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

Getting Collection Accounts Off Your Credit Reports

Getting rid of collections from your credit reports is one of the main goals of credit repair.  They are very damaging to both your perceived credit worthiness and your credit score. They used to be one of the easier tasks to complete even if you really didn't know too much about fixing your credit.  But that is not the case anymore.  Sometimes they are as stubborn to remove as charge offs and they take a lot more work than in years past.

Collections, based on who the 3rd party company is, who the original creditor is, what type of alleged debt it is,and other factors can drop your credit scores overnight to a score that will prevent you from qualifying for a home loan, car loan, credit cards, even from renting, and even other important needs or wants, such as employment, promotions, and a whole slew of other things that can affect your life. My partner and I have seen our clients' scores drop up to over 100 points with a new collection but typically in the range of 40 - 80 points. 

You have to attack collection accounts vigorously and consistently in order to remove them. You have to be careful the way you say things when you are disputing to avoid verifying the alleged debt for them. This is true when disputing with credit bureaus and also with the collection company.   You must choose your words wisely. You must NEVER admit you owe a collection company anything and never admit you owe the original creditor that is related to that collection account.

For the best chance at successfully getting rid of collections, you need to dispute with the credit bureaus and the collection companies. If you want to get them deleted from your reports you need to have bureau disputes that attack in multiple ways to avoid getting a "frivolous" response letter.  You will also need to demand validation directly from the collection company. You may need to do several "rounds" of letters to both of these entities before you see the results you're looking for.

Demanding validation is important for several reasons.  Once you demand validation, the FDCPA requires the collection company to cease all collection activity until they validate.  However, there is NO LAW, not even in the FDCPA that requires a collection company to validate.  What this means is  that if a collection company does not validate, they can no longer furnish or verify information on your credit reports.  They are required to delete the information.  They are no longer allowed to send you a bill.  That's obvious collection  activity.  They are not allowed to initiate a lawsuit against you either if they haven't validated.  The bad news is that many of these collection companies don't give a rat's whiskers (thought I was gonna say something else, huh?) about the law and they ignore it, violate it, and continue their illegal collection activity.

Validation can eliminate the alleged debt if the collection company obeys the law. This happens quite often when you write effective letters.   But even with effective letters, many companies give up their pursuit of you but try to recoup some money by selling the account to another collection company.  The more this happens, the easier it usually gets to remove each new claim for that old account. However, sometimes you slam them so hard and so effectively that you eliminate that alleged debt and never have to see anything related to it again.  That is the ultimate success you are looking for.

Successful disputing also requires you to consistently respond to their replies to your disputes. You can't drop the ball.  You MUST respond and you must respond on point. In other words, you have to attack what they say, what documentation they provide, what they don't provide, and properly rebut any claims they make that they have verified or validated the account.  A good arsenal of laws, case laws and other legal citations to back up your demands and your rebuttals helps to knock them down and kick them out of your life and off your credit reports.  I think this is probably where I see most people get hung up, stumped and start to give up.

Credit repair is not as easy as a lot of people think! Sometimes it feels like a full time job when you are doing it on your own. My partner and I have been doing this for over 50 years combined. We are the best of the best at what we do. We have other credit repair companies calling and asking for our assistance because they are frustrated with their clients' progress sometimes. And you know what? It's sometimes hard for us too so we know that you can get frustrated, worn down and feel like giving up.  Fortunately, we love fighting, love seeing great results for our clients, are passionate about what we do, and heck, its our job so we don't give up.  

You need to hang in there, keep fighting, keep responding, keep demanding proof, documentation, etc. Your credit depends on it. Your ability to rebuild your credit, improve your scores, qualify for credit, loans, get employed, etc. depend on it. 

If you get too worn out, burned out, frustrated or tired, please reach out to me. This is what I do.  If you don't even want to attempt it on your own for whatever reason be it lack of  time, fear, or you just want to let a professional assist you, please contact me. I will audit your reports and my partner will give you a consultation. We will answer your questions and give you a realistic projection of what you can expect our services to achieve for you. 

You can contact me by email at futurefico@gmail.com or go to our company website at InsightCreditGroup.com and sign up for a consultation.  I look forward to helping you achieve the credit you desire!

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 Write Bureau Dispute Letters - Part 2

I am very late at getting out this post and I am truly sorry.  I have been swamped with my own clients' letters and real estate duties and just haven't had the time to get to this.  Please accept my apologies for the long delay.

Let's get to the bureau disputes.  We will cover charge off's collections, repo's, foreclosures, settled accounts, accounts included in bankruptcy (IIB), and public records.  One thing that is important for you to know about some derogatory accounts is that some are not worth disputing.  Take charge off's for example.  If they are reporting a $0 balance, I don't bother with them.  I'm telling you that in more cases than not, if you remove them, your score will likely drop.

Accounts with $0 balances, even though derogatory, usually have more positive attributes that affect the score than the negative aspects, so they offset the damage that is being done.  Deleting them removes the good factors and the bad factors but because the good outweighed the bad, your score will drop.  We see this time and time again for clients that are adamant about removing old charge offs and settled accounts with $0 balances.  We warn them, we advise against it, but if they insist, we go after them and when we start seeing them removed, we see the score drop pretty much every time. I personally think that a higher score is more important than a totally pretty credit report.

Collections:  Always negative and I don't care if the balance is $0, I'm going to go after deletions on these.  Typical disputes are as follows:

• (Round 1) I do not have any account with this company, have never heard of them and this needs to be deleted. 
• (Round 2) You told me to contact this company and I have done so. FDCPA 809b requires this to be deleted until they validate.  I have requested validation and they have not produced it. Delete this now.
• (Round 2/3/4...) Please produce the contract used to verify this account because I have none with them and the information you have is inaccurate.
• Please provide the sworn affidavit used to verify and the accompanying documentation as required pursuant to Black's Law Dictionary which defines what "verification" actually is.  ~ then I copy/paste the definition of  "verification" to the letter.

Charge Off's:  This is only for accounts showing a balance, past due or both.  Typical disputes are as follows  - Do not dispute all the errors at one time. Dispute them 1 at a time, round after round:

• (Round 1) The balance (and past due/or past due) on this account is incorrect. It should say $0. I do not owe any monies to this company for this account. Please correct or delete this.
• (Round 1 or subsequent) You are allowing an inaccurate history of this account to be reported.  Please investigate, gather documentation proving accuracy, or delete this from my credit report.
• (Round 1 or subsequent) This company does not have any information to verify as they have reported over and over in the history that they have "No Data (ND)".  As this is unverifiable, FCRA Sect. 611 REQUIRES you to delete this.
• (Round 2 or subsequent) This is not verified. I contacted the furnisher as you told me to do and they have either refused to provide any documentation or they are unable to provide documentation proving the claim or the accuracy.  This remains inaccurate, incomplete and not verified. You are REQUIRED to delete this immediately according to FCRA Sect. 611.

Repos:  Many times you will have a repo auto loan account that has a balance because of a "deficiency" remaining after they sell the car.  I treat these as charge offs and dispute the same way but some times add a little twist.

• (Round 1) You are allowing this company to furnish an incorrect balance.  The balance needs to show $0 because this account was paid in full by the asset protection insurance attached to it. Please correct to $0 or delete this account immediately.
• (Round 1 or subsequent) Please investigate the history reported on this account. It is absolutely inaccurate. Correct or delete this immediately as anything inaccurate about the information they have furnished requires correction or deletion according to FCRA Sect. 611. Take care of this immediately.
• For Repo accounts with a $0 balance I suggest that you send the company a notice to Cease & Desist ALL communications regarding the account. Advise them that furnishing or verifying information with credit bureaus is considered a "communication" according to the courts and a violation of your C&D notice.  For these types of repo accounts, once you have issued your notice to them your dispute should be as follows:
• (Round 1) I do not have any account with this company and they have been issued a notice to Cease and Desist all communications with you.  Please delete this account immediately!

Foreclosures:  Sometimes foreclosure accounts will have a balance.  This is an obvious error. Dispute this as follows:

• (Round 1) This account is inaccurately and erroneously reporting a balance that they know should be $0. Their intentional and willful furnishing of inaccurate information is a violation of FCRA Section 623 and according to FCRA Section 611 you MUST correct or delete this immediately.
• (Round 2) I have contacted this company and requested the proof that they are reporting accurately.  They have failed to provide it within the 30 days the law allows them. This is inaccurate and unverified and you are required to delete this according to the FCRA. I expect you to comply with the law and remove this slander immediately!

Settled Accounts: For all settled accounts that are original creditors (except for repos), leave it alone!  For collections, send them a full Cease and Desist (C&D).  Then follow up with a bureau dispute that says:

• (Round 1) I have no account with this company nor have I ever signed any contract to do business with them. They have neither lent me anything nor have they provided services to me for which I requested.  They are under an order to Cease and Desist and accordingly, this must be removed from my credit report immediately.

IIB Accounts:  Because a bankruptcy obliterates all debt, you no longer have any account with the creditor. It has been eliminated. If you had a bk that was dismissed, no account was in a bankruptcy because according to the courts, a dismissed bk is the same as never ita bk at all. Sometimes they erroneously report a balance as well. Dispute as follows:

• (Round 1) I do not have any account with this company. Please delete this.
• (Round 1) This account claims it was included in a bk. If that were true, which it is not, this would be violating the federal bk stay. Delete this immediately.
• (Round 1) This account is erroneously claiming I owe them money, which I do not. This is an error and according to the FCRA, inaccurate information must be deleted.

Public Records:  Hopefully before you dispute these you have removed any addresses associated with it, especially bankruptcies. Do not send the court clerk or county recorder letter yet.  You may send the FTC staff opinion letter with the first round if you would like.

• Bankruptcy (Round 1):  Your information is inaccurate. I do not recall having a bankruptcy on the dates you are reporting and there are blank fields making your information incomplete as well. The FTC has publicly stated that your public record information is often inaccurate, which is the case in what you are allowing on my credit report.  Delete this immediately!
• Bankruptcy (Round 2): You are big, fat liars!  You claimed that you verified this and told me to contact the furnisher. You claim that the court furnished and verified the information. I did as instructed and they gave me a letter claiming that they neither furnished the information nor verified the information. They are the only ones qualified to make a verification regarding this alleged bankruptcy and they did not verify. You are allowing slander on my credit report.  See the attached letter from the court proving that you are allowing erroneous information on my credit report and are falsely claiming that it is verified. Your butts need to be sued if you do not remove this from my credit report. It is inaccurate, incomplete and NOT VERIFIED! Delete this immediately!

• Tax Liens (Round 1):  I have NEVER had a valid tax lien. Further, according to my state statutes/the IRS (pick one), taxpayer information is confidential and not allowed to be on any taxpayer's credit report. (if you know your state statute, insert it in your dispute). You need to get this crap off my credit report immediately as it is inaccurate and damaging to me and may be actionable for statutory damages, actual damages, and punitive damages. Delete this NOW!
• (Round 2): Please see the attached information from the county recorder which you claim furnished and verified this tax lien.  It proves you are huge liars. How do you get away with this stuff and how on earth do you sleep at night? You should be in jail for causing injury to consumers. This was neither furnished nor verified by the county recorder. Get your false information off of my credit report now!

• Judgments: Even if you have had a judgment, you can demand that they verify it and since they are accusing, the burden of proof lies with them. If you have a default judgment, it is not a valid judgment, it is a "Void" judgment and carries with it the right to challenge it at any time. In order for a judgment to be valid, the case must have at the trial a plaintiff, a defendant, subject matter jurisdiction (which can be challenged at any time) and a competent witness (sworn affidavit by a witness with first-hand information that testifies and produces the accompanying documentation to back up the testimony).
• (Round 1): I am not aware of any judgment against me for $XXXX. I do not believe you are furnishing accurate information and I need you to investigate this and provide the documented proof that your information is 100% correct. Otherwise, please delete this immediately.
• (Round 1):  I do not have a valid judgment against me. You are allowing false information on my credit report. Delete this immediately.
• (Round 2): I have proof that you have lied about verifying this bogus judgment. The only persons qualified to verify it is the court or me, and I can't verify it and they claim they didn't verify it. See the attached from from the court proving that you have lied and that this remains unverified. The FCRA requires that this be deleted until you get proof from the court exclusively that this is mine - which obviously it is not!  Delete your inaccurate, incomplete, and unverified information immediately!

Okay, this should provide you with a really good start to cleaning up your credit report.  I cannot guarantee that any or all of these disputes will work every time because you are relying on two other parties per account to obey the law. Unfortunately, creditors, collectors and credit reporting agencies have notorious reputations for ignoring the law and doing whatever they please.  I do hope that you will see more success using some of these disputes than you have been getting or that most people get using boiler plate disputes.

Please remember never, ever to admit anything to a credit bureau.  It is THEIR JOB to get the proof and it is the furnisher's job to provide you with the proof (which is why I dispute with both the bureaus and creditors/collectors). I never, ever advise sending proof of a paid tax lien, paid judgment, or bankruptcy paperwork to the CRA's. If you do, you are giving them what they need to keep these public record items on your credit report for a full 7 years after that event.

If you decide you don't want to do this on your own, I would love to assist you with your credit repair. Also, if you have trouble removing tax liens or judgments, paid or not, we have an escalated proprietary process that can help.  By law, we are not allowed to guarantee any results, however, we do have a 100% success rate removing them.  We would love to assist you with removing them if you would like us to.

Best wishes for your credit repair venture. You can be successful so don't believe the naysayers that claim ugly credit has to stay on your reports for 7 years or more. That's an ignorant statement and totally untrue. Whether it's accurate or not, the furnisher has the responsibility to prove it and the bureaus have a responsibility to maintain maximum accuracy.  If it can't be proven, a claim of accuracy should not be made by anyone.  Also, you may think it's accurate and you may think you owe monies, but I'm here to tell you that you that you have been deceived.  Your contracts with creditors were never truly valid and no 3rd party collector has a lawful claim against you.

Stand up for your rights.  Fight hard for your credit to be repaired. You are to be congratulated for taking the steps needed to get your life and credit back!

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.

Debt Settlement And Negotiation Is Bad For Your Credit!

I'm not a big TV watcher but sometimes when I do, I see ads for debt settlement and debt negotiation services.  They sound so nice and the actors pretend that their life after signing up is just so wonderful, like it solved all of their problems. Its a crock!  If they were honest about it, they would have a disclaimer that you could hear at a normal speed of talking where they told you who really benefits with debt settlement.

If you've read much of my blog, you have most likely read that you don't owe collectors a dime and you shouldn't pay them or settle with them. I feel the same way about charged off accounts with original creditors. You don't owe them squat.  Of course, that's not what you're going to read on most websites and blogs. No, they just keep spitting out the same garbage that the bureaus and the FTC, and the creditors and collectors want you to believe. 

But, you have to think about it. Why would they tell you that a charged off account still has to be paid? Why would a collector who you've never agreed to do business with tell you that regardless if its been charged off and now they own it, that you have to pay? I know you have got to sort of have the answer in your head as you read this - its so easy!  Its because they know if they get you to pay, they are going to make butt loads of money off of you and everyone else they convince that they need to pay.  What's that saying? Follow the money!

So why is debt settlement so bad for your credit?  Let me explain a little about your credit report and scores.  When you have a charge off, it can really cost you some points. But, as time goes on, it has less and less effect on your score.  In fact, at 2 years, it really isn't affecting your score at all. At least its not if they are reporting it properly. What I mean by that is, it should show what your high credit is and your balance should be $0 and your past due should be $0.  Anything other than that is wrong and even at 2 years old, it will be affecting your credit and your score negatively.  

This is when most people see that charge off and they think if they do the fake "honorable" thing and pay it off, it will help their score. NOPE! It will hurt your score.  What you should do, is tell the original creditor that you are not happy that they are intentionally damaging your credit score by knowingly reporting erroneous information. They charged this alleged account off. Their books say $0 past due now and $0 balance. So why on earth are they reporting anything other than $0? I admit that there's a lot of incompetent people working for these folks, but it is intentional. They want to screw you over because you stopped paying and they didn't get to swindle you for the full amount they were hoping for. Its retaliation!

So, they may come back with a phony verification but offer you a sweet deal to close it out. If you do that, what will happen to your credit is a new negative report that now will take another 2 years to have no affect and another 7 years before it will "fall off" of your credit report. Oh, and your credit report will also say that you settled! Is that helping you? Nah, but they made more money off you. They also took tax credits when they charged off, so now they have just committed tax fraud.  And when they charged off, they got a secret insurance payment that paid it off, so they also just committed insurance fraud. So tell me again how you benefited?  You have a fresh negative and 7 more years of negative crap on your credit and paid for something that had you continued to fight about, you never would have paid and you probably would have gotten it off your credit.

Let's talk about 3rd party debt collectors. They notify you that they are now collecting on behalf of an old credit card or medical debt that you failed to pay. But oh, lucky you. They're going to offer you an awesome deal where they're going to knock off half of the balance you owe them. Stop! You don't owe them. When did you contract with them?  Were they mentioned on the contract with the original creditor? NO, NO, NO they weren't! 

What you should do is demand validation from them. I think that probably 90-95% of the time, when they bought the portfolio of bad debt from the original creditor or some other junk debt buyer, they were missing a lot of the supporting documentation. I say this because 97% of collection lawsuits end up with the collector winning a default judgment. The defendant (think, overwhelmed or not notified consumer) doesn't fight it or respond. So, if they can count on that many default judgments, why would they care if they got full documentation to support the bad debts they buy?

When you demand validation, more than 1/3 of them will hit the road. They may sell it to the next junk debt buyer to try to recoup some of the money they spend, but each time they resell it, you have a higher success rate of getting rid of them.  But let's get back to debt settlement. Why would you settle with someone you don't owe, even at 1/2 the amount, when they bought it for probably no more than 20 cents on the dollar? That means they are also making money off of you when they never lent you a dime. And they probably can't prove you owe them anything.

But here's the bad part. They will now report that you have a paid collection.  A collection is worse than a charge off. It is bad. Always bad. And paying them is more fresh bad. No collector should ever be on any one's credit report, but if you pay them, you will have an even harder time getting it off because they have no incentive to delete and they will claim because you paid them, you contracted with them.

Now debt negotiation is a little different. This is where you hire a company to negotiate a settlement for you.  Why is this bad? Well, for all of the above reasons, but also, now you are paying another company money. They won't make payments on your behalf right away. No, they hold on to the money.  Oh wait, that's not correct. They will take a portion of your payment and keep it as part of their fee, and then hold on to the rest until you build up enough to make a settlement offer to 1 or a few creditors and or collectors. So now, you may have just been struggling to pay the credit card bills, but were never late, and this company stopped paying them, when you thought they were going to be managing it for you. Oh boy are you getting screwed!

Debt negotiation firms, (if they don't take your money and run), they hold on to your money so long without making payments that you will end up with charge offs, having original creditor debts now go to collectors, have your car repoed, even get you into a situation where you get sued! Wow, they are really helping consumers, aren't they?

Now there's also the consumer counseling companies. They do debt settlement also but its a little different. What they do is negotiate to lower or freeze the interest rates. But, the balance of the debt stays the same, plus you have a monthly fee for them negotiating with the credit card companies. You don't get any cut in the balance at all.  Its kind of like a Ch. 13 bankruptcy and they will many times notate on your credit report that its included in a counseling plan.  The only thing I can commend these types of settlement companies on is the fact that they actually will be making the payment to the creditors every month. That's because they don't have to save up a large amount to negotiate a balance settlement. So as long as you make that payment every month to them (which of course includes their service fee), they'll pay the creditors.

Okay, so who benefits? Well, many times these companies claim to be non-profit. That doesn't mean anything for you. It means they are exempt from taxation, but it doesn't mean it costs you less. And who donates to these companies, gives them grants, invests in them, keeps them up and running?  Many times its the credit card companies! I can tell you for sure the credit card companies are behind most of the credit counseling companies. Its another nice tax credit.  Did you see that one coming?  Its a stinking scam! So, now the negotiation company benefits, the original creditor benefits, the collector benefits, but how on earth do you benefit?

Every month they don't pay because they're building up the payoff fund, your credit report gets more late notations and your score drops, and you get charge offs, and you get new collection activity being reported on your credit. You aren't benefiting at all! You are getting spanked!

What annoys me also is, they have the nerve to claim they are helping you repair or restore your credit. Its such BS! They are no better than dirty 3rd party debt collectors. They are lying thieves!  None of them are out to help you. They are all vultures finding different ways to snipe your money from you. They don't care what kind of hardship it causes you. They don't care that it jacks up your credit. All they care about is the money. And its a lot of money. These debt settlement and debt negotiation companies make big money, whether they are for profit, not for profit, or non-profit.

If you want to fix your credit, don't think for one second that paying one of these companies is going to help you. They are not, and that's a fact! If you want to fix your credit, you're going to have to learn how to fight back. Learn to write validation letters. Learn how to read your credit report. Learn how to know if what they send back as validation or verification is accurate or actually validation or verification. You have to learn how to respond to them. If you want to be successful on your own, you will need to learn some laws and not just say the same thing that letters you find online say. You have to understand the laws. You have to know how and when  to use them, which ones to use, which case law to throw back at them, what to say to defend yourself and make them pound sand!

I try to teach you here how to stand up for yourself, how to fight to get your credit score back up and your credit reports looking pretty. But, it takes commitment. It takes time. It takes persistence and not everything always comes off.  You probably won't have as much success as someone who does it professionally, but you can see fantastic results if you keep at it and if you use a lot of what I share with you on this blog.  I don't think you'll find anyone else who has been in the business as long as I have been, willing to share as much truth and strategies and laws as I do here.  What I share has helped me be successful for almost 3 decades. I want you to be successful too!

So, I congratulate you on making the decision to fight to restore your credit and improve your credit. You can do it.  But, if you find you just don't want to do it on your own, I would love to help. Use the phone number or the email address up at the top right hand side of this page to contact me.  Let's get started on your new clean credit report so you can get those better insurance rates, you can get that job, you can qualify for that car or home purchase. Let's get you going to finally get back your life!

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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Validation Vs. Verification ~ Defeating the Chaudhry Claim of Debt Collectors

I have not written anything lately because for one, I have been very busy but the second reason is because sometimes I just don't know what would be a good topic to cover.  However, I'm working on a couple lawsuits for clients right now and today, my client sent me the plaintiff's response to her Motion to Dismiss.  The whole entire thing looks like it was put together by an intern with no experience writing briefs or no consistency of thought. Its like they decided to whine that nothing was relevant so boohoo, the court should not grant her motion.  They threw all kinds of stuff into their response, and as I have been researching, I came across a website that had one whole section that was word for word verbatim of one of the points in their response.  Can you say "copy/paste"?  So lame!

Anyhow, the one thing that jumped out at me is the forever favorite fall back case law that they quote, Chaudhry v. Gallerizzo.  Now, I have written about this case law and how to throw other case law back in the collection agency's face.  But here's the problem.  Our court system has what are called "Circuit courts" and they represent sections of the country.  I'm in the 9th Circuit designation.  Unfortunately, many of these circuit courts have upheld the Chaudhry decision for collection lawsuits so you need to know how to fight back.

The Chaudhry case upheld a very minimum standard for Verification.  But, you shouldn't be sending a "Verification" letter to collectors.  Verification is what credit bureaus do.  You send collectors "Validation" letters.  Though it may seem that verification and validation are the same thing, they are NOT!  Collectors love to use the word interchangeably but we need to stand firm on this.  Validation is the Proof. Verification according to the Chaudhry decision, is making sure they have the right person.  They only have to provide you with the Original creditor name, account number, dates, amount owed to supposedly prove that they are attempting to collect from the correct person.   They claim that they don't have to provide detailed records.  They may get away with that explanation during the dispute process, and they might get away with it in court, but not if you know more about Verification and Validation.

The best way I think to explain this so you can beat these lying vultures, is to bring legal resources into the argument.  You start with defining the two words.  Now, I look through many different legal dictionaries that would have some standing in court. You want to build a case against the collector through the dispute process so that you have this folder full of a documented paper trail where you have taken it to them and they continue to violate the law.  That way, when you've had enough, you have the ammunition to sue them, or you have the case built to defend yourself if they take you to court first. Hopefully, there won't have to be any litigation and you can get rid of them by showing them how they will fail if it goes to court.

Validation according to Black's Law Dictionary is "Assessing an action to determine it is complete, correct, implemented and delivering the correct outcome." I actually like the definition given by the Oxford Dictionaries better.  To "Validate" means "to check or prove the validity or accuracy of something" and "Validation" is a derivative of the word "Validate."  Now, did you notice that it means to "PROVE" the accuracy?  This is important.  My favorite definition that is very clear comes from Merriam-Webster, which says "to show the existence or truth of, by evidence." Remember this while I give you the definition of "Verify."

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." Now, it also gives some case law and you will see how these collectors fall short.  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.

Did you catch what these definitions are saying?  Its saying that "Validation" is the documented proof. Its not just "yeah, we have the right person and here's what you owe and who the original creditor is that you incurred the debt with." Oh, no.  Not even close!  Validation is the PROOF!!!  Don't forget that.  You demand validation, you demand proof.  You are not demanding hearsay, which is what they give you. Hang on to this stuff. Its powerful and important.  I'm so not done destroying their claim of "verification" yet.

Okay, let's tear apart their claim of "Verification."  Did you notice that not just in the definition, but in the supporting case law, that "verification" is them attesting to or certifying or confirming that their claims are true and they can prove it in court?  That's what verification is.  It is swearing under oath that you can prove your claims.  I'm going to break this down for you even more.  When in court, who can testify as a witness?  The answer is, a person with FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE!  They saw something for themselves, they had the conversation, they were a party to whatever situation, etc.  If they do not have first hand knowledge and try to testify that they heard that the defendant told the other person something or the company claimed that the defendant ran up the debt---STOP RIGHT THERE!  That's HEARSAY and not allowed in court.  Its not evidence of squat!

Oh but there's so much more regarding verification.  A 3rd party collector CANNOT themselves verify any alleged debt.  Why? Look at the last couple paragraphs above.  They were not on the original contract. They were not a party to the original transaction.  They were not personally involved from the get go nor were they employees of the original creditor nor did they ever personally handle the alleged account when it was with the original creditor.  All they can provide is "Hearsay."   Now let's look at what the FDCPA says about verification.  I'm tying this all together and you will see very soon how you can whip their butts with this stuff.

The FDCPA regarding "Verification" and "Validation" of debts is found in 1692g. I'm going to show you how they do not verify nor validate when you demand validation. It is found in (b) of 1692g.  Here's a portion of that which is very important. It says, "...the debt collector shall cease collection of the debt, or any disputed portion thereof, until the debt collector obtains verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment, or the name and address of the original creditor, AND a copy of such verification or judgment or name and address of the original creditor, is mailed to the consumer by the debt collector."  I capitalized the "AND" for emphasis.  They have to send you a copy of the verification.  What is verification again?  It is swearing under oath that they can provide the proof.  How many times have you received a response from a 3rd party collector that has the name of the original creditor, amount of debt, relevant dates, etc. accompanied by a notarized statement from the original creditor "verifying" that they have the proof and are willing and able to testify with first hand knowledge that the 3rd party's claim are valid?  I'm willing to bet that 99.99% of you will say "NEVER!!"

They don't send a statement from the original creditor, sworn under oath, by someone authorized, willing and able to testify in court. That means, they never truly verify the alleged debt. When they send copies of statements, computer printouts, letters claiming they consulted with the original creditor or checked their records, they send you the name, address, amount, etc., but no notarized statement from the original creditor, remember this:  They have not validated, they have not verified, they have failed.  

So they can throw the Chaudhry v. Gallerizzo case at you all they want. They can throw other case law at you like Graziano v. Harrison claiming that computer printouts are sufficient. But, if they lack true verification, a notarized statement by a qualified representative of the original creditor that they attest to the validity of the alleged debt and will testify as much with the documentation, in court, they have failed at validation. They have failed at verification. They have not qualified their claim to allow them to resume or continue collection activity in accordance with the FDCPA.  

That's how you shoot down their bs. That's how you take it to them in your disputes and in your lawsuits, whether initiated by them or you. That's how you should win!

I'd love to hear from you.  If you have questions, email me or call me. If you don't want to repair your credit by yourself, I'd love to help you. Again email me or call me.  My information is up at the top on the right hand side. If you loved this information and it helps you, please leave a comment below.  I don't allow spam with links to porn sites or substandard credit repair sites to post.  But, I love legitimate comments and recommendations for more credit repair topics you'd like me to cover.  Those will be approved right away.

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 Deal With Debt Collection Agencies ~ Part 1

I figured I should do a series on some things you can do to help with your fight against debt collectors.  I'm going to give you some credit repair tips for when you're writing your credit repair letters to debt collectors.  These are for the validation letters that you send to 3rd party collectors.  You want to give yourself the biggest advantage for deleting bad credit from your credit reports, so there are things that you should always look for when you are repairing your credit on your own.

These are just a couple extra tools to use.  There are 3 that I'm going to list for you.  The first is a list of states that have their own version of the FDCPA.  Remember that the FDCPA applies to 3rd party collectors and not original creditors.  But state versions include original creditors, which means that in addition to the FCBA (Fair Credit Billing Act), you can demand validation from both 3rd party collectors and original creditors if your state has their own set of laws that mirror the FDCPA. I'll try to give you all the names of the laws for the different states.

The second list I'm going to give you, is for each state's Statute of Limitations.  I'm only going to give the time limit for open accounts, which are basically credit cards.  Some states have longer time limits for written contracts like mortgages and auto installment loans.  I'm not going to cover those in this series because most of the bad credit that 3rd party collectors harass you over is credit card debt.  

Statute of Limitations is a great tool because if your alleged debt is Time-Barred, they cannot sue you and the alleged debt is non-collectible!  Now, remember, if these vultures sue you anyway, you absolutely MUST answer the lawsuit and show up  in court.  By showing the court that the alleged debt is time barred, the judge is required to dismiss the case, and in reality, the judge should dismiss it "with prejudice" which means that they can't come back at you for that alleged debt again.  I love when you beat them in court because it means they wasted a lot of money coming after you and failed!

The 3rd list I'm going to give you is a list of the states that also require 3rd party collectors to be licensed or bonded, or both, to do business in their states.  This is an important list because if the 3rd party debt collector that is coming after you is not licensed/bonded, or has been spanked with a suspension, their license/bond has expired or has been cancelled, that is great ammunition to make them hit the road.

Using these tools takes a little bit of research on your part, but it will be well worth it.  Especially when you look up your state's list for licensing and you see that they've had some sanctions placed against them.  Some of these scumbags have had sanctions, their license or bond suspended or cancelled, then they do another one, and you can see they've gotten in trouble again.  Its no wonder why people hate collection agencies so much and they have such a bad reputation.

Credit repair has been getting harder and harder lately. These debt collectors flagrantly break the law, refuse to validate and keep on attempting to collect, verify with credit bureaus, and give absolutely lame responses to validation letters, claiming they have fulfilled the "verification" and are resuming collection activity and reporting the dispute to the bureaus.  So spiteful!  

The credit bureaus aren't much better.  Sometimes I really doubt they even attempt to verify with the furnishers of the information, as is required of them.  They certainly have never bothered to send the proof of the verification when I've demanded it from them.  Its in their own set of laws, the FCRA, yet they seem to think that just like the lawlessness we see going on in the highest courts, how hellbent they are with their total disregard for the laws and the Constitution, the bureaus think they can do it too.  It is up to us to use every thing we can to fight them, remind them of their duty to uphold the laws, and delete when validation has not been produced and the verification has no documentation to back it up.

There's one more tool that I'm going to give you right now.  It is the contact information for the fairly new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  This is the new enforcement agency created by the Frank-Dodd Act, Title X.  This agency can help enforce the consumer credit protection laws like the FDCPA and FCRA, when collection companies and credit bureaus don't want to comply with the law.  When I'm having obstinate collection agency or credit bureau issues, I threaten them in my letters, to report them to the CFPB and get enforcement that way.  They seem to finally be responding to that because they don't want to get spanked by them.  There are financial penalties that are levied against them when an investigation finds that they are violating the law.  

Here is the contact information for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

By Mail:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

PO Box 4503

Iowa City, IA  52244

By Phone:

Between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm EST

(855) 411-2372

By Fax:

(855) 237-2392

To file a complaint online:

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

So, look for Parts 2, 3, and 4 of this series this week.  I'll be putting up the posts every couple of days on this series of How To Deal With Debt Collection Agencies all week, as time allows.  I want to help you fight debt collectors, not give them your hard earned money.  Also remember, if repairing your credit is a bigger job than you want to take on all by yourself, contact me using the phone number and/or email I have listed up at the top right of this page.  I love fighting them and have helped many people achieve success with their credit repair.

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.