Credit Repair Help: What You Need To Dispute A Negative Entry
Here are the steps you need to clean up your credit. Print out a copy of this to track your progress and keep a copy for your records.
Access a free copy of your credit report from each of the three reporting agencies at www.annualcreditreport.com. You’ll need to supply 2 years of prior addresses and verify items that may or may not appear on your report to identify yourself. From that main website you’ll be directed to each of the reporting agencies individually. Be sure and keep track of all your logins and passwords. You have 30 days to log back in for free so print out copies you can write on.
On your copy, mark any negative entries that should be removed. Every creditor is different and may not report to all three agencies. Look at each report for differences. If you do have items removed, the agency is required to notify the others so they can remove it too.
Write a letter explaining why each of those negative items should not be on your report. Additionally, if you have an account that’s in good standing that’s not listed, you can have them add that. You’ll need verification and it might be easier to ask your creditor to report it directly.
In listing negative items to dispute, include account names, numbers, dates, etc. Write why you’re disputing it as well. Valid reasons are that it’s an account you never had, the dates or amounts are wrong, etc. If you don’t have a better reason, you can always say you don’t recall having that account. I’m not saying to dispute items you know are true because most creditors have staff dedicated to verifying accounts and that won’t get it off just because you listed it. Plus, lying can get you in trouble.
The items you must include are your full name with middle name and suffix, current and past mailing addresses for the past two years, social security number, and date of birth.
You must include a copy of a government issued ID AND a copy of a utility bill, insurance or bank statement. NOT valid: credit card statements, voided checks, lease agreements, magazine subscriptions, or post office forwarding orders. You have to include these items exactly or the reporting agencies will reply they don’t have enough information to identify you and tell you to do it again.
Send your letter USPS certified mail. If you don’t, you run the risk of them “losing” your letter and you having no way to verify you sent it.
You can track the letter on the USPS website to find out when it was delivered. They are required to investigate and verify within 30 days or they have to take the items off your report and let you know.
That’s all there is to it. Next, you can start building better credit.
Find out how to do your own credit repair without an agency. Visit www.creditrepairsecrets.org for free credit help.
Credit Repair Secrets: Five Tips To Negotiate The Best Rates
When it comes to credit repair secrets, the sky is the limit. Let’s go over 5 tips on negotiating the best credit deals you can get.
Tip #1 Ask
We’ve all heard that if you ask, you will receive. It’s doubly true in the credit industry because the competition is so stiff. It’s expensive for credit card companies to get a new customer so they’ll work hard to try and keep your business. You might be surprised what you can get just by calling and asking. If you need a reason for them to give you something, tell them you’ve been a good customer or that you’re going through hard times. Any reason will do as long as it’s true.
A friend of mine was struggling to manage her credit. She decided to close most of her accounts. That way she wouldn’t be tempted to spend again once she got them paid down. The creditor started making her all sorts of offers of lower interest rates, lower payments, etc just to keep the account open. Seems that in this current economy, creditors are bending over backwards to make money any way they can. If you need to debt settlement, it might even be worth your time to start negotiating even before you get to that point.
Tip #2 Manage your balances well
If you leave room on your credit cards, you can always do a balance transfer to the card with the lowest rate. Also, if you keep your balances around 30%, credit card companies are happy to extend your credit limit every so often because they see you’re using it and they’re making money on the interest.
Tip #3 Get creditor to fight over you
Having a better deal somewhere else is the easiest way to get a good deal. Credit card companies know they are a dime a dozen and will give you whatever deal necessary to keep you. If you can make a balance transfer out of their account, they’ll be more willing to work with you. If not, make the transfer and then see what kind of deal they’ll give you to get it back.
Tip #4 Maintain better credit
This probably doesn’t need much explanation. The more credit worthy better customer you are, the better deal you’ll get. If something happens so you can’t make all your payments, prioritize things. It might make more sense to stay current on your best accounts and let the bad ones slide this time. Of course don’t loose any collateral in the process.
Tip #5 Crunch the numbers
There are more things you can negotiate than just the interest rate. When assessing the value of an account, consider any additional fees, any bonuses for using the card, if a low rate is temporary, etc. You can even ask to have negative items removed from your credit report if you ask. The only limit is what you’re willing to ask for.
The key to negotiating is to know what you want and keep working until you get it. Remember that creditors need customers and will fight to get and keep you. Use that to get what you want.
Find out how to do your own credit repair without an agency. Visit www.creditrepairsecrets.org for free help.
Consumer Credit Repair: The 5 C’s
To figure out how to do consumer credit repair, there are five areas lenders look at. They all start with C: character, capacity, capital, collateral and conditions.
Character
Character refers to how well lenders can trust you. If they know you personally, that’s great. Oftentimes, this is determined by how well you’ve made payments on time.
Your credit report will show 30, 60 and 90 day delinquencies. Credit card companies are often the most aggressive about reporting. As you could guess, negative entries count against your credit score. You’ll want your report to show all accounts in good standing for working to repair consumer credit.
Capacity
Capacity means you have enough cash flow to handle the debt you’re seeking. They look at how much money you have coming in each month as well as how many expenses you have. Lenders want to make sure you have enough money at the end of the month to make your payments.
Capital
Capital shows that you know how to manage money long term. It’s a look at your net worth. Lenders don’t want to give money to people who need it. They want to lend to people who have shown to be able to use it wisely to build up more assets. That’s a better lending risk for them.
Collateral
Collateral is something to secure the debt. Typically, loans are secured by property such as real estate or vehicles. If there’s something to get back should you default on the loan, there’s less risk to the lender.
Conditions
The conditions are market and economic conditions outside your control. With the recent economic recession, lending guidelines have become more strict.
Smaller concerns such as your local banker’s mood that day also fall into this group. While we’d like to think your banker is always going to be professional, he’s human too.
When you’re looking to repair consumer credit, remember the five Cs: character, capacity, capital, collateral and conditions.
Fix bad credit! Do your own credit history repair without an agency. Visit www.creditrepairsecrets.org for free help.
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Credit History Repair: What If It’s Beyond Repair?
How do you know if you can still do credit history repair?
While everyone is unique, the pattern usually goes this way: people get credit cards before they’ve learned how to manage them. They overspend on them. They get more cards. They max them out and borrow from one to pay another. Finally, they can even make all the minimum payments and they start falling behind.
Maybe you’ve been through that already. The good news is you still have options. The main credit history repair options are bankruptcy, debt settlement, debt consolidation, credit counseling or learning to manage your debt better.
People often worry how making any changes will affect their credit. The more important issue is the mountain of debt that’s eating your financial future. With too much debt, you won’t be able to get any more credit anyway. Plus it’s disrupting your cash flow.
The most dramatic and final option is bankruptcy. This is good for people who have only a few assets and much more debt than they could ever pay back. It does cost something to get going and will impact your credit more than anything else.
A great option for people who have too much debt but a steady income is debt settlement. Instead of making your monthly payments, you save that money and offer your creditors lump sum settlements in the range of 20-40% of the total. Be sure to know the laws in your state and get everything in writing. If you have too many assets, your creditors might attempt to sue you or garnish your wages.
Debt consolidation is where you pay off all your loans with one big loan. Usually the only place to get a loan that big when you have too much debt is from your home equity. The danger is that people often spend on their paid off accounts again and end up with twice as much debt. Then their home is in jeopardy because now they have twice the payments to keep up with.
Credit counseling is a complete waste in my opinion. They take a monthly fee from you and negotiate a lower interest rate for you. Then the credit card companies pay them for keeping you making your payments so there’s usually a conflict of interest. You can negotiate your own rates and avoid the mark that would go on your credit with a third party intervention.
The last option is to learn to manage your spending better. Negotiate your rates as low as you can. Then pay the minimum on all of your accounts except the one with the highest rate. Once that’s paid down, use that as leverage to negotiate better rates still or open a different account with a better rate. Take the money you were using to pay that one and add it to the minimum payment on the next highest rate account. Repeat until you’re at a level of debt you’re happy with.
While your current situation may look dismal, there are always options. Figure out what you really want to accomplish and get started.
Find out how to do your own credit history repair without an agency. Visit www.creditrepairsecrets.org for free help.