YourCreditReport.ca: credit reports, credit cards, fixing your credit and personal bankruptcy in Canada » Credit Repair

What Do You Say When You Call Your Creditors?

info — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:05:21 +0000

There are two efforts that must be made when you call your creditors. First, call any creditors reporting a negative and ask them to remove the negative item. Always ask in a nice calm voice and do not get upset when they say no – there is a pretty good chance they will. Simply repeat your request over and over in a nice pleasant voice. If you still get nowhere, simply then ask to speak to the supervisor. Make sure you keep a log of your conversation, noting the date, time, who you spoke to and what they said. Repeat this procedure over and over. In a high percentage of cases, it works. Remember, it is very important to document everything in case you need to reference your actions later.
You must also be sure to ask for a letter by mail or fax that shows the creditor is correcting the negative information. You may actually need this letter for two reasons. First, they may not really make the changes. With the letter, you can appeal directly to the credit bureau and they will make the correction. Second, if you are applying for a mortgage before the changes actually hit the credit bureau’s report, your lender will need this documentation.

If you have a charge off or collection account that shows as unpaid, don’t just send them a check and pay it off. Call the creditor on the phone, explain that you have the funds to pay the account in full, and calmly explain why it should not have been reported on your credit in the first place. Then ask if they will provide you a letter deleting the account entirely from all credit bureaus if you pay off the account. Try to get them to fax it to you. As before, be sure to document all of your telephone contact and always keep a nice pleasant tone in your voice. In a large percentage of cases, this also works.

There will be cases when the creditor does not agree to remove the negative credit item. If it is an item that is definitely not yours, call the credit bureau immediately (except for Equifax, who only responds by mail). When on the telephone, do not discuss any negative items that are accurate. Do not discuss any items that may be accurate in general but have some small error in detail that you can dispute by mail. Once you confirm any accuracy at all, you cannot dispute it later by mail.

For the remaining items, you need to dispute them by mail, writing directly to the credit bureaus. Write a letter to the appropriate bureau including your name, social security number, address, disputed accounts, and account numbers. You must sign the letter. Inform the bureau that you are disputing the data as it appears on your credit report.

How To Protect Yourself From Credit Repair Scams

info — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:55:30 +0000

If you’ve been nursing a poor credit history and find yourself unable to get financial respite from legitimate creditors, then, more likely, companies that offer to repair your credit will be like lights at the end of dark tunnels.

Sure, credit repair companies and the assistance programs they offer are legitimate, but it is advised that you don’t easily get fooled after just one sitting. While credit repair schemes promise to get you out of your financial woes, they can also turn into your greatest nightmares if you fail to protect yourself and read the fine print.

More often than not credit repair schemes will present themselves as quick and easy ways to clear your tainted credit record of red information for a certain fee. They look mighty attractive at first but, as with any money making operation, surely they won’t tell you all the tricks of the trade and how they are to benefit from you.

The fact of the matter is, bad credit can only be healed by time. Credit repair companies will assure you that they can call up your creditors and clean up your murky credit history for you, but this is really not the case.

Some credit repair agencies will tell you that your credit has already been cleared up and send you a note to prove it, but, the reality is, they are merely trying to process your credit clearing application and do not really know if your creditor will approve it or not.

Before you know it, your bad credit information has magically reappeared on your records and there isn’t anything you can do about it, except, well, drag yourself into a credit repair scam again and fool yourself that you’ve been cleaned up.

Bad credit records are bad credit records. No matter how hard you try to seek instant reprieve from the red marks on your documents, they will not go away unless they have been erroneously placed there. And no credit repair agency can make miracles happen for you. If you truly had a tainted financial past, you must bear with it and let it pass over time.

Credit bureaus report negative information as far back as seven years and as far back as ten years for bankruptcy related cases. This means your history for the past seven to ten years will turn up in your records whether you like it or not and cannot, and never, be altered by any credit repair tactic.

But if you are sure that mistakes have been made on your records and you’re truly free of negative data, then by all means, seek help from credit repair companies. Or, to avoid having to pay their charges, you can repair your credit yourself.

You simply notify the credit bureau of the errors and give a detailed account of the mistakes your found on your records. The more accurate you are, the better. After which, the bureau will conduct an investigation into the account in question, free of charge, and correct them or discard false information that is unverifiable.

To help strengthen your case, you can even write a short note, about a hundred words, explaining the negative information on your report. It could take a while, but, hey, it sure beats having to pay credit repair agencies to do it.

New Credit File: The Dark Side Of Credit Repair

info — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:54:23 +0000

A bad credit rating can drive some to the extremes – and starting a new credit file is one of these extreme measures. A new credit file will not contain any of the previous credit information on it, neither the bad nor the good and certainly not the ugly.

The main reason this is even possible is the information overload. Think about it. Every day in US thousands of children are born and thousand will leave their physical shell for greener pastures in the heavens. These birth and death rates create new additions and new permanent removal of information from credit bureau’s computer system.

Remember that credit bureau’s already track financial and credit history of millions of Americans.

What will happen when the information about people with the same names and birth dates sometimes even in the same city enter the system? A flaw and a loophole are created.

Well, the credit bureau’s computer system is not infallible and with increased and conflicting legislation to protect citizens rights to privacy and restrictions placed on sharing of information between agencies, some have found the loophole and use it to create a new credit file for themselves.

There are three major ways that people create a new credit file. One is to use their same name with different personal information. Another is to use the same personal information with a different first or last name. And last of all, they use an alias name with the same or different personal information.

Personal information means a person’s birth date, social security number, address etc.

These new credit files seem legitimate and from credit bureau’s computer system point of view they fall under those anomalies we mentioned earlier such as two people can have the same name and birth date but live in two different locations.

Many of the techniques used to obtain a new credit file are taken from legitimate day to day living needs. For example, those who decide to change their names for personal or religious reasons; they can obtain a new social security number. Or when some one moves from one state to another, they need to get a new driver’s license.

However when one changes his or her name in order to get a new social security number to skip on the credit card payments, he or she is crossing the legal lines.

Or if someone creates a false social security number under the Federal Trade Commission’s Credit Repair Act, that someone may be committing a felony by using a false identification number.

The rules are too many, the potential penalties too high. Do your homework and understand the laws so that you do not break them unknowingly.

Why is it necessary to do credit report repair?

info — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 07:28:17 +0000

Is it necessary to do credit report repair?

Credit report repair will surely help you to improve your credit report and thereby increase your credit score. It is process that eliminates the negative remarks and gives you a good credit report. There are many people who are unaware of repairing their credit report and thereby create obstacle to get credit extension. You can even repair your credit report timely or by checking it periodically.

With the help of good credit report you can have credit flexibility through which you can get credit at low interest rate. One should not get tired of bad credit report but seek suitable measures to improve it. Self-credit repair can be a difficult task but with the help of many online services one can easily repair it by one self. Below are a few tips, which can help you to repair your credit report.

• Order Credit Report
This is your first step in which you must order the credit report from all the credit bureaus. Don’t be surprised to see different credit report ratings as different credit bureau have different ways to maintain a credit report.

• Check Credit Report
In this step you must check your report carefully and slowly. It is quite general to find at least one error in one of the three reports.

• Document and Dispute Strategy
Any mistake in your credit report must be informed to the credit bureau. Finding the reason behind any error is equally important, as you understand your credit report. Maintain up to date copy of each and every document that can be used as future reference.

• Dissolve the Debts
Clear your debts payment if you are liable for it. This step is of vital importance, which can help you to improve your credit report rating.

Other Information
If you have unnecessary accounts then close it instantly. Remember Zero balance account is also taken into consideration. Verify each and every account that exists.

Fixing your own credit report

info — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:56:28 +0000

Do you have bad credit? It can be a serious issue that affects people’s lives in all sorts of ways. Apart from the fact that a poor credit rating makes it more difficult to obtain credit, a poor credit rating will also mean that the costs of the credit you manage to be approved for will be much higher. You will have less money to spend and perhaps not enjoy a quality of life you feel you deserve.

It’s pretty obvious that most people with credit issues would clean up their credit ratings in a plsit second if they could. There are, in fact, thousands of websites claiming that it’s easy to repair your credit. Many of these websites claims are somewhat shady or ignorant, while others are even downright illegal.

The reality is that there is no ‘magic bullet’ when it comes to impriving ones credit rating. That doesn’t mean, however, that you’re stuck with a poor credit for the rest of your life with nothing you can do about it. Please read below a few simple pointers and methods you can put into practise to improve your credit rating on your own.

Firstly, you will need to get a hold of your credit record. The big credit reference agencies share data among themselves, so it doesn’t really matter which one of them you request a copy of your file from and they’ll all contain much the same information.

Once you’ve obtained a copy of your file, look through it and examine every entry. Is there anything on there that looks wrong? It’s not impossible for your file to have information on it that’s out of date, or simply incorrect. It’s your legal right to challenge any incorrect details on your file, and have them corrected if neccessary.

Make sure that any unpaid debts listed actually apply to you and not someone else – a previous occupant of your address, for example. Also make sure that any defaults you’ve since cleared are listed as being satisfied. While this won’t remove the default from your file completely, it will lessen the impact on your rating.

The next step is to look if you have any outstanding debts which you could clear without too much trouble. Often, a debt will go unpaid during times of financial troubles, which could be paid off later on when your money situation improves. Clearing these small debts will also greatly improve your creditworthiness.

Once you’ve cleaned up your credit file as much as possible, and removed as much negative information as you can, it’s time to start focussing on the positive – you need to get some ‘good’ entries on your credit file to counteract any ‘bad’ entries that remain.

The best way to do this is to apply for some kind of financial service that you’ll be approved for, such as a credit card aimed at people with poor credit scores, or even one of the secured or prepay cards which offer close to 100% acceptance, also making sure that the company issuing the card reports back to the credit reference agencies.

As you use the card responsibly in the future, keeping up your repayments, then this will be entered onto your credit file. Over time, you’ll find that your credit rating will begin to improve, allowing you to move on to more mainstream, cheaper, credit options.

Credit Repair Scams

info — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:32:28 +0000

There is absolutely no need to hire anyone to improve your credit rating as you can easily do it yourself. However, if you are determined to hire a credit repair service, look out for these warning signs that it is a disreputable company.

1. “We guarantee results”

Congress passed a law years ago that forbids credit repair companies from guaranteeing their results. This means that no credit repair service can guarantee you that they can remove a bankruptcy notation or any other negative information from your credit report. Therefore, any company that tries to convince you that they can positively get the results you want, watch out, because they’re not only breaking federal law; they’re also fibbing, since no one can guarantee specific results.

2. A large lump sum payment is due upfront

Per federal law, a credit repair service cannot accept payment before work is done unless the company is a registered non-profit or operated by an attorney or CPA. Usually, the request for a large lump sum payment is a tip-off that you are being scammed. Odds are that the credit repair clinic will take your money and run off and you’ll never see them again. A similar scam is the pay each month program where customers are asked to pay a specific amount each month “until your credit is improved”. You can be sure the service is going to stretch out the process for as long as possible to collect as much as they possibly can from you — you’ll likely end up paying $800 or more for work you can easily do yourself as outlined in our credit kit.

3. Watch out for credit repair services or websites operate by attorneys and CPAs

Some attorneys and accountants have realized that they can make some quick, easy money offering credit repair services on the side, raking in hundreds of dollars for very little work. Usually, their marketing literature will lead one to believe that they have specialized skills, training or knowledge to perform credit repair. This is not true. Of course, attorneys and CPAs would object to our characterization that they are operating a credit repair scam, but what they are doing is dishonest, since they know that their clients can easily dispute negative information on their credit reports themselves without having to pay anyone. In any event, be aware that if you pay an attorney or CPA to do your credit repair work, he or she will spend about five minutes filling out some paperwork (or an assistant will actually fill out the paperwork) and you will be billed hundreds of dollars for work you could easily and quickly do yourself.

4. “Our software can delete negative information from your credit report”

This is one of our favorite scams and one it is hard to believe the public actually swallows. The three big credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and Trans Union — do not allow the public to access their computer databases and alter or delete information. The idea that one can install software on their computer and it will remove all negative information from credit reports is ridiculous.

5. “You can establish a new credit identity / new credit file”

You’ve probably received a few spam emails claiming that you can establish a new credit file. This is not true. If you ordered the information being sold to you in these spam emails, you would be told that you can establish a new credit identity by getting a nine-digit EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS and using that in place of your social security number on loan applications and such. Or, you might be told to submit a false social security number, perhaps one belonging to someone else. The problem with doing this is that it is a felony to lie on a loan application and you would be committing bank fraud, which happens to be a felony. If you used an EIN on a loan application and the bank discovered this (and there is a good chance that they will since they are aware of this scam and use a system to verify social security numbers) they can turn your loan application over to your local district attorney for prosecution. You could go to jail for a few years for attempting to commit fraud. In any event, your name will be in the paper “arrested for bank fraud” and your boss will see it and you will have to spend thousands defending yourself.

If you can improve your credit rating, you can do it yourself. Actually, if you just started paying down your debt, paying all your bills on time, and not accumulating anymore debt, your credit rating and credit score would improve over time. Eventually, you would achieve a good credit score.

Building Your Own Credit History

info — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:28:58 +0000

Modern times require modern actions and credit cards are the modern tools that anyone may need but not everyone may have. Establish a good credit history seems to be harder for those individuals who do not have a credit past, however it can be build up individually for the first time starting small.

Your credit history determines many economy-related activities in your life including getting a job, obtaining reasonable rates on insurance, purchasing an automobile or renting an apartment. So starting small building your credit history means that you can do some research for department stores and financial institutions where you can apply for small amounts of credit.

Do not forget to get a written copy of the conditions, terms and fees applying to the type of credit chosen. Penalties for late payments and interest rates may be slightly higher that other regular credits if the applicant does not have established credit.

Most experts recommend you to request a copy of your credit report from the three national credit bureaus. Yes, you may not have a credit history yet but the request will make the bureaus create the reports making it easier they put files on your credit report as soon as you start getting small credits.

Although there is, a possibility of getting those reports with information already included because any credit purchases made in your past is reflected on your credit history. If the file exists, make sure the information is accurate or immediately report any incorrect information so that they can take action to correct your file.

Another good option in building your credit history is to open a bank account, either a savings or checking account. Analyze the bank’s financial products because there is no need to be a big investor to find some type of products offering savings accounts, checking accounts and debit card as a whole.

always Keep in mind that your bank accounts are to build a good credit history so do not miss your goal using them to purchase until you are in debt or you bounce checks. Getting a loan may round your credit plan if you pay consistently and pay all bills in a timely manner, so the granter may report this positive information to the credit bureau.
by: Fruzsina Csery
There are other useful strategies to build a credit history or improve your credit score if the history already exists. Apply for a secured credit car or prepaid card, open utility accounts such as gas, electric and phone service are just a few of them.

The most important thing to remember, use your cards or credits regularly to ensure that your report is updated regularly and pay your bills on time, because lenders look at the most recent information on your credit history report.

About The Author

Fruzsina Csery is a freelence copy writer. She occasionally writes for http://www.credit-card-for-students.com Student Credit Cards.