Credit Repair and Judgment Removal Blowout Sale!

Biggest Sale of 2017 & 2018 New Year Special!

For a very limited time, BLOWOUT SPECIALS: 

get a huge discount on my credit repair services and judgment removal from your credit reports services.

ENDS JANUARY 3, 2018
and space is very limited!

For judgment removal - I have a 100% success rate for removing judgments, paid or not, from credit reports and seeing successful results in a very short time.  Generally they are removed in less than 90 days, but usually much sooner than that.  Regular price for this service is $550.  For this special, the first judgment removal is $450 and additional judgment removals are only $400 each. (edit 12/30/17) - only 4 spaces left

Regular Credit Repair Services do not include the removal of public records. This service goes after regular accounts on your credit reports such as collections, charge offs, personal info, etc. Normal pricing and sale pricing is as follows:

1-6 items regularly $650 - now take $100 off.

7-15 items regularly $950 - now take $200 off

Over 15 items, regularly $1200 and up, now take $300 off.

Payment plans are available. Plus, since Future Fico is a non-profit, all payments are tax deductible, meaning you can write off the costs/donations, and the service is virtually free!

This sale is a limited time only.  Come on board by January 3, 2018 to take advantage of these deep discounts.

By law I am not allowed to guarantee any results.  However, I stand on my 31 years of experience and success. I am loyal, hardworking, knowledgeable, experienced, and fight harder than anyone in the business that I know of (and I know a LOT of people in this business).  I have trained many credit repair professionals/companies, taught thousands of credit professionals/individuals, and assisted many professionals with their tough client accounts, and shared massive amounts of information at no cost to thousands of people across the country, all who have used my knowledge  and advice to reap successful results.

I want to help you too!  This is what I do, day in and day out and I'm good at it.  I have tactics, secret strategies, numerous legal ammunition tools that many others don't even know about, to help you achieve the credit you desire.

CALL ME TODAY!  Let's get you started at a huge discount so that your 2018 can be spectacular.

951-801-2828

You Don't Owe Your Debt - Its All A Fraud!

You've been duped and you don't even realize it.  When you think you borrowed money, you are incorrect. When you think you have to pay back money for what you borrowed, you haven't learned the truth.

Most people grow up believing what they are told by parents, teachers, lenders, politicians (well maybe not so much them), our government. Few grow up challenging what they are being told. Few people stop and ask why or how. Few people stop and say, "Prove it!"  

I'm one of the few who has always questioned what I was told. I was always labeled as argumentative when I really was just looking for answers. Somewhere in my gut it seemed that things I was taught and things I was told was not the whole truth.  You may have had that same feeling at times in your life. But we are conditioned to just accept what we were told as the truth.  Its not our parents' fault. They didn't know any better because they were  raised the same way.  You just don't question authority and you should just respect your elders.  

Well, in my book, you should question what triggers a twinge of doubt in your gut and why respect your elders (lying government officials, lying banksters) when they are not telling you the truth and they have an agenda to keep you from knowing the truth.  Truth is power and they want to keep you from gaining any truth or power because they want it all for themselves.  Then they can control you and enslave you.

I've decided to post a video today. Please take the time to watch it. Its about money. Where it comes from, where debt comes from, and how its all a fraud that has been kept secret so you won't find out the truth.

There are 5 videos in this series. I encourage you to watch all of them when you have a chance.  They will help open your eyes to the scam that has been played on all of us.  I hope that it helps you understand that getting into debt is not your fault because that's how this system was set up - even if you maxed out credit cards, were allegedly irresponsible in your spending, and just got to a point where you had to walk away or give up trying to pay these bills for credit and loans. 

When the truth about this sinks in, you may get a bit angry, and rightly so.  I care about you and I want you to know the truth.  Please, if this video opened your eyes a bit, then share it. I would love it if you shared my blog with others. They too can watch the video right here but also, there's a lot of information that I give that may be what they need to help handle their own credit issues.

Thanks for reading, watching and sharing.  Enjoy!

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

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.

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How To Remove Judgments and Bankruptcy / BK From Your Credit Report

Have  you searched everywhere online to find out how to remove judgments or a bankruptcy and asked all kinds of people, self proclaimed credit repair specialists or mortgage brokers, real estate agents, YouTube videos, DIY articles, answer websites, and other places?  If you've run into anything that is slightly related to the credit bureaus or strongly related to them, such as the bureau sites themselves, or credit report sites, or the FTC website, you will get the same regurgitated answers.  They will always tell you they have to stay on for 10 years. Hogwash, I declare!  I dare one of them to show me the law that says it has to stay on there that long.  In fact, that's almost the opposite of what the law says.

If you read articles and ads from credit repair sites, they will stop short of telling you how they do it because they want your business.  Oh, and the FTC doesn't want your business, but it sure seems like they want to help the bureaus make money off of you.  They prefer to deter you from getting help from someone who knows how by saying you should never pay someone because you can do it yourself.  Of course there's always the sites that are promoting the annoying Lexington "Law" type credit repair sites.  Click on that link, which is pretty much always an affiliate link, and someone's gonna make money off of you.  "Law firm" credit sites will tell you they take them off all the time but they are not interested in helping you learn how to do it because they want to make a couple thousand bucks off of you, or maybe just a grand before you get fed up and cancel months down the line.

I'm gonna tell you how to do it.  But first, one more thing.  The law about how long it has to stay on there. The FCRA says that negative accurate information CAN stay on NO LONGER than 7 years plus 180 days from the date of first delinquency and 10 years for things like judgments and bankruptcies.  See how they spin it to make you feel defeated?  I really get irritated with the misinformation and spin they all put out there.  And if you really want to help people get rid of negative items off their credit, why don't you give them the information if you're such an expert?  Are you really that worried that you will lose customers if you help people who want or need to do it themselves?  What? Are there really so few people out there with bad credit that you have to grab everyone you can?  Puhleeease!  Seems to me there are millions of people out there that need help with their credit.  There's enough work to go around while still helping those who want to do it on their own.

Okay, removing these items is for the most part, a 3 step process.  I'm not saying it works all the time, but if the bureaus would obey the law, it would work 100% of the time.  However, you will have a much higher chance of success if you do it this way.

Step 1:  Send a letter to the credit bureaus that are reporting the judgments and/or bankruptcy and tell them that you do not have a judgment or BK for $XXX dollars. Don't lie about the amount.  Now, if the amount is 100% correct, to the penny, remember, they don't report the change (35 cents, etc.) so if there's any change noted in the judgment at the courthouse, what is reported on your credit report is an error.  Same thing for BK. Usually I see bankruptcy reporting with $0.  Really?  $0 liability? Why on earth would someone file if they owed nothing?  If the public record is actually reporting a correct amount, then use a different mistake.  If you can't find one, make up something by claiming you "don't recall" having a bk or judgment on 01/01/2008 or whatever date. Not recalling the exact date that the county recorder entered into the record is not a lie, its a spin.  They have the burden of proof.  Also, many times they list the wrong court house.  Make sure you look at that also.  Okay, so that's the first step.  Dispute the negative judgment or bk (or both) with the credit bureaus.

Step 2:  Take a look at the address for the court for who is supposedly furnishing the information.  Judgments are usually county or local courts, bankruptcies are in federal court.  You need to write a letter to each of the clerks of the courts that are supposedly furnishing the information to the credit bureaus.  I keep saying "supposedly" because really they are not furnishing the information 99.99% of the time.  This letter you send the clerk is very basic.  You say, Dear Clerk of the Court,  I recently disputed information that was on my credit report that is not reporting accurately.  They verified the information and have told me I need to contact the furnisher of the information.  I am requesting that you send me your procedure for verifying information with the credit bureaus.  Thank you for your assistance.   Sincerely, pissed off consumer.  Okay, maybe you're not pissed off but in my opinion, you have every right to be!  Do not wait until you get the response from the bureaus to send this out.  Send it out at the same time as your bureau dispute to shorten the time for getting it off your credit report.

Step 3.  You now received the letter back from the clerk of the court.  Holy cow! It says that they do not verify with the credit bureaus. What a shock!  This means that those blood suckers are going to be sending you a credit report with a big fat lie on it!  Be prepared.  Now, you also get back the response from the credit bureaus, and you're gonna get it and say, "Shannon was absolutely right!  Now there's a real expert" - haha, just kidding!  But, 99.99% of the time, I will be right.  You may be a lucky one who got a data entry peon who felt like deleting just because, and that is great!  But for the rest of you victims, the report will claim it is verified and contact the furnisher of the information.  Its time for the 3rd action.  You send back a letter to the bureaus.  You say, "I sent you a dispute because this information is not accurate.  You verified it.  Please see the enclosed letter from the clerk of the court. You lied about verifying it with them. Further, please see the letter from the legal counsel for the FTC that I have enclosed.  I've highlighted where they have stated that public records often have mistakes on them.  YOU LIED about verifying a mistake.  PLEASE DELETE THIS IMMEDIATELY!"  I would say, 75% of the time, your response from the credit bureaus will show the item deleted.

And that's how its done!  Now, I mentioned an opinion letter from legal counsel for the FTC.  You can go on their website and read through all of the boring opinion letters till you find it, or you can email me and I'll email it to you, for only $499, but today only I'm reducing it to ONLY $47.  JUST KIDDING AGAIN!  I'll send it to you for free! You like free? I sure do. (Yes, I'm making fun of marketers, in case you didn't catch it).

Do you want to know some background on how the bureaus break the law, or at the very least, don't comply with the law, when it comes to removing public records?  If you do, keep reading, if not, then just email me if you need the letter.  Okay, here goes.

Except for the very minuscule number of courts that do furnish information or verify information to the credit bureaus, courts, their clerks, their secretaries, the judges, the trustees, etc., do not furnish information to credit bureaus.  They receive information from subcontracted scavengers that scour the public records and LexisNexis to find the judgment and bankruptcy dirt on consumers. So the furnishers of the information have no actual knowledge of anything, have no first hand information, are not a party to any of it.  They dig it up, read it and furnish it, then get paid. 

When you dispute, the bureaus have a responsibility to "investigate" but they do not contact the court or any other entity that could possibly have actual first hand knowledge. They put the courts' addresses on there to make you think that the courts furnish and verify, but that's a BIG FAT LIE!  What they really should have on there is the name and contact information for their little gophers who go dig up this stuff.  But, by law, or by legal definition, they have no right to "VERIFY" anything.  

Black's Law Dictionary 2nd Ed. - Verification:  Confirmation of the correctness, truth, or authenticity of a pleading, account, or other paper, by an affidavit, oath, or deposition. See McDonald v. Rosengarten, 134 111. 126, 25 N. E. 429; Summerfield v. Phoenix Assur. Co. (C. C-) 65 Fed. 296; Patterson v. Brooklyn, 6 App. Div. 127, 40 N. Y. Supp. 581. 

What this definition is saying is that the person "verifying" must be able to testify to its accuracy under oath, either by affidavit or in court or court proceedings such as a deposition. Now, in order to testify to such accuracy, the "person" would have to have 1st hand knowledge otherwise it is considered "hearsay" because the furnisher of the information is relying solely on public information that has been known to have mistakes. Here's what the courts say about "hearsay": 

“Testimony, whether live or in the form of an affidavit, to the effect that the witness has reviewed a file and that the file shows that the debtor is in default is hearsay and incompetent; rather, the records must be introduced after a proper foundation is provided.” New England Savings Bank v. Bedford Realty Corp., 238 Conn. 745, 680 A.2d 301, 308-09 (1996), later opinion, 246 Conn. 594, 717 A.2d 713 (1998); Cole Taylor Bank v. 
Corrigan, supra, 230 Ill.App.3d 122, 595 N.E.2d 177, 181 (2d Dist. 1992). 

“It is the business records that constitute the evidence, not the testimony of the witness referring to them.” (In re A.B., 308 Ill.App. 3d 227, 719 N.E.2d 348 (2d Dist. 1999) 

These are both Federal court cases on hearsay.

Now, do you see that not only are the bureaus liars, they are committing fraud, both mail and wire fraud, when they send you the report through the mail or make it available for you to check it online, and see "Verified"?  The person who furnished the information cannot possibly have 1st hand knowledge.  They shouldn't even be allowed to submit information to the bureaus because the FCRA commands ACCURACY and there's no way these scum can know if the information they found in the public records or elsewhere was input accurately.  They are not a party to the action, they are NOBODIES! 

Well, that was fun right?  It was for me.  I have fun teaching you this information and love that I am one of the few that tell you the actual truth.  Hopefully I have helped some of you fight this corrupt system that is supposed to be consumer friendly, but has so many loop holes for creditors and collectors, and sabotages aimed at consumers.  Here's to your success removing those judgments and bankruptcy entries from your credit reports!  

Please remember, if you just don't want to do it by yourself, I would love to assist you.  Give me a call or shoot me an email.  My contact info is right up  at the top of this page on the right.

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How Bad Credit Affects Your Credit Score (Part 3/3)

Part 3:  The effect bad credit habits have on your credit score

In the first 2 parts we talked about 2 of the most popular credit scoring models. Now I'm going to try to expose how the different bad categories affect your credit.  When I say "categories" I'm talking about collections, charge-offs, liens, late pays, judgments, bankruptcies, and accounts that are showing "Settled".  All of these things are negatives and hurt your credit score.  What's worse, is that they cost you money in higher interest rates, higher insurance rates.  Even your ability to get a better paying job, (or a job at all, in this economy), can be affected.

When you have negative credit on your credit report, the negatives cost you the most points when they are newly reported.  As time goes on, your score will raise a bit, regardless if you paid off the negative tradelines or not.  I always tell people that a negative is bad and once bad, always bad - even if its paid. It is just a "Paid" bad and costs you points.  In fact, when you pay an old negative, it sets a new date for how long that negative can stay on your credit.  That's one of the reasons why I don't advocate paying old debt at all.  You need to get those off, not just showing paid.

Exactly how the scoring and how many points for each baddie is figured, I can't say.  I do know some general information.  They like to keep the percentages and algorithms a secret.  Its my opinion that they do this because they don't want everyone having good credit.  Bad credit is Big Money.  Think about it, when you are offered pre-approved cards in the mail, they are almost always attached to higher interest rates, annual and sometimes monthly fees, teaser rates to start off with and then the rate jumps, and almost always, the type of cards offered are for people needing to rebuild their credit.  

These companies get your information from the bureaus.  The bureaus sell your information. They have lists of people grouped and categorized for sale. Those with bankruptcies approaching 2 years, those with paid collections or charge-offs, low FICO score range lists.  This is one of the main ways bureaus make money.  Now, these companies offering the credit cards, the ones that buy the lists from the bureaus, they stand to make a ton of money because the interest rates and fees are higher than what someone with A credit will accept.  As I said before, bad credit is big money, its big business.

So how many points do these negative items cost you?  Its not the same amount for every person. One thing that affects the amount your score will drop is what the FICO score was before the negative was placed on the credit.  The higher the credit score, then the more points a negative mark will cost you. I believe because this is true, that the points it costs you is a percentage of the starting score.  Also, the amount of points you get back when you get the negative removed is generally going to be less than the amount it cost you because the longer the negative is on your report, the less it costs you.  In other words, every time your credit score is updated, you may gain a few points.  Sometimes it updates because a new negative is put on, but it can be offset by the score raising a little bit, from the length of time older baddies have been on the report.  So time and changes to the report affect the score.

Here are what some of the different "baddies" will cost you in points, and why you need to get these deleted from your report, not just paid off.  Remember, its based on what your starting score it.

New Collection:                   Avg. 50 - 150 point drop for each one
Points lost are based on your starting score and the dollar amount of the collection reported.  It is a confusing formula, but this is what I have learned through research.  Initial points lost 50-100 for the first $236 then another 35-50 points lost for each additional $354. Then, they add back some points ranging from 76-175.  On a $1200 collection with a starting score of 700, there would be a loss of approximately 112 points.
Charge Off:                          Avg. 50 - 150 point drop for each one
Points are lost based on your starting score, but don't forget, this point drop is in addition to all the drops your score has suffered from the points lost for each 30 day late pay (and 60 - 180+ late pays), and then, when they sell it to a collection agency, you get dinged again when they report!
Late Pays:                            Avg. 60 - 110 point drop for each one
Points are lost based on your starting score.  The higher your score was to start with, the more points it costs you. With each successive late payment, it should drop less and less because the score is lowering each time.  But, late pays really hit you hard and cost you a lot of points.
Bankruptcy:                        Avg. 130 - 240 point drop
Points are lost based on your starting score.  You see the effect right away, but it causes all the collections, judgments, anything included in the BK to show paid. By the end of 2 years, your credit score can really see some recovery.  I've seen some credit reports that had the whole payment history removed on accounts that were included in the BK.  Removing all those late pays, helps offset the huge point loss you get from BK's.
Foreclosure:                        Avg. 85 - 160 point drop for each one
Points are lost based on your starting score. Don't forget, you have been losing a ton of points all along with the late pays and NOD's (I don't know what an NOD point cost is - I figure probably similar to another late payment).
Judgment:                           Avg. 50 - 150 point drop for each one
Points are lost based on your starting score. Again, you've most likely lost points already for late pays and charge off, and collection. This is just another hit with a hammer. Time passing does help. Paying it helps because it really affects your debt ratio, and if you try to buy or sell a house, it will have to be paid before escrow can close.
Settled Account:                 Avg. 45 - 125 point drop for each one
Points are lost based on your starting score. You've probably been hit with late pays, charge off, and / or collections, costing you a ton of points before you get to this scenario, then you get to lose more!  But, I absolutely loathe settling accounts. First, I don't agree that you actually owe most creditors, and definitely not a collector.  But what's worse, is you will get a 1099 Tax Form making you pay taxes on the amount forgiven as if it was income!!!!  Can you hear me screaming not to do this?
Maxed Out Account:             Avg. 10 - 45 point drop for each one
Points are lost based on your starting score. I think the higher monthly payments you have to make on the account are worse than the point drop you get.  Besides, as you keep making payments, you'll recover from this one fairly quickly - at least if you can make more than just the minimum payments.
"Hard" Inquiries:                   Avg. 5 - 55 point drop for each one
Points are lost based on how many you have in a short amount of time. If you're applying for credit all over the place, that's going to cause a lot of "hard" inquiries - the kind that cost points and everyone that pulls your credit can see. If you're applying for a mortgage, they don't count multiple pulls against you though, if they are within a 30 day period, because they know that loan officers may be required to pull several times when "shopping" your loan to get you the best rates.  Also, points from inquiries only affect your score for 1 year, and then there is no impact from them at all.

When you remove negatives like these from your credit report, you can expect to see your score increase.  I don't know the formula for that either, but you can sort of figure it will be about half the points from the low end to half the points of the high end in the point range for each item.  This is because time heals a bit and the points you initially lost are greatest right away then slowly you start getting some back.

Well, I hope I was able to give some information that may answer some questions. Please remember that because the algorithm is not disclosed, these numbers are just from testing and tracking done by research groups trying to have a better understanding of the scoring formula, and bits of information that FICO releases to give a little insight into how they score in order to help people manage their credit.                      

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.

Bad Credit Repair Advice, and now My Good Advice!

Here is a posting from antagonist.org. I was pretty ticked off when I read it. I commented but it was denied, probably since I'm not a member. I want you to read it and see the bad information that was given. Keep reading past it. I will give my answer to the poor fellow that asked the question and was given some bad advice and no hope!

Q: I have a terrible credit history with bankruptcy, charge offs etc. making it impossible to get or re-establish credit. I used to have good credit but alot of things started happening 3 years ago that I don't want to go into, which caused me to start having the problems which culminated in my credit being destroyed. Anyway I've been reading about ways to have negative things removed from one's credit report. Has anyone ever done this? Can you actually have valid entries removed from your credit report even if they're true, if they don't respond to the dispute in time? Do you have to do this for all 3 credit bureaus? What if one removes an item and the other 2 don't? Could someone take some time and please reply to this post? If I don't have to wait seven years to get a chance to work on getting a good credit rating again if I don't have to.

A: -Our local news did a piece of this just last nite. Basically the only thing that will repair bad credit is time. These companies that say they can "remove" bad ratings are scams. -Be careful; some of those "ways" are illegal. Starting a business and using the business tax ID to create a "blank" credit file, for example, is blatant fraud. And, depending on the circumstances, saying that a particular negative incident didn't happen, when you know perfectly well that it did, could be fraud as well. If you think living with a bad credit record is tough, try living with a bad credit record and a felony conviction... If you dispute an entry, and it's not verified in (I believe) 30 days, then the entry has to be removed from the credit report. However, if the verification comes in later, then the entry goes right back on; there's no law or rule that says that correct information can't be put on a credit report because it was removed once. Then a creditor that only gets your report from that credit bureau won't see the item. However, some creditors get reports from multiple bureaus, or use other companies to get composite reports combining information from all the bureaus. And asking a creditor what credit bureaus they use is bound to raise some eyebrows. It's worth pointing out that credit reports are not just "good" or "bad"; there's all sorts of shades in between. For example, if your credit report shows credit problems two years in the past, but an excellent payment history since then, then a creditor may decide that the recent history is more important. If you feel that some of the entries on the credit report are unjustified, then by all means dispute them. But you should be concentrating on rebuilding a good credit profile in the present by making payments promptly, rather than concentrating on past events that you can't control. And be forthright about your situation. When you apply for a loan, don't wait for the creditor to pull your credit report and see the damage; attach a letter saying "Here's what happened to me, and here's what I'm doing to make sure it doesn't happen again." This sort of honesty can go a long way with some creditors; and the creditors who would reject you on the basis of such a letter would almost certainly reject you on the basis of negative credit report information anyway, so you've got very little to lose.

Okay. Now here is my response. I'm going to pick apart the answer and then help him with the correct information and help anyone else in a similar situation.

First of all, time is not the only thing that will repair bad credit. Removing the bad credit is possible with credit repair. That's why we have the FCRA, FDCPA, FCBA and FACTA on our side.

2nd. All credit repair companies are not scams. Yeah, lots of those law firms and companies that drag it out and do very little for you so they can keep collecting from you month after month are not completely legit, but many of us that do repair credit, do it legally, ethically and with genuine care for our clients.

3rd. The business tax id is fraud. Depends how you do it. Basically, the way they are saying is fraud. But, starting a business and building good business credit is not fraud. You should use the business credit while repairing the personal credit at the same time to really improve your credit. See my friend's blog or get his book on that. Corporate credit is a good thing! Here's a link to his blog. SecretSuperCredit

4th. Saying something isn't so when you know it is, is not fraud - if you say it correctly. This is why I don't tell people to say "it isn't mine", no, pick it apart. Are their dates correct, the type of credit correct, is it a collection account that you have never entered into a contract with that company? I've never seen a perfectly reporting credit report. They all have mistakes on them. Find the mistakes and dispute them, telling them to delete the line because it is not 100% accurate, as it must be according to law! Anything less is a violation of both the FDCPA and the FCRA on the part of the bureaus and the party that submitted the info.

5th. Items not verified in 30 days but come back on later when they do verify. Yep, this does happen, but there are laws to protect you here also. If it comes back, the bureau has to notify you in writing within 5 days that it is going to be put back on your credit report. If they do not, they broke the law. And, if you have demanded validation prior to that from the supplier of the information - the collection company, then they just broke the law too. Why? Because that is collection activity without first validating the account with you. Rack up another $2000 minimum for those violations.

6th. Letter of explanation to lenders. Only give this if they request it. What's better, is before you apply for credit, clean up the "baddies". Don't put 100 word statements on your credit report either, for those negative tradelines. You're basically admitting they are your accounts.

Now, here's my answer and suggestion of how to proceed to the original poster of the question.

Dear poster, yes you can repair your credit and no you don't have to wait 7 years for it to be improved. But let's do this right. First, look at your credit report and make a list of all the collection accounts, charged off accounts, and accounts showing late pays. Ignore the bankruptcy for now.

Write a letter to each of the negative reporting companies requesting validation. Tell them you want a copy of the original contract with your wet ink, authentic signature on it. Then tell them you want a complete accounting of the alleged account. From the date it was issued - where the money came from, every purchase, every payment, every credit, every fee, and accurate interest that was charged to the account. Send these letters CMRR and keep a file with a copy of each letter. When you get the return receipt for the certified mail that you sent them, put that in your file. Now you can send letters to the bureaus regarding each of those accounts after you have received all the green cards back (the return receipts).

You will dispute each one in the letter to the bureaus. The collection accounts, say I do not have an account with this company, please delete. Or I have never entered into any contract, ever, with this company. Please delete immediately. If it is outside of your state's statute of limitations (look that up), California, my state is 4 years. Say this. The date reporting is blatantly outside of the SOL and obsolete. Please delete immediately. Or attack it by saying I did not open an account with this company on this date nor have I ever. Please delete. Maybe it is the wrong type of account. A revolving, not a factoring, or not an installment or a mortgage, whatever. Say "I do not have a factoring account with this company, please delete it."

You see, when you dispute with the bureaus, you dispute their mistakes. Now, they are supposed to verify with the information supplier that what is reporting is accurate. So you have 30 days for them to get back to you. You have just done what is called the "1-2 Punch." The information suppliers are not allowed to verify if you have demanded validation from them and they have not sent you the validation. That would be considered collection activity. So, the ones that follow the law will not respond and it will be deleted. The only thing they are allowed to do is make a statement that the account is disputed.

For the bankruptcy, before you ever dispute that you had a bankruptcy, remove all the tradelines associated with the bankruptcy. Once they are gone, attack the bankruptcy. It will possibly have the wrong court, the wrong date, the wrong amount, the wrong type of bankruptcy being reported. Remember, everything has to be 100% accurate that is on your report. So, your dispute will be that you never filed a bk in whatever court, you did not have a bk on whatever date, you did not have a chapter 13 bk or chapter 7 bk for $0 dollars (I see that a lot). Dispute their mistakes. Demand they delete immediately!

I hope this helps you my poster friend and readers.