Where To Get Free Credit Reports And Free Credit Scores

Quite a while back I gave you some places to pull your credit reports online, for free.  Yes, I said FREE!  There has been a change and I have another place to tell you about so I thought it would be time to give you this information again.

The first place you can get copies of all 3 of your credit reports, once a year, is from annualcreditreport.com but it does not have your scores.  You will need to answer questions about some things about yourself that may be on your credit report in order to get each of them. The link to each of the credit bureaus takes you off the site temporarily.  The best way to get them through this site is to pick one, and start to get your report.  If you don't know the answer to the questions, stop and go back and try the next one. When you get questions you know that you know the answers to, proceed and get your report. Then save a copy of it to your computer.  You will use this report to help you answer the questions you'll get when you go back to get the other 2 reports.  Each time, save a copy to your computer so you have it, since you won't be able to keep logging in all year.

The next three places are also free and they ask you some questions, but they give you your credit scores. Just remember, these are NOT FICO scores, they are Vantage scores or something similar.  They are what we in the credit repair industry call FAKO scores.  These are NOT the scores lenders use, but they at least give you somewhat of an idea what your FICO score is. Unfortunately, sometimes the scores can be off by 20 points or more, sometimes higher and sometimes lower than your true FICO score, which IS the scoring model that lenders use.

Credit Karma.  creditkarma.com gives you a report from TransUnion.  It is my least favorite because so far, I have not been able to save a report in a good format from them.  To me, its kind of funky. But, it updates every single month, so its also kind of like a free credit monitoring service.  

Quizzle.  quizzle.com used to give you a free credit report from Experian.  But, in mid January of this year (2014), they changed to Equifax.  I like this report.  It looks good, easy to read, and you can easily save a nicely formatted report to your computer.  It updates every six months, so its not as good of a monitoring service as CreditKarma, but, hey, its free!  You can get a paid version that will update every month, if you want to go that route. But, there are lots of credit monitoring sites you can use, many of them being owned by Experian. They can range from $12.95/mo to $30/mo usually.  The more expensive ones, if you prefer to use them, just call first and ask them to reduce the price since you can get the monitoring service cheaper somewhere else, and they usually reduce down to about $15/month for you.

Credit Sesame. creditsesame.com gives you a free credit report from Experian.  I have to admit, I have never used this, but I probably will soon, just to see if its every bit as good as they claim.  They say you can get your Experian report free and your Experian (think Vantage) score free every single month. They claim to have free credit monitoring every single month too.  Now if these things are true and if you can save a nicely formatted report to your computer, then this would be my favorite.  Think about it. Free report and score, free monitoring every single month, why would you want to pay for monitoring somewhere else? (UPDATE:  CreditSesame SUCKS BIG TIME!  It's a huge waste. You don't get squat for free except a fake score and the opportunity to be bombarded to buy services or apply for cards, etc. Stick with the free Experian report you get from annualcreditreport.com.  No score but at least you can see what is on your credit!!)

The only thing that's left to find is a free credit analyzing tool.  Many of the paid monitoring sites have them, but I don't know if these 3 free sites will ever give it for free.  We'll have to keep our fingers crossed.  These tools are fun to play with because they show you what to do to increase your score by inputting different scenarios, like removing collections, removing balances, adding credit lines, etc.  These are very handy to have so you can set your sights on a credit goal and it will show you how to get there.

Well, hopefully you enjoy and can use this information.  Get your free reports, save them to your computer, and if you want some help with your credit repair efforts, send me an email or call me. Your reports will be super simple to email over so you can get going on your fresh start right away!

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Credit Bureaus Break The Law And Fight Your Credit Repair Efforts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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How Bad Credit Affects Your Credit Score (Part 2/3)

Part 2:  Breakdown of your VantageScore

In Part 1 we covered the make up of a Fico Score. By the way, I didn't mention it, but FICO stands for Fair Isaac Credit Organization.  It is the most widely used credit scoring model in the world. FICO Scores range from 300 to 850.  It is rare to have a score in the 800's and terrible if you have a score in the 300's.  I see more reports with no score at all than anything under 400.  In fact, I think the lowest FICO Score I have ever seen was 411.  That was MY score at one time long ago, but in less than 2 years, I had it up to almost 700.  It wasn't hard at all.  Removed the BK, removed all the bad stuff linked to the BK, and got some little credit cards, used them and payed them regularly.  I don't worry much about my credit anymore. I rarely use it and when I get irritated with a creditor that is not complying with the law, being completely unscrupulous, I take revenge.  I warn them, refuse to give them another dime, then start hitting them with validation till they go away!

Enough about me, lets get to Part 2.  We are going to talk about another up and coming credit scoring model that is gaining popularity.  This is called a "VantageScore".  A number of years back, the 3 major bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, joined together to create a scoring system that merged their 3 scores.  It launched in March of 2006.  You don't hear a lot about this scoring model. It is my opinion that they started this system because they wanted to get a cut of the moolah that they saw FICO getting from the use of their scoring system.  Though they "merged" their scores, your VantageScore for each bureau may be a bit different than each other because not all creditors report on all 3 bureaus and sometimes when they do report on all 3 bureaus, they don't report exactly the same things, so the 3 bureaus usually have 3 different scores on them.

The VantageScore is made up of 6 categories.  These categories are A) Available Credit; B) Recent Credit; C) Depth of Credit; D) Credit Balances; E) Utilization; and F) Payment History.  It is also a numeric scoring system that gives you a grade, like a school report card. The scores range from 500 to 990. The breakdown of the numeric scores that translate into "grades" is the following:  

• 900-990 = A
• 800-899 = B
• 700-799 = C
• 600-699 = D
• 500-599 = F

You have to be careful when you look at your credit score. See, a great FICO Score, anything over 700 is A to A+ credit.  But, a 700 score using the VantageScore model is a C- and not really that great. Its not terrible, just not real good credit.  This score would cause a creditor to really review your credit report and paying habits before agreeing to lend credit to you.  Always find out which model your score is based off of, so you know whether or not that great score is actually great, or really just a mediocre or even a "failing" score.  VantageScore is also more affected on your last 24 months of reporting, but older accounts do still figure into the scoring a bit.  Now I'm going to explain the 6 categories of the VantageScore. The percentage stated is approximate.

1. Available Credit makes up 1-7% of your VantageScore.  This is the ratio of credit limit to credit balance, or basically, the difference between your credit limit and your credit balance of all lines of credit that are reported.
2. Recent Credit makes up 10-30% of your VantageScore.  This is where your recent inquiries and recently opened credit lines affect your score.
3. Depth of Credit makes up 8-13% of your VantageScore. This is where you are scored based on the different types of credit you have.  Again, this would be charge cards, credit cards, revolving, installment, etc. Lenders want to see that you can handle maintaining and paying for different types of credit on a timely basis so they can evaluate your credit risk. They don't want to see "collection accounts," as these are 3rd party collection companies and always bad.  I believe this section is also where you are graded for having older lines of credit. The more long standing credit lines you have, especially if they are positive, the higher you score in this category.
4. Credit Balances make up 9-15% of your VantageScore. This is where you get scored for recent balances.  They want to see your balances go down, which show you are making timely payments.  If recent balances are going up, that means you are either using your credit or you are becoming delinquent on your payments. Balances that go up because of credit usage is not necessarily bad, but definitely is if you are consistently using it and just making minimum payments.  That's when it starts looking like you are using credit to pay your bills, which in turn makes you a higher credit risk, and lowers your score.
5. Utilization makes up approximately 23% of your VantageScore. This is very similar to the Credit Balances category, in that your balances are affected by the usage of your available credit.  They like to see you using your credit. But they like to see it used responsibly and paid for in a timely manner.  When you're trying to build your credit score, this is one of the ways to do it. Use your credit and pay more than the minimum every month for at least 6 months, and make those payments on time.  You will see your score strengthened and going up.  Just like I talked about in Credit Balances, too much utilization of your available credit and only making minimum or being late with payments, or not making them at all is going to affect your credit score very negatively, and this category's scoring weight is fairly high.
6. Payment History makes up 28-32% of your VantageScore. This is another "biggie" category. This is where your late payments, collections, charge offs, collections, etc. all greatly damage your credit score.  The scoring weighs heavily in this category also, so if you consistently make timely payments on your credit lines, the higher your score will be.  1 thing about payment history and the difference between the VantageScore and FICO, is that VantageScore is directed and effected mostly by the last 24 months of all credit activity.

If you want your FICO Scores from all 3 bureaus, you will have to get a credit report from a mortgage lender (you pay for it so you get a copy) or auto dealer (they usually wont give you a copy), and those are about the only 2 places you can get all 3 FICO Scores.  This is because Experian does not allow FICO scores to be sold to consumers for their reports.  Again, I suspect its mainly because they are trying to bump out FICO and make money selling scores based off their own VantageScore model.  You can buy your FICO  scores for the other bureaus from MyFico.com or you can buy your credit reports with your VantageScore from all of the bureaus. 

When you buy your credit reports, maybe a credit monitoring service, the credit score you always get is a FAKO Score.  A FAKO Score is a Fake FICO Score and VantageScore is a FAKO.  Since lenders almost always determine credit worthiness off of FICO Scores, it will most likely not be what you're seeing on your freebie or bureau reports.  It will usually be the VantageScore, and it will not be the same score your lender gives you from the reports that he pulls.

If you want a free credit report with free credit score - yes it will be the FAKO, VantageScore, you can go to CreditKarma.com for your TransUnion report and you can go to Quizzle.com for your Experian report. You can check them anytime, all year long, but Experian's only updates once every 6 months, while TransUnion lets you update your report all year long.  You must use these 2 websites though to get the scores and get the updates.  You won't be able to get the scores for free from annualcreditreport.com.  You will only be able to pull your free reports from there once a year and you will have to buy your score because that site does not give it for free.

I hope you learned a lot from these first 2 parts.  Stay tuned for Part 3.  I will be discussing, or maybe I should say, giving you my best effort of how bad credit habits hurt your FICO Score.  I will attempt to show how many "Damage Points" it costs you for different "baddies" on your credit report. 

How To Get A Free Credit Score and Free Credit Report With No Credit Card

When the Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) was passed, one of the provisions it gave consumers was the right to a free credit report once a year.  Because of this Act, you could get one from each of the bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). There's actually a couple more credit bureaus that you can get a free report from.  CBC is a midwest "division" of Equifax.  They are also related to Innovis, who is becoming a big player in the credit bureau game.  They are starting to be considered the 4th major credit bureau.  They also have to give you a free credit report once a year.

You can get your free credit reports online.  Back when FACTA was first passed, all these different websites came about and offered free credit reports and you could get your scores too, but they all made you have a credit card and they'd suck you into a monthly charge for your credit score and/or credit monitoring service, offering it "free" for a trial period, knowing full well that many people would forget to cancel it in time and they could just rake in the money.  The FTC and the bureaus did very little to market and make the public aware that they could get a completely free credit report by just going to www.annualcreditreport.com and request them without a credit card. However, they don't give you your credit score.

Well, they finally got a little spanking for being so deceptive.  So now, they have to give you your free credit report and score for a couple different situations.  If you applied for credit from a business and you were denied or if they gave you credit but on less favorable terms, the business (think lender or creditor) has to notify you plus, since July 2011, you get to have a credit report WITH your credit score since it was used against you when being denied or getting less than the best terms. 

But, there are also two other places you can get your credit report with a credit score for free.  The first one is by Equifax.  It is called Quizzle.com.  With Quizzle.com, you will get a free report and score all year long, but it only updates twice a year. Still, at least you can see where you're at and every six months, you can see if there have been any changes.  The second one is from TransUnion.  The website you go to for that one is called CreditKarma.com.  You do not get a FICO score but you get their version which is called a VantageScore.  Its similar to FICO, but does not have the same algorithms and could be higher or lower than your FICO score.  They also give you a score for your auto insurance. (yep, some auto insurance companies pull your credit to factor that in as part of the basis for the cost of your premiums, or if you are even "worthy" of auto insurance from them).  The additional good thing about Credit Karma is that you can check your credit score all year long from them and its always free!

So, here is some contact information to get your free credit reports:

Annual Credit Report Request Service
PO Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

By Phone:  877-322-8228
Online:  www.annualcreditreport.com

Innovis 
Attention: Consumer Assistance
PO Box 1689
Pittsburgh, PA  15230-1689 

By Phone: 800- 457-0247
(Innovis is famous for changing their mailing address and phone number. Hopefully, these will still work for you).
Online:  innovis.com (go to the tab at the top that says "Personal Services", then click on the link to "Obtain Copy of your Innovis Credit Report" for the easiest way without jumping through all their hoops.  You will be able to download it to your computer from there).

Credit Karma (TransUnion with free score)
CreditKarma.com

Quizzle (Experian with free score)
quizzle.com

PS:  Don't forget, there are other reporting companies like ChexSystems, Telecheck, and Certegy.

Chex Systems, Inc.
7805 Hudson Road, Ste. 100
Woodbury, MN  55125

By Phone:  800-428-9623
By Fax:      602-659-2197
Online:  www.consumerdebit.com

Telecheck Services, Inc.
Attention: Consumer Resolutions-FA
PO Box 4514
Houston, TX 77210-4514 

By Phone: 800-366-2425
Online:  http://www.firstdata.com/telecheck/telecheck-request-file-report.htm

Certegy Check Systems, Inc.
PO Box 30296
Tampa, FL  33630-3296

By Phone: 866-543-6315
Online:  www.AskCertegy.com

PSS:  Don't forget, there are Residential and Tenant Screening reporting agencies too! 

LexisNexis

By Phone:  877-448-5732
Online:  https://personalreports.lexisnexis.com/resident_history_report.jsp

CoreLogic Safe Rent
Attention:  Consumer Relations
PO Box 509124
San Diego, CA 92150

By Phone:  888-333-2413
Online:  http://www.corelogic.com/industry/multifamily-housing-solutions.aspx 

Tenant Data Services
PO Box 5404 
Lincoln, NE 68505-0404

By Phone: 402-934-0088 or Toll Free 800-228-1837
Online:  http://www.tenantdata.com/downloads/AuthorizationforFileDisclos_new.pdf
Information page:  http://tenantdata.com/personalreport.php

I bet you thought this list would never end.  Well, that's all I'm gonna give you for now.  Ugh, it seems like everyone or every company can know more about us than we can remember about ourselves!  If you want help getting rid of some of the information you'd rather not have on your reports and don't want to tackle it yourself, feel free to contact me at the email or phone number listed above on the right, or leave a comment below.  I'll respond.  I like to help people fight the system!

You Have Rights When It Comes To Your Credit Report

You do know you have the right to repair your credit don't you?  Well, the bureaus and many creditors would love for you to believe that what is put on your report has to stay there for 7-10 years. That is absolutely not true! In fact, there are tons of laws written to protect YOU, not them!

You have the right to challenge and dispute Anything on your credit reports that you don't agree with. It doesn't matter if it is basically true or not, you have that right. Just because you once signed a contract with a creditor, doesn't mean you can't dispute that item, especially if it has been sold to a 3rd party collection agency. Further, if anything is not correct, and I mean ANYTHING, that they put on your credit report, you can get it removed.  The law says that they have to report Only 100% Accurate information. I have seen enough credit reports over the last 2 decades to know that if you have negative credit, then you have some mistakes on your credit report.  

Think bad credit has to stay for 7-10 years? Nope, it doesn't. What the law actually says is that it cannot stay on longer than 7-10 years. It does not say anything Has to be reported at all. The limit is for the provider of the information and the credit bureaus, not you! But, all states have statutes of limitations. Your state may be less than the 7-10 years. Mine is. Mine is 4 years. What is significant about that is collectors/creditors cannot report you after the statute of limitations because it is time barred and one of the actions considered as collection activity, which is prohibited after it is time barred, is reporting on your credit report. If you dispute a time barred credit line and the reporting party verifies with the bureaus, that is also considered collection activity and it is not allowed, by law!

You have a right to a free credit report from every bureau every single year. You can use these free reports to start cleaning your credit.  You can challenge bad credit based on wrong dates, wrong amounts, wrong types of accounts, heck, many times what you need to dispute is with a collector or collection agency.  You had better dispute those. You never signed a contract with them, you signed with an original creditor. You by law, don't owe them a dime!

3rd party collectors are considered "strangers to the transaction" and the law goes on to say that they are mere volunteers who paid an alleged debt, but not with your permission or a request from you to do so. AmJur states that "the right of subrogation [the right to substitute] does not exist for a stranger to the transaction. This means not only do they not have the right to collect from you, they really don't have the right to report on you. They have NO CONTRACT with you.

Start cleaning your credit - its Your Right!  Start by getting your credit reports from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Send letters to every collector demanding validation and make sure you remind them that they have no contract with you. Make sure you keep a copy and make sure you mail it certified with return receipt. That is important because it is your proof that you have put them on notice. When you do, you further protect yourself from them because the law says that until they validate the alleged debt, they must cease all collection activity. Remember, verifying with credit bureaus is considered collection activity, so it is against the law if they do it.

Once you get your green cards [return receipts from the post office] back, send off letters to the bureaus disputing the validity and accuracy of each of the collectors you just sent the validation demands to. Warn the bureaus that you have demanded validation from each one and none have provided validation. Let them know that if any of them verify and they update the report to show anything was verified, they are now liable for damages as well. They knowingly let information that is barred by law onto your credit report.

You can improve your credit. You can remove negative entries from your report. You don't have to wait 7-10 years, so don't. Do it now or get someone to help you do it. It does take commitment and consistent effort, but it is your right and so much better than paying off alleged debts to some grimy collection companies that have no legal right to demand anything from you. Play the game and beat them - that's your right too!

Financial Credit Bureaus You Should Know About

So, you thought there were only 3 credit bureaus. Nope, though there are the main 3, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion that report your credit, there are some more that report on your banking activity.  I am sure you have heard of them and you probably have a report with something on at least one of them.

There are 3 main banking credit reporting agencies but, there are more than just those 3, and most of them are related to or share information with at least 1 of the other ones.  I'm talking about the ones the banks use to decide if they will open an account for you.  When you want to open a new checking account, many times they pull your credit from at least one of the big 3 credit bureaus, but they will usually pull your information from the financial reporting agencies as well.  Here is a list of some of them:

• ChexSystems.  This used to be Scan.  They have partnerships or business relationships with a lot of banks and merchants.  It is also now owned by eFunds, which leads the nation in electronic payments and risk management.
• TeleCheck.  They are part of the First Data family.  They work like ChexSystems and many banks and credit unions use their services.
• Early Warning Services (EWS).  They are also now in partnership with eFunds.  Many banks and credit unions use this. Sometimes you can open a bank account and then a week or two later it will be closed or frozen with pending closure because the bank's loss mitigation/risk management department pulled a report from EWS.
• Fidelity National Information Services.  Formerly Certegy, a real pain in the butt company, and now they are partnered with eFunds and Telecheck.
• Cross Check.  They partner with Telecheck.

So you see, there are so many different bureaus that have access to your personal information.  The ones I listed above are all considered Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA)  and have to comply with the FCRA.  This is good for you because the FCRA gives you the right to dispute anything on your report and they, like the big 3 credit bureaus, have to make sure that the information they report is 100% correct.  You are also entitled to a free report every year and a free report if you have been denied an account if it was based on information they supplied to the bank you applied at.

They sometimes can be more difficult to get negative entries removed from and many times they will try to only allow information to be removed if their subscriber, the bank that put the information there, tells them to.  But you can dispute, and you can get those bad reports removed.

I will follow up later with some more information about these financial CRA's at a later date and will give you some tips on disputing on the crap that shows up and makes your banking life a pain.  Hopefully, you will learn what you need to do to be able to open a new account, if that has been a problem for you, so you don't have to keep going to check cashing stores and paying ridiculous fees just to be able to use your hard earned money.  You'll be able to walk into a bank with confidence and sit down to open an account without fear, knowing that when they run your identifying information, you'll receive a handshake and congratulations for your new account!

How Long Does It Take To Fix My Credit?

This is a question I get asked quite often. There is no way to put a date or time period to it. There is a general time line that you can expect, but you see, you are not in control of how soon or how long it takes for the credit bureaus or collectors/creditors to respond to your dispute.

So, here I want to explain a basic time line to give you a general idea.

• You get your credit report - same day usually, unless you request it by mail from the bureaus, then expect 15 - 30 days.
• Review and highlight the negatives on your report. Categorize them into collections, charge offs, and judicial. Usually, collections are 3rd party collectors, charge offs should be original creditors, and judicial will be tax liens, bk's, judgments, etc. Write their correspondence address on your list as you will be using this on your letters and for mailing. This can be done the same day you get your credit report, so you are still at 1 day.
• Start writing letters. You will write one type of letter demanding validation from the 3rd party collectors. You will write a different type of letter to original creditors. Now, you can demand validation from them, or if its something simple like 1 or several late pays, you can be specific and just tell them you want to validate the late pays because you don't recall ever being late. Then you request for them to remove the late pays from your report. Many times they do just that. Instead of the hassle of validating, they just remove them, especially if they are old.
• For the judicial entries, guess what? You can actually demand validation for those baddies! The thing is, courts don't verify or validate, so I would be shocked to hear that someone got validation back from the court. Tax liens are a different story though. Those would be disputed with the IRS. You would demand validation the same as you would of a 3rd party collector. That is what they are. The IRS is a collector and not a government agency. They've done a good job at fooling everyone, haven't they! Writing the letters can take you anywhere from a few hours to 2 days at most. So, I would say, you are now on Day 2.
• Now that you've finished the letters, you will need to mail them. These letters need to go CMRR (Certified Mail, Return Receipt). So, some time before you start your credit repair, or after, just trying to cut time here, pick up some green cards and green and white certified mailing supplies from the post office. They are free! It should take you no more than an hour to get everything addressed - envelope, green card and receipt, and ready to go to the post office. You do need to go to the post office to mail these. Cost is under $6 a letter. Okay, that is still day 2.
• Collectors and creditors will have 30 days to respond to your dispute. But, you should receive your green cards back within a week - 2 weeks, tops.
• Next step is to write your letters of disputes to the credit bureaus. These do not go out before you get the green cards back. You must wait till you get those first. 1 letter to each Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. You can dispute every item on each one at the same time. But, DO NOT DISPUTE THE BK AT THIS TIME!!! So, getting the letters written, envelopes addressed and mailed, 1 day. You're up to about 2 weeks.
• The credit bureaus are to respond to your dispute in 30 days. So, the time line now is about 45 days 

You should see a little improvement at this time. You will repeat this process again and again, to get things off your credit. Each dispute with the credit bureaus needs to attack the negative item differently so that they don't label it frivolous and stop the process for 6 months.

The disputing process is a little more detailed than what I've given here because I'm just giving general info, but figure a 30 - 45 day cycle for each round of disputes till you get most or all of the items off.  Expect 2 to 3 rounds at the least and more like 6 -12 months, sometimes longer when there are BK's and things like that.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or email me. I'll respond as soon as possible, usually within a day or two, many times, the same day!

FTC Warns 18 Websites for Violating New Rules for Free Credit Reports

This is a great article from creditinfocenter.com, written by Meredith Simonds. I'm glad she's letting the public know about this and I'm glad the FTC is actually doing something useful!

Shannon
(This article was originally linked but links have been removed as requested by creditinfocenter.com, due to Google's webmaster guidelines.  I would still like to give credit where credit is due, so you can still find this article there, you'll just have to copy/paste and do a search on their site)

FTC Warns 18 Websites for Violating New Rules for Free Credit Reports

July 28th, 2010 ·

by Meredith Simonds


Of all the advice for protecting your credit, regular monitoring of your credit report is at the top of the list. It’s so important, in fact, that the federal government requires the three main credit reporting agencies to give you a free copy of your report every year. Unfortunately, many consumers are confused by sites offering these “free” credit reports in exchange for other paid services. The government passed a new law to help consumers out, but at least 18 websites are breaking the rules and the feds aren’t standing for it.
Many websites display ads for people to order the free credit report they are entitled to every 12 months from each of the three credit reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. However, to process your request, some of these sites require the purchase of other services. Complaints by confused consumers finally led to the passage of a law requiring the following verbiage to appear at the top of any page on which an ad appears for a free credit report:

You have the right to a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com or 877-322-8228, the ONLY authorized source under federal law.

Obviously, this is a huge deterrent to anyone who was considering requesting their report through said website. Certainly it will cut into the profits of those that have grown accustomed to making money off services attached to the “free” credit report request. But for those sites that were simply offering a link to a free report as a service to its readers, this new law will only serve to increase credibility.
Apparently at least 18 sites were counting on lax enforcement of the new law, as the FTC recently sent warning letters to 18 websites that have yet to post the required text at the top of the page. The Consumerist lists the sites here.
Bottom line, the safest and surest way to request your free credit report is to do so directly through the only government-authorized website. If you have not requested your free credit report within the last 12 months, you may do so now through AnnualCreditReport.com.

Myths and Bad Advice Regarding Credit Repair - Part 2

Credit bureaus, as stated before, are in the business of making money. So they don't always tell the whole truth about information that is on your reports, especially negative information, and whether or not it can be removed.

First myth. The tradeline has to stay on your credit for 7 to 10 years. This is false. There is no law that says information has to be there at all.

Second myth. You can't remove accurate negative tradelines. This is tricky, but more false than true. This is because of the word "accurate" in that statement. The truth is that more than likely, though most of what is reported may be "accurate", it can be removed because the law says it has to be 100% accurate. It is very, very rare that it is 100% accurate. Little mistakes like the type of account it is can make it not completely correct. Maybe the amount is off by a few dollars. Maybe the date is not exactly right. It doesn't matter. If it's not a charge off, and being reported as one, then it is not 100% correct. If it is a bankruptcy and the amount is $0, well why the heck would you need to file bankruptcy if the amount was $0. That's a very common mistake.

Third myth. You can't remove personal information from your report. This is false. If it's not exactly right, maybe the street name is misspelled or the numbers or correct apartment is not there, or missing, it's inaccurate. Dispute it. Just remember 100% accuracy is required by law.

Fourth myth. They verify the accuracy with the submitting party as required by law. Nope, false again! They verify, but it is not done the way the law says is sufficient. They verify electronically using codes. The info submitter sends a code back saying it is accurate or not. Well, the courts have upheld against all 3 major bureaus - TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, that electronically verifying is not thorough enough. It's case law. Black's Law Dictionary sums up verification as being Confirmation of correctness, truth, or authenticity, by affidavit, oath, or deposition. This means that the actual person verifying the information as accurate must have first hand knowledge (they don't) willing to state under oath in a court of law, that they know as fact that every bit of information regarding the disputed tradeline is correct. You are the only one who knows first hand everything about the account. Do you think whoever punched in the code back to the bureaus would be able to accurately and honestly testify under oath that the information they have supplied to the bureaus is 100% true? No! They can't and won't, and if forced to, would commit perjury!

Fifth myth. Information removed from your credit report can be re-inserted at a later date. This is true. It sucks, I know. But there is a catch. The law says that if they are going to re-insert something on your credit report, they have to notify you in writing within 5 days. Now, go back to the fourth myth. Supposedly they have verified the information, it just took longer than the 30 days the law gives them. Have they really confirmed the information with someone willing to testify under oath that they have first hand knowledge that what they have just verified is accurate? NOOOOO! If they re-insert and do not notify you, they have violated the law, nothing new. However, that violation is worth $1000 to you. That is the fine that will be imposed on them should you follow through and take them to court. Then, they will have to pay you AND remove the tradeline. Not bad!

Last myth for today. Writing a 100 word statement regarding a negative tradeline is good to do. False. I don't do this because you are kind of admitting that you had an account with whoever. If you don't accept it as being yours, it's easier to dispute. Sure lender's may read it, but it's still a "he said/she said" situation. The tradeline with or without a statement affects your credit score. If it's negative, it's better to keep trying to get it removed than resign yourself to adding a statement. Always remember that like in a court of law, the burden of proof lies on the company or entity that submitted the information. By law, they are supposed to remove what they can't prove.

It is hard to get some of this stuff off. This is because they all think they are above the law. It's "catch me if you can" with them. You need to demand from the bureaus that they give you the name, title and all contact information for the person that verified the information. The law says that if you demand that information from the bureaus they have to supply it to you. But what do they do? They send you a letter stating that they verified electronically. That doesn't meet the burden of proof as required by law. It's a crappy game. So, sometimes, you will have to drag their butts to court. If you prepare and document consistently and take it to court, you can end up getting a monetary judgement against them and have the tradeline removed. Many people have been successful with this. It's not easy, it's not quick, but it does work.

Here's a couple tips for you on your credit repair journey. Dispute with the collectors first - before disputing with the credit bureaus. Always dispute CMRR. Then, when you get the "green card" back saying that the letter was delivered, dispute with the bureaus. This is because the law says when you dispute with the creditor/collector, they have to stop all collection activity until they have validated the debt with you. Verifying with bureaus is considered collection activity. So, if they obey the law, the bureaus will not get a response and will have to remove it.

If you are trying to remove a bankruptcy, don't go after it first. The first steps in that is to dispute and remove the tradelines that are negative that have any association with the bankruptcy. They are not going to remove a bk when there are tradelines stating that it was included in a bk.

Remember also, collectors that report do not have the entire file regarding any account. They buy in bulk and get whatever the creditor forwards to them. They do not have first hand knowledge. They are not a party to the original contract, so they are a voluntary payee and just paid off your account for you at a settled amount. You don't owe them a dime! They took a gamble, stand firm and make them eat their losses!