Delete a Hard Credit Report Inquiry: Step-by-Step Tutorial

January 3rd, 2011

Too many hard inquiries listed on your credit report can destroy a good credit score. So, the guy at the car dealership who ran your credit 22 times to find you the best rate put you in a bad position. In fact, this many hard inquiries can make a responsible borrower look like the deadbeat who skips out on all his debts!

Hard inquiries can stay on your credit report for up to TWO YEARS – so if you’re looking to improve your credit score, it’s time to get busy removing those credit report inquiries!

Here are the steps to erase an inquiry from your credit report:

Step One: Did you authorize the hard inquiry or did somebody illegally run your credit?
Sadly, this happens all the time. Companies looking for new customers scan databases and could run your credit score without your knowledge. This is illegal, but it happens quite often.

On the other hand, if you did actually apply for a loan that inquiry is a legitimate hard inquiry. Think back to any time you submitted an application for new credit -whether in person, over the phone, or online. Try to remember each time and compare that with what’s listed on your credit report.

Step Two: Now that you have your “inventory” get proof!
It’s time to get tough. Surely you’ve found several illegal hard inquiries ruining your credit score. Here’s the good news: You can get these removed by demanding proof the inquiry was legal. The burden is on the company who ran your credit. In other words, they must prove to that you did in fact apply for credit from them.

You’ll go about doing this by writing inquiry investigation letters. I wasn’t sure whether to send that to the bureaus or to the creditor, but when I enrolled with Lexington Law, they just gave me the letter templates and I just had to fill in the blanks.

Step Three: Documents, Documents, Documents!
I know, I can’t stand having a clutter of papers around my work area. However, if you’re going to handle credit repair by yourself, get used to stacks of paper all over the place.

You should be sending your letters via certified mail from the postal service – each letter cost around $5.50 – $6.00. After weeks or sometimes even months of going back and forth with the lender you might discover that the lender has no proof or legal right to run your credit – SHOCKER!

Now, that you’ve got that material, send it to the bureaus. Don’t expert the guy who ran your credit to be overly anxious in clearing up these inquiries for you.

Ok, so you’ve go the steps to remove inquiries from your credit report. If this sounds like a lot of work – it is! One way around it is to consider having a pro do the work for you. This is one reason we decided to enroll in Lexington’s Credit Repair Service. We spoke with Beth – an expert in this kind of stuff (and friendly too!) Here direct line is: 1-866-246-7311. Good Luck!
-Ben & Casey

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Why You Should NOT Pay a Charged Off Account

January 1st, 2011

When I realized I had to fix my bad credit, I thought to myself:

“All I have to do is pay all my charge offs and then my credit score will go up.” WRONG!

You definitely should NOT pay a charged off account. I know you’re thinking that I am some kind of deadbeat or un-ethical person, but paying a charge off will make your credit score go down.

Listen, I don’t make the credit score rules, but I certainly will take advantage of them. Especially when paying off a charge off may hurt you!

A charge off is a complex item when it comes to rebuilding your credit score so let’s go over a few of the basics. By the time you finish reading this article, I guarantee you’ll agree that paying a charge off is a big mistake!

Definition of a charge off
When you don’t pay a debt – usually a credit card bill or installment loan, the creditor (credit card company) will decided to “charge off” the debt.

Usually this happens after you don’t pay any money on the debt for 120 consecutive days. When the charge off your debt, the credit card company gets to count the transaction as a loss – on the books. (they lose money because you didn’t pay, but they pay less taxes to the tax man.

Why Paying a Charge Off is a Mistake
Here’s what happens when you just pay a charged off account without researching your options:

(a) the creditor UPDATES your credit report. Instead of having an older unpaid charge off on your credit report, you now have a brand NEW PAID charge off!

To a lender it looks like a brand new delinquency. A sane person assumes you are rewarded for you owning up and paying your debt. However, it works the opposite. A brand new delinquency will destroy your credit score.

(b) once you pay that debt, your leverage to negotiate with the creditor is gone. Often a charge off is sent to a collection agency who tacks on illegal interest and fees. If you pay the entire debt without first negotiating, you’ll never get that money back.

Negotiations are about having leverage. If the collection agency has yet to collect any money, you have some leverage. This allows you to settle the debt for less while also forcing them to erase the bad credit from your credit report upon payment. (this is called “pay-for-delete” and our attorney at Lexington Law 1-866-246-7311 – taught us how to do it.)

If you pay the charge off, your leverage is ZERO.

Here’s the bottom line: If you have a charged off account, don’t pay it – at least without exploring your options. I realize the whole issue is confusing and the laws intimidating, and counter-intuitive. If you need to talk this over before paying a charge off or collection, give these guys at call: 1-866-246-7311. They helped me figure it all out.

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What is Considered a Good Credit Score

December 31st, 2010

So you’re thinking about whether to apply for new credit such as a high roller credit card and your wondering whether you’ve got what it takes with your credit score.

In other words, you’re wondering: What is Considered a Good Credit Score?

Are you above 700?
Generally a good credit score is any number above 700. And if you’re asking, you might have been turned down for credit or a loan recently or perhaps offered a very high interest rate.

Did you know that a bad credit score can also affect your career?

Prospective employers can run your credit report and decide you are not a responsible person and choose to not hire you. If your credit score is between 350 and 699 is not good and it’s going to cost you.

Payment history
Your payment history is a huge factor when Equifax, Experian and Trans Union are calculating your credit score. Making late payments or not making payments at all are very derogatory marks on your credit report.

Payment history weighs (obviously) heavily on your ability to buy a car or a home. But it also can even affect your ability to secure school loans. If your payment history is checkered be sure to pay your current bills on time now – it’s never too late!

Age of credit history
Another factor affecting your credit score is the age of your credit history. Managing to pay cash for everything until the age of 35 is probably something you’re proud of but lenders won’t celebrate with you about it.

To them, you look like a risk. How can they gauge if you’ll repay your loan or credit card if you’ve never done it before? If you don’t have much of a credit history, change that.

One easy way to build positive credit is to get a secured credit card. Make small purchases and not only pay the bill on time but pay the balance each and every month.

Type of credit
Do you have more than one high interest credit cards? How about a car loan or two? Did you cosign a car loan for a friend? You might be an authorized user on a family member’s credit card and not know it. Any personal loans? A home loan? A few mortgages? Timeshare? Boat?

The type of credit you have also contributes to your credit score. If possible, eliminate risky, high interest loans and credit cards.

What should I do to Improve my Credit Score?
First, you should find out what the top three credit bureaus have determined to be your credit score! If you’ve read this article and feel doom and gloom about some of the things that can hurt your credit score mentioned above, don’t. All is not lost.

Your credit score is your responsibility and you owe it to yourself to come face to face with the truth.

If you find that you have a credit score below 700 it might be wise to employ the service of Lexington Law Office 1-866-246-7311. They are the same people who raised our score – even though we were skeptical that anybody could help us!

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How “Piggybacking” Will Improve Your Credit Score

December 29th, 2010

Certainly you’ve seen some so-called underground tactics to raise your credit score – including “Piggybacking”. (Piggybacking is when you use somebody’s good credit history to boost your credit score.)

There are many faster ways to improve your credit score and if you’re asking about “piggybacking” you might be looking for an escape route. There really isn’t one. You can make a plan but you can’t cover up charge offs and collections by piggybacking on somebody who has a good credit history. Once you’ve been denied credit it’s imperative to FIRST legally erase bad credit. You can worry about piggybacking later on.

Since you asked, let’s review: What is Piggybacking?
Piggybacking has become a popular method for repairing credit. If done correctly and it can improve your credit score. If another consumer makes you an “authorized user” on their credit accounts you are piggybacking the payment history from those accounts.

Piggybacking was originally intended for spouses who do not work or young students with no credit history.

Is Piggybacking legal?
So far, yes. Piggybacking credit is legal. However, there are questionable tactics being used by so called credit repair experts. These companies will match complete strangers for a fee. For instance, they’ll take a consumer with bad credit with a consumer with good credit in order to facilitate the piggybacking.

The consumer with bad credit pays a large sum of money to the company who in turn pays the consumer with good credit for allowing the bad credit consumer to be an authorized user on their account. Credit bureaus are becoming wise to this scheme. They are right now building systems to catch consumers “piggybacking”.

If you would like to use piggybacking to improve your credit we suggest asking a trusted family member for help rather than a complete stranger. This is the purpose for which piggybacking was intended.

It is also a good idea to contact a reputable credit repair attorney. You don’t want to be caught piggybacking all of your accounts with the credit bureaus. They’ll likely discount all the positive effects and you’ll be back where you started.

Take the time to educate yourself and your family member about piggybacking before you get involved with each other financially.

Lexington Law Office can help you understand piggybacking and the positive affects it can have on your credit history. We used Lexington for more than just deleting our charge offs and other bad credit. They showed us how to correctly do goodwill negotiations and build positive credit from utility bills and more.

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How to Raise Your Credit Score 100 points in 30 Days or Less

December 24th, 2010

Believe it or now, you can legally raise your credit score 100 points in 30 days or less. Below is your blueprint for success. I’ll warn you – this is going to take a daily effort so get ready!

Dispute any questionably negative credit report entries
The first thing you want to do to raise your credit score is dispute any negative items with the three major credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax and Trans Union.

To keep any negative entry, they must receive a response from the creditor who is reporting a delinquency on your credit report. It is your right to ask them to investigate the delinquency and they only have 30 days to do so. More often than you might think, the credit bureaus do not respond to your request in a timely manner and they are forced by law to remove the derogatory item from your credit report.

If that happens, celebrate! You’ve already taken a big step to raising your credit score!

If the creditor has proven this is your debt, it is time to negotiate your credit card debt and other bad debt. All of your correspondence from this moment on must be in writing. You should also mail the letters via certified mail through the postal service.

Here’s a huge tip: Ask the creditor if you repay the debt if they will remove the negative mark on your credit report. If the creditor thinks there is a chance for you to repay the debt they are more likely to work with you on the terms of the repayment.

Dispute inquiries
Too many hard inquiries on your credit report can harm your credit score. The burden is on the company who reported the inquiry to the three major bureaus to prove to that you did in fact apply for credit from them.

Nobody does this, but this alone can improve your credit score 20-30 points. Write them letters asking for proof. You have a right to a copy of any document you signed or any recordings of conversations where you authorized the lender to check your credit report. If proof is not provided to you, contact the credit bureaus to have the erroneous inquiries removed.

Ask for help from your lenders
A portion of your credit score is calculated by looking at your available credit. Do you have a good payment history with a credit card company? If you have a good relationship with them ask to have your credit limit raised. Don’t max out your credit limit. Show that you have the restraint not to! This simple step will definitely improve your credit score.

Add positive credit
Not all creditors report to the credit bureaus and some only report to them on derogatory items. Are you paying your utility bills on time? What about your rent? How about car insurance or medical bills?

We had no idea you could do this until we enrolled in Lexington Law and they did this for us with a template form. Write a letter and ask them to report your responsible payment behavior to the credit bureaus.

You can also ask the bureaus directly to include positive items on your credit report. Have copies of your payment history along with copies of checks and mail them to the credit bureaus with your request letter.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help regarding negative credit. In fact, it’s often the most responsible thing to do. Especially if you have more than one derogatory item affecting your credit score. Again, my wife and I used Lexington Law Firm who did all of this hard work for us and raised our credit score by 160+ points.

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Can You Buy a House with Judgments on Your Credit Report

December 15th, 2010

So you’re looking to move out of the apartment and into a house…but then you realize…
“Oh crap, I’ve got a judgment on my credit report?”
So now you are asking yourself:
Can I buy a house with a Judgment on my credit report?

NO! You most definitely cannot buy a home with judgments against you. No banker or mortgage lender will approve a home loan if you have a judgment on your credit report. The reason is that the judgment could be attached to the property once you move in.

Your only option is to remove the credit report judgment before applying for a mortgage.

Two Ways to Remove a Judgment:
1. You can dispute your credit reports – Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. You have to do this on your own. If a dispute does not work, then you’ll need to look to hire a credit attorney.

2. If you hire a credit attorney, consider the Lexington credit repair program. They have a few strategies and a special loophole they use to remove judgments, liens, and public records.

The loophole involves debt validation and special dispute methods. They erased a large judgment I had for a credit card debt ($5,800+) – even after I had exhausted all of the typical do-it-yourself methods.

Once you do remove the judgment, you’ll be anxious to apply for the mortgage immediately. However, it’s very important that you shop around. There are many unscrupulous lenders out there waiting to prey on consumers with a low or average credit score.

Better yet, contact a mortgage broker you trust. We used a broker and saved money even after paying him the modest brokerage fee. Remember, even a half a point on a 30 year mortgage is equal to thousands of dollars.

Finally, I know that it’s embarrassing to talk about having bad credit and judgments against you, but it’s your reality right now. You can work through this. If you want to tell your story to a pro who’s already helped others remove judgments, dial: 1-888-585-3855 – instant helpline for removing credit report judgments.

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Can I Get A Mortage With Bad Credit?

August 5th, 2010

Q. Can I Get Approved for a Mortgage with Bad Credit?

A. Having a good credit rating is more important than ever when it comes to future purchases on credit.  Getting approved for a mortgage is not as easy as it was 5 years ago, or even a year ago, especially with the turn of events connected with the real estate bubble bursting.

It was often thought that secondary mortgages were the problem when it came to inflating real estate values and collateral worth when compared to income.   We are now learning people often bought houses they couldn’t afford and lived beyond their means, often with catastrophic consequences.

So, if you have bad credit and are looking to get approved for a mortgage, having a substantial down payment of 30% or more of the purchase price would certainly help defray some of the costs and lower the amount you want to borrow. Still, an unfavorable credit rating will still hinder any application.  At the very least, if you were approved, you would pay an interest rate comparable to the standards now being set by lenders.

We tried to apply for a mortgage even while our credit scores were in the 500 range. No lenders would even consider giving us credit. You may do what we did, which was to enroll in the Lexington Law credit repair program for a few months until your score is good enough to re-apply.

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Building Credit After Bankruptcy

July 27th, 2010

Q. How do I Build Credit After Bankruptcy?

A. Bankruptcy is an inevitable fact of life for many consumers today.  Although the economic crisis mainly is behind us, it has left in its wake a portion of society struggling with debt.

Even though most people may have been perfectly qualified for the funds for which they were approved, circumstances could change suddenly and mean a drastic change in lifestyle and how they look at their financial life.  Loss of employment, illness and other factors are beyond everyone’s control.

Bankruptcy is available in two ways: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.  A chapter 7 bankruptcy means the court will forgive most debts you have, except for federal & state income tax and student loans.   A Chapter 13 bankruptcy means a schedule of repayment to the creditors, most often at a negotiated amount worked out between the debtor and the courts.  Both bankruptcy types will stay on your credit report for 7 years and will lower your credit rating.

The best thing to do if you have filed Chapter 13 is to look for a low interest credit card.  This is a great way to use a credit card to rebuild credit. These will enable you to purchase items at a small amount, paying the total balance due when the bill comes.  Try to accomplish this consistently to establish a pattern of paying on time and that you can afford what you are purchasing.

Chapter 7 bankruptcies are a little trickier to work around.  You are virtually unable to be eligible for any amount of credit for about a year, maybe even two.  But once you are able to find one, ask for a minimal amount so that you are able to pay the balance off as soon as the bill becomes due.

It is time consuming and will take a while, but you can rebuild your credit after filing bankruptcy, and improve your credit score.

We didn’t file bankruptcy – but came close. Instead we used a credit repair attorney to get our finances back on track.

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What is a Good Credit Score

July 15th, 2010

Q. What is a Good Credit Score?

A. First, let’s discover the full history of your credit score. One of the first credit organizations to utilize credit score ratings developed by Earl Issac and Bill Fair were Montgomery Wards and Carte Blanche.  The system they developed used math formulas to rate a person’s ability to pay back credit advanced to them against what they earned. This formula became known as a FICO score and is used by most lenders and appears on all credit agencies reports.

There are five parts to the calculation and each item is given a different classification.  35% of your credit rating score is determined by how you pay your bills.  If you have a good score but miss a payment, it will drop your rating considerably.  30% Is based upon how much you owe.  If you have a lot of balances that are almost at the limit, this will severely limit how much you need to afford your lifestyle and will lower your credit score.  If you are living from paycheck to paycheck, you are walking a serious debt line.

Also taken into consideration is how long you have been receiving credit (15%), how many times you have applied for credit elsewhere, incurring more debt (10%) and the kind of credit types you have, i.e., car loan, mortgage, credit cards (10%).

According to the myFICO.com web site, the median score in the United States is 723. About one third of Americans have scores between 550 and 700 while 7% have scores lower than that. 

Therefore, if your FICO score is under 700, you are in the bottom 7% of people!

This is a determining factor in how much you can afford to pay for something.  In applying for a mortgage, a person with a FICO score of 760 or more will pay $1,000 less in interest per year than someone with a lesser score, all because they have been determined to be able to afford it.

If your score is under 700, then you will need to improve it before applying for a mortgage. My score was in the mid to upper 500’s before I enrolled in Lexington Law. They got my score up to 745.

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Legal Judgments – Definitions of Legal Judgments

June 30th, 2010

Almost any judgment against you is a bad thing. (I would prefer to chew glass or have a root canal than learn that a judgment has been entered against me.)

Many of our subscribers ask us to define a legal judgment – so we did. Check out the various kinds of legal judgments and definitions.

There are many different kinds of legal judgments and each will affect your credit rating in different ways.  The best thing to do in order to have your credit rating stay healthy is not get your financial identity into situations you can’t control.

Civil judgments are the final determination by a court in a lawsuit that involves two parties.  If you sue somebody because they didn’t honor a contract (called “breach”) and you win, then the judge will order a judgment against the other party to order them to fulfill the contract or pay a certain amount of money.

Another example of a civil judgment is a divorce decree, ordered by a judge.  It will distribute any property you may own jointly, take care of spousal support and take custody of the children in a way you both agree.

A Criminal Judgment is the final decision in a criminal proceeding.  It is different from a civil lawsuit, as they are between two persons.  Criminal proceedings are between a citizen and a governmental entity.  Whatever the judge returns as a verdict it is considered a criminal judgment.

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