Behind the scenes of almost every loan and type of loan in America is a credit report and its credit score.  Making credit and the credit score, an instrumental part of banking and borrowing. With such a significant impact on lending and the economy, laws were put in place to protect the consumer and the banking system by ensuring fair …

Before making a commitment to set up a payment arrangement with a debt collector, you need to know several key facts about the arrangement.  Here are a few important questions to ask: Who are you talking to?  How do you know that they own the debt? Are they legally collecting it?  If you make a payment, where is your money going? …

It seems reasonable to assume that having multiple paid accounts or paying off a large loan (such as a forty-thousand-dollar vehicle or mortgage) would be enough to overcome the bad credit of our past. We’ve heard it time-and-time again from bankers, anti-credit repair financial advisers, and even from the media’s so-called financial experts – “If you just pay your bills …

It’s either a hurricane, fires, or your personal identification being breached and stolen from the country’s biggest credit reporting agency, Equifax.  All of these are total disasters and we need to prepare accordingly.  My prayers are for protection and peace for each and every person effected by these disasters. However, since my expertise is in credit, I’m going to focus …

I’ve broken this blog into two parts with Part One focusing on Aging Collections. You can visit that post here. In Part Two, however, we will be concentrating on aging Charge-Offs. There are many differences between these two types of derogatory items and how they affect credit scores. There are also different state and federal laws that govern collections and …

Aging Derogatory – Part 1: Aging Collections If you have been following my blogs, then you’ll agree that the more recent the derogatory – the bigger the impact it has on the credit score. We’ve discussed what accounts can help your credit score when settling and which accounts can damage your score if settled. We also covered how collection agencies …

I hear this often, “Medical collections don’t hurt my credit.” Well, this is not true! This rumor surfaced from the fact that most lenders won’t hold medical collections against you. This part is true but we are forgetting that lenders use your credit score to gather your “credit worthiness”. And those medical collections do indeed affect your credit score. A …

When we first began helping people with their credit we had noticed a trend of our clients who after being pre-approved for their home loans, were suddenly having new collections hit their credit right before closing, This couldn’t be a coincident. My gut told me there was more to this. I began my investigation. What is a Trigger lead? It’s …

There is an overwhelming amount of contradicting information about what to do and what not to do with your credit and credit score. And to make matters worse, they all seem to come from trusted sources. “Experts” who carelessly spew out the same general advice with no regard to specific situations. Every day I meet clients who have been misinformed and were …

I often receive calls from desperate clients proclaiming that they are a victim of identity theft, someone having used their personal information to acquire credit and etc. After investigating their situation we determine that they’re a victim all right, but not from an individual preying on their good credit, rather the credit bureaus mixing their information or commingling someone else’s information …