invalidated debt?

People do though, all the time. The truth is, you should never simply pay a collection item on your credit reports without first asking to have the debt validated. Validation of debts is where you ask the collection agency to provide proof to you that the debt is valid such as, balance, date of last activity, charges and supporting documentation.

Once you have clearly investigated the debt then you would be wise to send the agency a letter. Phone calls don’t preserve your rights so make sure everything is in writing. Remember, a collection agency isn’t your creditor. They are hired simply to collect debts.

Whether you decide to pay it or dispute it, you need to be careful how you word your letter because it will become ammunition for the debt collector to come after you.

If you decide to pay it, because you’ve determined it is accurate and you owe the money, draw up a letter advising the collection agency that you will pay the debt if they agree to remove the item from your credit reports. You really don’t want a “paid collection account” on your credit because it still looks bad. You want it gone.

Some may say, well isn’t that illegal? Absolutely not. A collection agency owns the right to the debt and just as they reported it, they can remove it. Most of the time the agency only places it on your credit anyway as a collection tool. To get you to contact them. It’s a bargaining chip. It is not the same as a creditor who must report your credit history during the time you do business with them.

I’ve deleted tons of negative entries on credit reports back in the day before I began offering financial advice simply because I asked. You cannot underestimate how bad the agency wants to collect the debt and they will bargain with you.

On the other hand, if you feel the validation process proved the debt isn’t yours or is in some way inaccurate, then you need to proceed with great caution in your letter because anything you say WILL be used against you.

I recommend you first check the SOL (Statute of Limitations) on the debt. Debts expire and if yours has, legally you cannot be sued. Yep, it’s true and everyday thousands of consumers pay old expired debts.

In your letter to the collection agency be sure to list your complaint, I.e, my debt is past the statute of limitations, the debt is not mine, the time allowed to place it on my credit reports has passed and so on.

Be specific and mention nothing about promising a payment if you dispute the debt. Doing so can renew the SOL on the debt all over again.

Do some research before you write any letters and be careful to review and research what you put in those letters to protect yourself. There’s a lot of information online about writing sample letters, researching expired debts and dealing with collection agencies.

Do research until you’re satisfied that you are handling the issue correctly.

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How to fix mistakes in your credit reports

June 16th, 2008

Statistics say over 70 percent of consumers have at least one error on their credit report. Errors almost always affect your credit score negatively, which means you won’t get those good deals on credit cards, auto loans, or even a mortgage.

But while it’s time consuming, it’s not difficult to erase mistakes from your record. Eddie Daroza, is a personal investor and stock market junkie. Besides contributing content to efinancedirectory, he works on the financial news show Rob Black and Your Money, broadcast daily on San Francisco’s KRON 4. Eddie is also a reporter for PBS’ Update News.

Verifying Your Credit Score

Yahoo Finance, Finance.Yahoo.com, says, you should actively work to keep your credit report true. Credit bureaus don’t verify information provided by your lenders, so it is up to you to make sure everything is in order. Interest rate specialist Bankrate.com says, because of the Fair Credit Billing Act, credit bureaus are required to promptly fix errors in your report, and do so without damaging your credit. As soon as they receive your letter of dispute, they have thirty days to investigate the claim.

How to Correct Errors in your Credit Report

Once you have downloaded your free report from one of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion), clearly mark all discrepancies and the reasons they are wrong.

Provided with your report is a dispute form. Fill out the form, and either submit it through a link on their webpage, or send it by mail. Along with the dispute form, include a letter detailing inaccurate claims. Bankrate.com has sample letters on their site with the proper way to address the bureau.

After completing their investigation, the credit bureau will remove any items they do not verify as accurate. If the bureau makes any changes, they will send you a free, updated report.

Also, on their website, Bankrate has a document titled 7 Steps to Fixing Your Credit Report, which is a good reference for tough problems.

For more information on credit reports visit www.bankrate.com, www.finance.yahoo.com, or www.freecreditreport.com

Author: Eddie Daroza, is a personal investor and stock market junkie. Besides contributing content to efinancedirectory, he works on the financial news show Rob Black and Your Money, broadcast daily on San Francisco’s KRON 4.

Eddie is also a reporter for PBS’ Update News.Eddie Daroza, is a personal investor and stock market junkie. Besides contributing content to efinancedirectory, he works on the financial news show Rob Black and Your Money, broadcast daily on San Francisco’s KRON 4. Eddie is also a reporter for PBS’ Update News.