The Problem with Credit Repair Companies

              So many people are offering you a small piece of advice for free and then, WHAM! When you click on a link, you can get the "scoop" for a price. Whether it is $1.00 or $50.00, it's too much. All of this information is readily available on the internet should you choose to find and utilize it. I have taken the liberty of doing the research for you so that you do not get taken in by the ones that charge a fee to give you credit repair information.  The truth is that you do not need to pay hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars to get your credit repaired.  All you need is a little time to study, persistence, and patience.  The credit repair companies can not do it any faster than you can on your own, although they would like you to believe they can.  So they can warrant charging you that big fat start-up fee and monthly Billing.

               The U.S. Government has written laws known as "The Fair Credit Reporting Act", and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  Those two laws are the laws that state what a collection agency or credit bureau can and can not do when it comes to reporting credit issues and trying to collect debts.  If you know the rules, you can then use those rules against the collection agencies and credit bureaus.   What team wins in a Football or Basketball game?  The rules are the same for both teams.  The winner is usually the one that has the best athletes and makes the best preparation.  What is more important The Athletes or the Preparation?.  Why don't you ask that question to the players of 2007's Michigan Football Team.   The University of Michigan has probably the most successful football program in all of college football, but last year they were beat by a much smaller and weaker opponent in Appalachian State University.  WHY?  More preparation and  eagerness to win by the players of Appalachian State.  That is how you have to deal with credit repair.  Prepare and a will to win.   And believe it or not, it does not take that much time.   Let me ask you a question, would you rather pay $ 20.00 to $ 40.00 for certified letters, or the cost of those letters PLUS $ 1,000.00 for a company to tell you how to write those letters.  I can tell you where to get all the letters, written with the right language for FREE.  Does that sound good to you?

 Well lets start with a step by step process.

Step One - Order your credit reports

Order your credit reports to see what is on them.  You can do this for free once per year by going to www.annualcreditreport.com .    On that site you can order all 3 of your credit reports online, and print them for free.   What ever you do,  DO NOT dispute items online.   If you dispute them online, your disputes will be handled thru an online technique the bureaus use called "e-oscar".  It is a web based validation program that is more in line with just getting your dispute dealt with rather than really investigating weather the dispute is accurate or not.   Not to mention if you dispute a debt online, you will not have anything in writing showing that you disputed the item.  The bureaus really push this form of disputing because it takes personal touch out of the mix.  A large percentage of these items are verified by e-oscar as being valid, when in fact they really are never validated in the way that the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires.  The client gets a letter stating that the debt they disputed has now been validated, and the client usually gives up thinking there is nothing more they can do.  Nothing could be further from the truth, as long as you know the rules of the game and how to handle the Bureaus.

 Here is a website you can go to in order to get all the dispute letters you want for FREE!, yes I said Free.   www.creditinfocenter.com     Cool Huh?  

 Credit Bureau Contact Information

  To be tell you're the truth, I found all of this information in one website. While the website is very good, there are paid things there too and I did not want you to get lost in the maze of links. I wanted to give you straight forward information that is free.

If you take the time to do this, you will learn how to dispute your credit report on your own and be your own credit repair guide.

  Warning !!! - Never pay anyone to repair your credit".  Most companies like that are charging you to tell you to file for a new social security number (which is not legal) or something of the sort. While there may be legitimate companies out there, you can do it yourself.   Not to mention the process they will use is the same process that I am walking you thru, they just try to make you believe they can get better results.

So now you have a copy of your credit report from www.freeannualcreditreport.com.  All credit bureaus are required to give you your credit report free, but only once a year. Your credit score, on the other hand may cost a small fee. The above site will show you the steps to get your free credit report.

You can also get your credit report from the FDIC once a year.

Step Two:  Analyze your reports  and Send out dispute letters

         Analyze your report make a list of items to dispute, and send out dispute letters.  You can get template dispute letters from www.creditinfocenter.com    If you have collections on your report there is another technique to deal with them.  It is called the Debt Validation Letter, you can find a copy of that letter also on the credit info center website.   You want to send  a validation letter to ANY collection agency who has either reported you to the bureaus or sent you a letter asking you to pay.  This is one of the most effective ways to get a collection agency to not only take the debt off your credit, but also get them to quit attempting to collect all together.   Many of my clients have a 100% success rate using this technique.  When sending the letters out always make sure that you send them via U.S. Postal Service Certified Mail.  This way you have a tracking number to record when the letter is delivered to the collection agency or credit bureaus.

Step three  Keep track of your results

Now that you have made a list and sent out the dispute letters, you need to make a way to keep track.   Make a spreadsheet showing what date you disputed each item with each bureau and collection agency.  Why do this?  Well it is because the Fair Credit Reporting Act only gives the Bureaus 30 days to either respond by validation or they have to delete the item from your record.  You will want a column for the date sent, the date received by the agency, and the date (30 days later)  the agency has to get you the info.  You can e.mail me a request for the spreadsheet template that I created by emailing me at   mynewfico@gmail.com      You will also want to keep track of the items you disputed.  If you are disputing 12 items with Experian,  8 with trans union and 6 with Equifax, keep track and cross them off once they are deleted.

When sending the letters make sure that they are certified or registered and be sure to keep the original credit report that you received. Document everything that you do, receive, etc. Never use the online dispute forms that are on some credit bureau sites. You need to mail them as stated above to have the proof that you need.

Step Four - Review the responses from the collection agencies or bureaus.

There is a good chance that you may not even get a response from the collection agencies, and if you do the ball is in your court.  If they fail to validate the debt, but still report to the bureaus they are in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and you can then choose to sue them if they do not take the item off your report.  You can find more information on how to sue a collection agency and win at  www.creditinfocenter.com

When you get your results back from the bureaus, most of your disputed items will show as being validated.  This is because many of the bureaus just validate using an assembly line technique and rarely even contact the original creditor.  Knowing this this is to your advantage.  You simply send another dispute letter stating that you still disagree with their findings and you want to see the proof of verification including names and phone numbers of who the debt was verified with.  The agencies work on the guideline that 90% of the responses will just be left alone and taken as gospel fact.  The only fact is that the bureaus have to follow the law, and by reading this report you can now make them follow the law.  You have to understand the Credit Bureaus have a vested interest in keeping scores low due to their associations with the banking industry.  Low scores mean more profits to the banks.  Keep the banks happy and they keep ordering credit files.

 You need to understand that the Banks and the Credit Bureaus are NOT our friends.   You have probably heard that  collections and charge offs stay on your report for 7 years, and  Bankruptcy for 10 years.  What if I told you that was not true?  Well it is not true, the law states that those items CAN stay on your report for that length of time.  If you want to dispute a bad debt that is 2 years old, you can.  Most people think that you can only dispute items on your report that are not yours or inaccurate.  You can dispute everything on your report, and hold the bureaus to the letter of the law when reporting it.   Use the law in your favor instead of the bureaus.   Are you aware that many states have a 3 year statute of limitations on collecting on Credit Card Debt?  If a collection agency is trying to collect on a credit card that was charged off  4 years ago, you may not even be required to pay them.  But they will not let you know that, they will continue to hound you for 10 years, as long as they think they can bully or intimidate you info paying.

Step Five -  Repeat the process again.

That's right, Repeat!

Specialized techniques                                                                                                                 If you spend some time at www.creditinfocenter.com you will learn countless techniques to become a credit repair pro.

These techniques will show how to deal with collections, charge offs, judgments and disputing with original creditors only after disputing with the credit bureau. Never use the original creditor's website to dispute. You need to mail them to have the proof that you need.

What If?

What to do if something that was removed shows back up!   Don't worry there are statutes in the Fair Credit Reporting Act that will tell you how to deal with that if and when the time comes.  The info can be found at  www.creditinfocenter.com     Between the book recommended above and this website, you should not need anymore help becoming a credit repair expert.

What if I get stuck and need help?

Call me Thomas Hargreaves at     541-844-1830     or email me with your question at  mynewfico@gmail.com and I will try to send you back an answer.  Or feel free to e.mail me and I will send you this report in a word document so you can share it with your clients.

You are now on your way to repairing your credit or helping your clients repair their credit, and you have done it for free.   The only cost is for the certified mail you or your clients use to send out the dispute letters.