Why Charge Offs Shouldn't Be Paid

Many times when I review clients' credit reports I see paid charge offs.  My stomach gets a sick feeling every time. Paying off a charge off might help the score a bit because it changes the balance to zero, improves the debt ratio, and potential creditors like seeing that the alleged debt was paid, but it's still a derogatory account and will always be a derogatory account.

The truth is, that creditor has already been paid for that charge off, even before it was charged off, but they never told you.  These creditors always fail to fully disclose every important aspect of credit accounts. That voids the contract. It voids the account. The account and contract were never valid because of fraud and lack of disclosure by the creditor.

One thing these creditors fail to disclose is that the account is insured to protect them from loss of asset due to default or other credit loss.  Did you know that? Did they disclose that to you?  They're supposed to. In over 30 years of doing credit repair, I have only seen the disclosure 1 time.  ONE TIME, and that was years ago.  Haven't seen any disclosures in probably over 15 years or so.

I'll explain the insurance in a bit but here are some other things they don't disclose.  They don't disclose that they are prohibited from lending you money from their assets or their depositors' assets.  They are prohibited from lending you their credit. They are lending you your own money that you first lent them, which means that you funded the account that you are using to shop or spend. They are converting paper (your application, service agreement, loan papers) into negotiable instruments and depositing them into the newly created account to fund the account and essentially lend them money.

The National Bank Act of 1864 and National Banking Act of 1933 are where you can find the regulation that states these financial institutions cannot lend money from their assets or their depositors' assets.  Supreme court case law repeatedly has ruled that these financial institutions cannot lend their credit.  Here are a few cases but there are many, many cases that uphold this. 

"A national bank has no power to lend its credit to any person or corporation…" Bowen v. Needles Nat. Bank, 94 F 925 36 CCA 553, certiorari denied in 20 S.Ct 1024, 176 US 682, 44 LED 637.

First National Bank v. National Exchange Bank 29 U.S. 122, 128

California Bank v. Kennedy 167 U.S. 362, 367

Concord Bank v. Hawkins 174 U.S. 364

You will find the requirements related to the insurance banks have for each account in 15 USC Section 1605.  Let's talk about this insurance and how it supports my opinion that charge off's should not be paid after the fact by the consumer.

FDIC rules require creditors to charge off written contracts at 120 days of default and revolving credit accounts at 180 days of default.  However, creditors can file a claim against the insurance for a credit account at 90 days of default.  That's 30 to 90 days prior to when that creditor is allowed to charge off the account.

Once the insurance claim is launched the creditor shortly thereafter receives the money to pay off the balance of the account which they claimed is a loss of asset.  Please tell me, whose loss of asset was really affected?  Not the creditor because they didn't have any skin in the game.  How can I say that?

Remember I stated that these financial institutions are converting paper (agreements, applications, etc.) into negotiable instruments.  Well, they don't own these negotiable instruments.  They belong to the consumer whose name is signed on the bottom. Under Title 12, negotiable instruments are to be treated as CASH!  Whose cash?  The consumer's cash.  That is what is deposited into the newly created account. That is what funds the account.  The CONSUMER funds the account, not the creditor, so the consumer should be the recipient of the insurance payment, not the creditor who has not lost a dime!

But let's go over the insurance and charge off actions. Since they get a payoff for the insurance claim they place for the "default" , the balance is paid off.  Why then do they charge off the account 90 days later, when the default timeline hits 180 days (or 120 for written contracts)? The balance was paid off by the insurance so there is no amount left to charge off.  Did you ever think about that if you knew about the insurance?  

Since the consumer funded the account and continued to deposit more money in the form of "payments" and the creditor never lent any money or credit since that's forbidden by law, and then the creditor swipes the insurance payment by fraudulently claiming they are experiencing asset loss, why do they need to charge the account off?  The insurance paid it off. In reality, the account was paid as agreed from the get go by the consumer and credit reports should reflect that.

But since these liars will never report the truth and will not correct the record, the consumer needs to not give them more money by paying a charge off but instead, demand that they prove their claim. Demand that they prove they lent something, that there was equal risk and full disclosure, and a truly valid contract.  Since they cannot provide that, put the squeeze on them and remove that bad account from your credit, get them to close their file, and work on rebuilding your credit without paying that derogatory, false account that is void and was void from the origination of the account due to an invalid contract, fraudulently created by them, the fake creditor.

Hopefully this sinks in and you will stop and think about how they are trying to dupe you, before you pay off a charge off that you do not owe.  

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Why You Can Remove Liens, Judgments And BK's From Your Credit Report

It is always so frustrating when you are trying to build, re-establish your credit or get financing and you keep getting turned down because your credit doesn't meet the criteria needed.  I think one of the most frustrating things is when you go to buy a house and you find out that you have a judgment on your credit, many times that you had no idea was even there.

Sure, you expect to see that bankruptcy, but sometimes you aren't even aware that you have tax liens and judgments on your credit.  It feels like you're doomed and will never get that loan. Its frustrating because if you spend money on paying them off, you're cutting into the money you need for your down payment and closing costs.  And if its a bankruptcy that's killing your score, you can't even pay to resolve that.

But what if I told you that you can legally remove them?  Would that make a difference?  I hope so because I'm telling you, you really can LEGALLY remove them. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that they are ILLEGALLY being reported on your credit report. The bureaus have  a responsibility and a duty to remove them. But you have to know the game in order to beat them.

I want to be clear that just because you remove them from your credit reports does not mean that they are also deleted from the public records.  The credit bureaus and the county records are two completely separate entities. Your bankruptcy will still be recorded in the public records and you can't remove it from there. Judgments and liens will still be recorded in the public records but those are things you can actually remove from public records as well as your credit reports.  I'm not going into that today.

I've been very, very successful removing these from both the public records and credit reports. This is because my idea of a fun night, is one spent reading laws and case law and researching and developing strategies to tackle these issues successfully.  I'll tell you that it's way faster and a bit easier to remove them from credit reports than public records. 

So today, I'm going to teach you why you can legally get them off your credit reports and why I believe the law is clear that bureaus need to remove them.  If you've read my earlier posts about 3rd party collectors and removing collections, you'll see that its the same laws that affect the public record information that shows up on your credit reports. These same laws are part of what I use to remove them from credit reports.

When you look at your credit report, it tells you the name of the furnisher of the information. That may be a credit card company, auto lender, mortgage lender and sometimes collectors. When you look at the public records, you'll see that they claim it is the bankruptcy court or the superior court or the county recorder. Sometimes it says a magistrate or recorder of deeds. Whatever place it shows, they are saying that that court house or recorder, or whatever, is furnishing the information.

That's a bold faced lie.  Then the bureaus go so far as to claim that they have verified the information when you send them a letter disputing the information. That's an even bigger, fatter lie. Do you actually think that the courts have hired people to furnish details about the hundreds or thousands of cases and about the losing party, to the credit bureaus? Do you think courts and county recorders have time to verify the thousands of disputes bureaus get every day? That's just one issue.

The big issue is, do they have the legal right to furnish or verify information?  Ahh, now that's where we look to the law and that's where we find the answer that the bureaus don't want you to know!  Before we even look at the law though, let's look at the legal definition of "verify" or "verification."  Now, I did a post on this word a while back. Its really important that you understand this definition.  Its part of the, um, I can't think of the word I want but , sort of the strategy of what ties everything together. Let me take a bit of that post from last year and show you here how it ties things together.

Verification according to Black's Law Dictionary is "... averment that the party pleading is ready to establish the truth of what he has set forth." Also, it goes on to say, "The examination of a writing for the purpose of ascertaining its truth; or a certificate or affidavit that it is true." 

The court said "Confirmation of the correctness, truth, or authenticity of a pleading, account, or other paper, by an affidavit, oath, or deposition." McDonald v. Rosengarten, 134 111. 126, 25 N. E. ; and Summerfield v. Phoenix Assur. Co. (C. C-) 65 Fed. 296; and Patterson v. Brooklyn, 6 App. Div. 127, 40 N.Y. Supp. 581.

To break it down into language you can understand, verification is sworn testimony. It can be testimony in a deposition or in court or an affidavit. The only testimony that is admissible is testimony from a witness with First Hand knowledge. A court clerk does not have first hand knowledge nor does the county recorder, nor does anyone at the credit bureaus, nor does Lexis Nexis, the main public records source for the credit bureaus.  If someone verifies but they don't have first hand knowledge, then its not verification, its Hearsay. And hearsay is inadmissible and the court says its incompetent. 

This is a major puzzle piece in figuring out how to go at the bureaus and get your public records removed.  The next major piece is based upon a law that applies to 3rd party collectors.  This has been discussed in a previous post as well. The law I'm referring to is FCRA § 603(o)(5)(A)(i; iii). This law in fact, applies to more than just 3rd party collectors. It applies to every single entity that furnishes information to the credit bureaus.  Here's what this law says:

FCRA § 603 
(o) Excluded communications. A communication is described in this subsection if it is a communication 
(5) with respect to which 
(A) the consumer who is the subject of the communication 
(i) consents orally or in writing to the nature and scope of the communication, before the collection of any information for the purpose of making the communication;
(iii) in the case of consent under clause (i) or (ii) given orally, is provided written confirmation of that consent by the person making the communication, not later than 3 business days after the receipt of the consent by that person;

So, even if the courts or recorder's office was furnishing the information, other than getting a court order to furnish the information, they are not allowed to furnish or verify squat on your credit report without your authorization. If you have one of these public records on your credit, did you give the bk trustee your authorization to furnish information about your bankruptcy? (not that he/she would have the time to do that). Did you authorize Lexis Nexis? The courts? The county recorder's office? Anybody?  Did you authorize anyone to put negative public record information on your credit reports?

Yeah, I doubt you authorized anyone to furnish that information and I doubt there was ever a court order to have it on there either.  Hopefully now you'll believe me, or at the very least, understand why I say that you can legally remove these items from your credit reports and why I believe they are illegally being furnished and verified when you try to get them off.

I'm not one to brag, but I have to say here that I am extremely good at what I do. I'm not saying that I get everything off in one shot, and actually, removing public records is a multi-step process. But, I'm saying that I consistently and successfully remove these items from people's credit reports all the time.  I can't remember when I haven't been able to remove them. The power to do this is in the laws, in the definitions, and in the way you word things, and the way you follow up everything with enforcement. 

Hopefully I've given you enough information that if you choose to pursue the removal of these items on your own, you too will see success.  But, if you want someone to help you that has a proven track record, almost 3 decades of experience, I would like it if you'd get a hold of me. My contact information is up at the top right hand side of this page. 

These days, prospective home buyers have a hard enough time getting qualified for a loan with decent credit, you can imagine the hurdles they must face when the credit report has these types of negative items on it.  I want to help you if this is your situation.  I want to help you if you need to buy a new car. I want to help you if you want to get some new credit cards or you just want to clean up your credit. I love what I do. It is my passion and I'm good at it. 

I love seeing clients' credit reports go from awful to spectacular. I love the fight. I love sparring with collectors, creditors, and bureaus. Most importantly, I love to win.  When I win, its Your win. When I win, your ugly credit report becomes a pretty credit report. That's what I love to do. I love to help consumers have pretty credit reports that allow them to get the loans and credit they need at interest rates that don't choke the life out of you. I love  to help consumers save money on their insurance, their utility deposits, their ability to rent a car, to be able to get that new job or keep the job that scrutinizes their credit.

I love this so much that right now I'm running a special. From now until September 5, 2014 or the next 25 people, whichever comes first, I will go after the removal of a public record for half price.  I would say that I will remove it, but the law does not allow me to promise or guarantee results.  I know what I'm able to do, but I won't break the law in my processes nor in my claims. Bureaus, creditors, and collectors may lie, but I won't. So, again, I will go after the removal of a public record item at half the regular price, for the next 25 people or September 5, 2014, whichever comes first.

Please don't hesitate if you want to save some money on this. I fill up my client rotations quickly.  The sooner you contact me, the sooner we get started and the sooner you can expect to see a prettier credit report! Please call or email me today.

PS: If you are a loan officer, real estate agent, insurance agent or someone who has clients that need my services, anywhere in the country, please contact me. I want your turn downs. I'm willing to earn your business and send you back clients who are able to qualify and get better rates. My services will help you close more deals.  If you are a real estate agent or broker, I offer an airtight non-compete that I believe will put any of your worries about that issue to rest. I'm not looking to act as your clients' real estate agent. I'm looking to get their credit where it needs to be so you can close deals.

PPS:  I also do lunch & learns and workshops for your potential buyers and agents in Southern California. My partner and I come and show how we can help your clients become homeowners and how we can help your office close more deals!  Please contact me today!

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Credit Bureaus Break The Law And Fight Your Credit Repair Efforts

I've been wanting to talk about this for a long time now.  I have been very successful in my efforts to help people clean up their credit reports for many, many years now.  I tell people that it used to be fairly easy.  I would examine the credit reports, find the errors, find the information that was negative, write letters to the collectors, creditors, and bureaus, and within a couple months, most of the items would be removed.  I could look at a credit report and tell the client, this will easily come off, this will take a few letters, this might give you some trouble, and this might not ever come off. I knew how to remove pretty much anything negative on credit reports, and any inquiries or personal information that the client wanted off.  You see, I know for a fact that no company has to leave any information on anyone's credit report for 7-10 years.  In fact, none of it has to ever be reported at all.  There's no law that requires any company furnish information about a consumer to any credit bureau.  But, that's not what they will tell you!  And its not so easy to get good results all the time anymore.

When I say "they", I mean the credit bureaus, creditors, collectors, the FTC, and plenty of website owners, bloggers, article and editorial writers, any of them that just regurgitate the lie that bad credit has to stay on your credit  report for years and years and only time will heal.  They love to say if it belongs to you, even if its negative, it has to stay on.  Now, I can give a pass to the writers that are just incompetent egomaniacs striving to justify their self acclaimed "expert" status.  They're lazy and haven't bothered to really research the laws on the subject, but the rest of them "in the business", they are flat out, just BIG FAT LIARS!  They know full well or should know full well, that these claims are a load of crap.

In recent years, the industry folks that we must communicate with, have made it so much more difficult to clean up the credit reports.  There is a push back against obeying the law by these lawbreakers. They don't seem to care that they have no proof, they've committed fraud, they've allowed errors or false information to make their way onto consumer credit reports and stay there.  They have found that they can make so much money even while breaking the law, its more profitable to keep breaking the law and hope that the consumer gives up.  In fact, they are so twisted in their games, that collectors and creditors are coming out of the woodwork and suing consumers a lot more often now and issuing 1099-C's without proving squat, that my mind is boggled.  They sue just because most people won't or don't know how to respond and they get default judgments.

Credit repair is not as simple anymore as just writing letters and stuff comes off the credit report.  Credit bureaus are in flagrant opposition of the law and they know it, but they seem to think that if they keep spewing lies, and bloggers and self proclaimed "experts" keep repeating it enough, the consumer is stupid enough to believe it and accept that their reports are just going to have to stay bad for 7-10 years.  Consumers aren't stupid!  Some may be lazy. Some may not have very good research skills or access to a computer to study and learn, or a library with relevant information, but my readers aren't stupid and they're consumers.  You aren't stupid because you kept looking for answers. You're on this blog learning the truth. You didn't just accept their lies. You knew in your gut that what you've been told is not the truth. You kept looking till you found someone who would confirm it to you.

I want to share a segment that 60 Minutes did on credit bureaus. After the video, I've got a link to Experian's response.  What a crock!  I'll make a few comments after the video about the video and about their response.

First I have a comment about some claims made in the video.  There is No Way I believe only 40% of consumers have errors on their reports. Maybe more like 94% would be closer to the truth. I find it funny that the FTC claims there is only 1 out of 5 consumers with "an" "error" on their report.  I think the operative words in his statement are "an" and "error".  He could have dropped the word "an" and said "errors" instead of "error" and then it would have been more than his claimed "1 out of 5".  This is complete spin.  He could have also used the phrase "obvious errors" and been more accurate, because without actual investigations, they cannot "accurately" determine how many errors there actually are.

Now, here is a rebuttal by Experian. (Read my comments before you click on the link so you can see what I'm talking about). http://www.experian.com/blogs/news/2013/02/11/60-minutes/

This is comical.  They falsely claim they are 100% in compliance with the FCRA. What a big load of BS! Even worse, I think every single person and company doing credit repair should join together and file a huge class action lawsuit for their slander.  They have the gall to insinuate that we are all scammers and commit fraud with their statement, "...the result of dispute requests from fraudulent credit repair companies who attempt to scam consumers into disputing accurate data..." which clearly shows how much they hate consumers who attempt to clean up their credit and anyone who attempts to help them or hold the bureaus accountable and compliant with the law.

You can also see by their statement, the itty bitty section I quoted, that they continue to spew the lie about negative information if accurate, needing to remain on the credit reports.  Well, I'm no dummy and I don't think any of you are either. They're not going to fool us by trying to phrase their false claims into a sentence that has the potential to sound factual. I'd rather research the law and rely on what that says, any day, over what any bureau rep or one of their lobbyists, tries to force me to believe.

So, though its harder now and takes longer, credit repair does work. We need to use laws against them. We must continue to hold their feet to the fire. They tell the truth that you can repair your credit yourself but that's about the extent of their honesty. Sometimes people don't want to handle that burden all by themselves.  Most of us who help others fix their credit do so with a good heart and a desire to help others.  If you would like help with your credit, I would love to help you. You will see that I do have a heart for helping others.  You can call me and talk to me or email me and I'll respond.  My contact info is up on the top right corner under my picture.  You can also leave a comment below if you like this post or I've helped you with your credit.  If you have questions, please email me as well as posting a comment.  That way, others with the same question will get the benefit of my answer but in your email, I can be a lot more specific for your needs.

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Pitfalls Of Paying Late On Credit Cards

Before February of 2009 there was this horrendous practice by creditors called a "Universal Default" that could catapult you into credit devastation.  The main practice was if you were to make a late payment to one creditor, all of the rest of your creditors could hike your interest rate to oblivion (okay, a little exaggerated but pretty common to see around 30%) even if you had never been late on those cards or credit extensions.  They would repeatedly be checking their consumers' credit reports for these late pays and then swoop in like vultures to reap the financial paydays they were allowed to render on mostly unsuspecting "debtors."  They could raise the interest on both current and future purchases, making the interest hike RETROACTIVE!  It may have been legal, but it certainly wasn't ethical or moral.  But, since when are banks or creditors ethical or moral? You should know by now that its always about money and profit to them.

Well, in February 2009, there was new legislation that went into effect that claimed to prohibit this practice of  "Universal Default."  I say claimed because, typical of anything that affects banks or lenders and is within reach of unscrupulous lawyers, there's going to be lobbying and backroom deals to make sure that any legislation would have plenty of loopholes and spin to still stab the consumers and rake in the money for them.  The legislation is called the CARD Act (Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act).  It was supposed to protect consumers more and rein in the creditors a bit.  It was touted as the end of  the "Universal Default" practice.

So here we are now and there's no more Universal Default.  Except, there kind of is, its just that they call it by different names and it plays out a bit different.  Here's how the CARD Act works.  If you have a credit card, or credit line, whatever, some sort of credit agreement with a lender, and you've become 60 or more days late, they can hike up your interest rate if they want to (and you know they want to), to however high they want - there is no cap on the amount they charge for a "penalty interest".  However, under this act, if you are good little children and pay your bill on time for the next 6 months in a row, they have to restore your interest rate back to what it was before you got behind.  They also can't raise your interest rate based on your performance on other credit obligations. Kind of sounds like they care about us consumers doesn't it? 

Don't be fooled.  Those are about the only "good" things for consumers in this legislation.  How about this:  You are one of the best of the best.  High FICO Scores, never late, pay more than minimum, had the credit card for over a year. Can you believe that if they want, they can practically arbitrarily increase your interest rate to whatever amount they feel like?  And the fees -- oh the fees!! They are endless!  They can fee you now if you don't go paperless, or fee  you to pay by phone, or in person, or fee you for the convenience of accepting your payment, or an annual fee, you name it. They can make up all kinds of fees and call them whatever they want, to squeeze every last dime out of you.  

If you're late on a different credit card bill or credit account that is unrelated to them, they can give your situation another name, put you into a category where they can spank you.  So, if you are a bad child and end up as a potential defaulter, they can cancel your account or lower your credit limit, or raise your minimum payment or both the last 2, if they want.  If they raise your interest rate for whatever reason they make up, they can raise the minimum payment to an amount that would allow you to pay off the balance in 5 years.  That could be quite a payment hike!  They do have to give you a 45 day notice for raising your interest rate. But, if they don't raise the interest rate, they can raise the minimum payment as high as they want, and they don't have to give you an advance warning.  They don't have to give you an advance warning if they decide to close the account, either.

So, is there anything else that is "good" about this new-ish CARD Act?  Here's a few.  If they raise your interest rate and you say, "uh, no, you don't deserve my business, cancel the card," they can't make you pay the balance off in full in such short notice.  They have to allow you to make payments and pay it off in up to Five Years.  They can't "penalize" you with a higher interest rate for being late on some other company's card, and they can't raise the interest rate as a "penalty" for being late on their card, unless you are more than 60 days past due.  They have to review your account in 6 months from the start of the "penalty phase" and lower your interest rate back to what it was.  They can't post that you were late making a payment on your credit report(s) until after you are over 30 days late.  They have to keep the same due date every single month.  They have to send you a bill at least 21 days prior to it being due.  They cannot charge you for being late for not paying them midday. The cutoff time has to be at least 5 pm, their time.

So, for those of you that are still using credit cards, make sure that you're not late, at least more than 60 days late because that is when the heavy penalties can take affect.  Just be careful, read all your disclosures carefully, especially for those accounts you've had a long time.  They put those small print, contract changing enclosures in your bills.  You don't want an unwelcome surprise and not respond in time, if you cannot accept their new terms.

If they've already beaten you down and you can't or don't want to pay them anymore, no doubt your credit report has suffered.  You may want to think about fixing your credit.  If its not a job you look forward to, and don't want to handle all on your own,  feel free to call me or email me for some help.  Fighting these out of control creditors and scum of the earth  3rd party collectors is what I completely enjoy.  I would love to help you as well!

Credit Repair Law Firms? No Thanks!

One of the most famous credit repair law firms is Lexington Law.  Probably the next most famous one is Ovation Law.  There are many others.  I am completely for people utilizing legitimate credit repair companies, but I really take issue with ones like these that have monthly charges.  Also, though they may have started out as really good companies, they have just become big repair mills that don't personalize your disputes.  Also, they are not really "law firms" in the sense that they actually provide "legal services" other than credit repair. They mostly are credit repair companies that pay to use a law firm's or lawyer's name.

When you pay for a service that charges you monthly, you can bet they are going to do things that drag it out so they can keep getting that residual monthly income coming from you.  Most people want to see their credit improved as quickly as possible.  They don't want the service to write letters in a way that gets a "frivolous letter" response from the bureaus.  That can delay progress for months and sometimes, it really blows the opportunity of getting that item removed at all.

There is another thing I really don't like about these types of law firms.  They use "Good Will" letters to try to improve the credit. Why don't I like those?  Well, they are basically "Pay for Delete" letters and I am adamantly opposed to paying to delete bad credit.  Sometimes they delete, but many times, when they don't and you follow up to the bureaus and send in a copy of the agreement to delete, they get stubborn and refuse to take it off.  Sending in a copy of an agreement is like admitting that the negative tradeline is yours.  I don't ever recommending sending proof of an account to the bureaus unless it is a completely clean bit of proof that there were no lates and it was paid off completely.  You have to remember that the burden of proof lies with the creditors, collectors, and the bureaus. If they can't prove something, it has to come off.

Something else I don't like about these "Good Will" and "Pay for Delete" letters, is that you are basically offering to settle with the creditors and collectors.  This is so bad!  Once a trade line is bad, it is always bad. It just becomes a "paid" bad. If its a couple late pays that are making it bad, its best to try to remove the lates, then there's nothing bad. You have to remove the "bad".  Usually this means needing a deletion.  Plus, when you "settle" with one of these types of letters, they have the right to send you a 1099 tax form for the amount you didn't have to pay and then you get to pay taxes on that as if it was income. Not a good thing.

The other thing that I know they do, is to include a "Cease and Desist" to their clients' creditors. That is a very dangerous thing to do.  If it is not a time barred debt (outside of your state's statute of limitations) you are allowing yourself to be put in a position to be sued.  I use a "Limited Cease and Desist" paragraph in my letters.  This is what stops the phone calls to you at home, your cell phone, your work, and anyone you might possibly know that they would try to call.  It forces them to communicate with you in writing only.

I have a lot of second hand experience with these types of credit repair companies.  Second hand because many of my clients, past and present, have used them and came to me afterwards.  It is always the same story.  They've paid for months and months, past a year, spent upwards of $1500 and slim to zero results.   They then have me write letters for them and poof!, all of a sudden they start seeing results.  Credit repair is most successful when it is strategically done and both the creditors/collectors and the bureaus have consumer laws, case laws, and other legal documentation put in front of their faces.

My goal with credit repair is to help people see deletions and improvements as fast as possible.  There is no sense in dragging it out.  If you truly want to help people, then you would want what's best for them.  If you are only interested in making a load of money off of people's bad credit, then you charge them up front and drag it out, month after month, year after year.

Credit repair can be done for yourself.  Hopefully, if you're looking to do this, you will look through the different posts I have here so you can see how to do it most effectively. Credit repair is an undertaking that you have to stay on top of, be consistent, keep records and send disputes that fall within the legal timelines so that you don't accidentally give the bureaus more time to stall and drag their side out as well.  For many people, its just a lot of work they would rather delegate to someone else to do.

If credit repair is something you need, but you just don't want to have to be writing letters all the time, I would love to help you. I provide help completely legally and use many different laws and tools to implore them to remove the bad credit from your reports. Contact me through my email or phone number above anytime if you would like some help with repairing your credit or just need some guidance while you do it yourself.

Credit Bureau Things That Make You Say Hmmm!

Today I just want to ramble a bit about some thoughts that have been swirling around in my mind.  I was laying in bed this morning and, [since I actively help a lot of people by writing letters to help them fix their credit], credit repair, collectors, creditors and credit bureaus are on my mind often.  So, as I lay there in bed, I was thinking about one of my clients who Experian has been obnoxiously in violation of the law on.  They keep refusing to send him his report.  This made me spin into a deeper train of thought.

Sometimes I think I can be like a little kid that always has to question everything. Why?  Why this or why that?  The credit bureaus are like the parents with the annoying answer - "Because I said so".  My "why" thought was this:  Credit bureaus are not government agencies, no, they are privately owned and publicly traded companies.  Your social security number is only supposed to be given to state Departments of Motor Vehicles (don't get me started on that one!), tax authorities (yeah, don't get me started on that one either), welfare offices and other governmental agencies.  So, why do they get to have access to my personal, private, sensitive, protected information? 

Did you know that Social Security Numbers are only supposed to be issued to Federal Employees for use only in performance of official duties, they are owned by the federal government and is only "yours" while you are a public officer on official business?  Here are some facts from the IRS:  

1. Social Security Numbers can only be issued to federal "employees" for use only in the performance of their official duties. See 20 CFR §422.104.

2. The Social Security Number is the property of the government and not you. Therefore, it can't be "yours" unless you are a public officer on official business. See 20 CFR §422.103[ d].

3. The SSN is issued to the federal "public officer" and not to the man, and then only while he is an agent of the federal government.

4. Anyone who uses a Social Security Number who is NOT a federal employee acting on official commercial, government business is guilty of impersonating a federal "employee", which is a crime. See 18 U.S.C. §912.

5. You can only use it in connection with a "public purpose", and not a private purpose. It is illegal and a crime to use or abuse the SSN for a private or personal use. This is called embezzlement or conversion, and it is a criminal violation of 18 U.S.C. §641 and 18 U.S.C. §654.

6. Everything connected to the SSN becomes "public property" because the SSN can only be used in connection with a "public office" or federal employment.

7. The private man was never issued an SSN if he is not acting as a federal "employee". Therefore, he can honestly answer "NO" in response to the question of whether he was ever issued an SSN if he is not acting as a federal "employee" or agent.

Did you read numbers 4 and 5? Oh, heck, did you read them all?  So WHY do the credit bureaus get to have that information and WHY are we forced to use this number illegally to live our daily lives?  I mean, you can't easily open a bank account without one. You can't apply for and receive credit without one. They sometimes want to know it when you write a check. You can't turn on utilities without one unless you pay big security deposits, uh and same for cable companies.  WHY????

Okay, here's another "why" I've been mulling over in my head.  Have you ever noticed that consumer laws (FCRA) and even the bureaus themselves claim this is "YOUR" credit report?  It doesn't belong to them, it belongs to you.  So, WHY do they get to allow Whatever on YOUR credit report?  If it is "MY" credit report, I think they should have to get "MY" approval for anything a credit furnisher wants to put on "MY" report.  "I" should get to say, "Yeah, go ahead and put that on there" and "Nope, no way, I'm not authorizing that or allowing you to put that on my report".  Its "MY" stinking report!!  I should get to say yes or no!

I know that the reports are supposed to aid lenders and creditors in their decision of whether or not to extend credit to an applicant. But, there are so many errors on them and so many entities (think 3rd party collectors) that have no business reporting and fouling up one's credit report, that sometimes they do more bad than good.  Just think, if we didn't have to worry about credit reports anymore, wouldn't identity theft be extremely reduced?  Of course, the downside of that for me is that I wouldn't have any more credit repair clients....hmmmm.

Sometimes I wish I was rich.  Not like the morons running the country call rich - $250k/yr, nah, that's not hard to be that "rich". At least like Oprah or Bill Gates rich.  Then again, no, I want to be more sick rich. Insanely, disgustingly, absurdly, morbidly, vomitably (is that a word?) rich like the Rothchilds or the Vatican, or the British Crown - yeah, that rich!!  Here's a why for you.  Why? Because then I would have more than enough money to just sue the collectors and sue the bureaus and sue the banks that create fraudulent loans and credit for all of my clients. That way, when I write letters and they blatantly ignore the laws they are supposed to adhere to and comply with, I can just drag 'em into court and be done with them!

Well, that's is my rant for today.   Thanks for reading it. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you learned something, and I hope it makes you think in ways you maybe haven't thought before.  

Feel free to leave comments below. And please, if you have questions about credit repair, leave a comment and I will try to write a post just for you to answer your questions.  I like doing that. It inspires me when I can help others.