Tag Archive for credit reporting act

The Red Flags Rule for Fraud & Identity Theft

June 1, 2010 Credit Manager FTC Updates

Because of changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act -FCRA and the enactment of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), more businesses are being held responsible for the safety of your financial information. Identity theft and fraud are two of the biggest financial crimes that we consumers face. The Federal Trade Commission and Congress have demanded that business who deal with our personal information follow more stringent guidelines to protect us from fraud and identity theft.

The Federal Trade Commission is making the act of businesses complying as simple as possible and have created a Red Flag Resource Web Site to help businesses comply and educate its employees.

Some of the tools provided by the FTC are DIY workbooks for small risk businesses which walks you through complying and articles that businesses can publish for clients, colleagues and future customers.

Six of those resources to help businesses protect and manage customer information in the Red Flag Program are;

The Red Flags Rule: Are You Complying with New Requirements for Fighting Identity Theft?

The Red Flags Rule: Compliance Tips for Companies Offering Services In and Around the Home

Franchisors: Are You Complying with the Red Flags Rule’s New Requirements for Fighting Identity Theft?

The Red Flags Rule: What Health Care Providers Need to Know About Complying with New Requirements for Fighting Identity Theft

The Red Flags Rule: What Telecom Companies Need to Know About Complying with New Requirements for Fighting Identity Theft [PDF]

The Red Flags Rule: What Utility Companies Need to Know About Complying with New Requirements for Fighting Identity Theft

If you deal with businesses who have your personal information (and who doesn’t, really) then you should familiarize yourself with the FTCs Red Flag Rules. These rules aim at helping to minimize your risk and hold your creditors, hospitals, cable companies and financial institutions to a higher privacy standard.

The FTC has extended its deadline for businesses to comply with Red Flag until December 2010.

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What is Lexington Law Firm Credit Repair

November 27, 2009 Credit Manager Credit Repair Articles & Resources

Like it or not, credit repair companies aren’t going anywhere.  There are thousands of websites that claim they can repair your credit but often they fall short of those promises. Lexington Law is a law firm that specializes in credit repair and yes, its legal.

If you have misleading items on your credit reports and don’t want to try and correct your credit on your own, Lexington can do the work for you. Many people do not want to repair their credit on their own, but they often sign up for services that are either a scam or do not follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act nor the Credit Repair Organization Act.

Lexington Law, as far as credit repair is concerned, will be your best bet because they do follow the law, they do have a good BBB reputation and it is a law firm unlike many credit repair companies.

People  can argue that you can do the work yourself so why hire someone. To that, we say, its a service you are paying for- period. Its no big secret that some people are not cut out to repair their own credit. Perhaps they don’t have time, or don’t know what to do. Perhaps they simply feel more comfortable having representation. It’s their right.

With all the controversy surrounding credit repair we can tell you that we have been offering Lexington Law as a referral for over 12 years. We have yet to find a reputable replacement as far as full service credit repair is concerned. Obviously we like to push education because we feel credit repair is very possible on your own,  but we understand it isn’t for everyone. If that’s your situation then Lexington Law is the best on the market  for reputation and reliability.

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Tips for a better credit report and score

October 20, 2008 Credit Manager Credit Repair Articles & Resources, Misc. Credit Repair Articles

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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