If you have had dealings with the credit bureaus you know that they can be very sneaky and demanding. Credit bureaus have a process that they use in order to process disputes, and you have to play by the rules in order to get the best results. When you dispute an item or items on your credit report you may receive several different responses from the credit bureaus.

Typical responses are listed below:

• We are processing your dispute
• We have received your dispute and are investigating the items you listed
• We have finished our investigation and the results are listed below
• We are unable to process your dispute because proper verification as not been met
• Please provide the required forms of identification in order to process your dispute

You may receive one of the five responses above when you start your journey in repairing your credit. You must know how to handle the last two stall tactics. Stall tactics are used by the credit bureaus in order to by time and discourage consumers. Imagine if you knew nothing about the process and you received a letter from a scary “Credit Bureau”, you may either send in the requested information or feel like they are going to find out that you’re not telling the truth. This type of tactic is very powerful when dealing with consumers as many will just give up and continue to feel helpless.

The credit bureaus have a habit of sending a response like the following:

Dear consumer,

We have determined that your dispute in fraudulent. We will not investigate this item again. If you have anymore concerns……..

Or,

Dear Consumer,

We have determined that your dispute has not been initiated by you and could have possibly been sent by a credit repair company. It is illegal to use a credit repair company………….

How do you get around these stall tactics? There are 5 items you will need to send in when you are repairing your credit. These items are a must in order to not get road blocked by the credit bureaus.

1. Dispute letter
2. Copy of your ID
3. Copy of your Social Security Card
4. Copy of a recent utility bill
5. Copy of your recent paycheck stub (black out the amounts)

Sending in these items will allow you to have more success. Do not get intimidated when dealing with the credit bureaus, even though they make money on processing your dispute they are not your friends.

Empower – Educate – Take Action

H & I Credit Solutions

At some point in many of our lives, bad financial decisions are made that can affect your credit rating in a negative way. A rating of less than 580 is considered bad credit (some may say terrible credit), which limits the options of getting loans and other forms of credit available to you. Nobody wants to live their entire life with such a bad credit rating, certain measures may need to be taken to rectify the situation. One remedy for a negative rating is to apply for a bad credit loan. Believe it or not, there are institutions and individuals that specialize in giving out bad credit loans to persons with negative credit ratings.

The first step is to meet with a financial adviser and ascertain exactly how your credit rating is, so you can have a clear picture of the status and the options available as far as bad credit loans go. It is prudent to borrow what can be repaid quickly without further affecting the credit rating. A common form of bad credit loans, are loans for , computers, or jewelry. Most pawnshops will accept these items against a loan that has to be paid back with interest within the stipulated time frame. If the full amount is not repaid by the expiry of the said period, then the pawnshop can sell the item to recover their investment.

Another form of a bad credit loan is a loan against a car that you currently own. Proof of ownership (car title) has to be provided and left as collateral with the lender. It is usually common to be offered an amount a little less than the true value of the item used as collateral. Some lenders will also give bad credit loans against pay slips as long as the employment of the borrower can be verified. These loans are also known as payday loans. Payday loans are where the borrower agrees to repay the loan when they receive their next paycheck.

In most cases financial advisers will recommend that the borrower get alternative forms of bad credit loans instead of payday loans. Over the years, payday loans have got a bad rep due to high interest rates. A person with a low credit score can get a bad credit loan with good terms when they get someone with a good credit rating to co-sign with them. A co-signer should be a person that is well known to the borrower so that the borrower will not default on purpose thinking that because they know that the other person, they will cover the loan amount. Pay your bills, and you will be in good shape!

Empower – Educate – Take Action

H & I Credit Solutions

This can be a very scary process, but remember, once you’ve done it you have two ways to feel about it.

1. You feel like you’ve made a great investment and you have no regrets
2. You feel like if you would’ve had a better credit score you could have gotten a better rate; Your left feeling like doubtful!

If you are a first time home buyer with bad credit, it is important to make sure you do everything possible to get the home loan. You want to make sure you get the best interest rate possible.

Let me show you something and throw some numbers out there. Let’s say you are a first time home buyer with good credit. You apply for a loan of 175k.

• Your principle payment just for the house would be $486.11
• Your interest, let’s say 6% would be $562.00
• Your house taxes let’s say $250.00 a month
• Your house insurance, let’s say is 60.00 a month
• That’s a total of $1358.11 a month

Now, let’s say that you are a first time home buyer with bad credit! Here are the numbers with bad credit.

• Your principle payment just for the house would be $486.11
• Your interest, let’s say 9.9% would be $1036.72
• Your house taxes let’s say is $250.00 a month
• Your house insurance, let’s say $85.00 a month(due to bad credit)
• That’s a total of $1857.83 a month

WOW! that’s a huge difference in payment. Let me make one thing clear first, buying a home with bad credit is not impossible but it’s really close to impossible. These are just numbers based on higher interest rates due to bad credit.

With the examples above, a first time home buyer with bad credit would pay $474.72 dollars more a month just in interest, than the first time home buyer with good credit.

That’s a lot of money and a huge monthly commitment.

Empower – Educate – Take Action

H & I Credit solutions

Some folks are under the impression that the older the items are the easier they are to remove. Is that true? Sometimes it is, sometimes not. Depending on the type of item that is being reported it really depends as always if the item is verifiable, accurate or misleading.

Just because an item is old doesn’t mean that it will be easy to remove. Remember, if your old items are verifiable and accurate, they will not be removed. The FCRA strictly states that the credit reporting agencies have to report verifiable and accurate information.

Now, having said that, if your old item or any item is NOT verifiable or accurate it has to be changed or deleted.

Having an accurate credit report with verifiable information will allow consumers to better represent themselves when applying for a loan. It will empower consumers by knowing exactly what is on their report and know what their credit scores are.

It is a great feeling knowing where you stand when negotiating for a loan. There will not be any surprises.

As always Empower Yourself – Educate Yourself – Take Action

H & I Credit Solutions

A lot of consumers want to do something about their credit for many reasons. The problem is that most people do not know what they need to do to take that first step in repairing their credit. The first step to repairing your own credit is very simple.

Step One: You must find out what is on your credit report.

I’ll admit, that I thought at one point, I pay all my bills on time so there is nothing negative on my credit report. My thinking was completely understandable because, if I pay all my bills and I haven’t done anything to jeopardize my report then it should be ok, right? Well stop right there, just because you are a responsible consumer doesn’t mean that someone else hasn’t stolen your identity.

So back to the first step…

Obtain a copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus. This will allow you to see what is being reported and what is not being reported on each credit bureau. You may find that something that you were completely unaware of is reporting on your report. Something that is not even yours, how would that make you feel?

There are a lot of different sources of which you can pull your credit report. On a previous topic, I discussed how to get your credit report for free from www.annualcreditreport.com. The choice of how you receive your credit report is up to you. After you choose a method, get your copy and look through it. So that is your first step. Remember, all negative items on your credit report have to be verifiable. If the negative items are not verifiable, then by law it has to be removed.

Take that first step.

H & I Credit Solutions