Negative marks on your credit report will hurt you for 7 to 10 years from the last date that they were reported by the creditor. The problem is, nearly 75% of all credit reports contain errors. These errors can have a negative impact on your score and keep you from being approved for credit or cause you to be charged much higher interest than you would have been with a higher credit rating.
By law, the credit bureau must verify any item that you dispute on your credit report within 30 days of your written request. If they cannot verify the accuracy of the tradeline or item, then it must be removed from your credit report. This is your right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The forst step in doing this is to find a reliable and realistic credit repair program to follow step by step.
You should never pay someone else to repair your credit report. With the right program, you can save hundreds or thousands of dollars and alot of headache by doing it on your own.
Once you have found the right program and recieved a copy of your credit report, you are ready to push the reset button on your credit!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Get Your Credit Report For Free...
Yes, you really can get your credit report for FREE! However, most sites that offer "free" credit reports are doing so with strings attached. If they ask you for credit card info, just exit away from it.
There is no need to pay for credit monitoring or credit scores. You have the right to recieve your credit report for free from the credit reporting bureas once per year upon request. The easiest way to do this is to go to annualcreditreport.com amd fill in the proper information. The site is truly free and you will get a report from all three major credit reporting bureaus. They will offer you other services, but for now, just focus on getting a copy of the credit report so that you can review it for possible errors or identity theft.
Once you have reviewed them you will be on the way to repairing your credit!
There is no need to pay for credit monitoring or credit scores. You have the right to recieve your credit report for free from the credit reporting bureas once per year upon request. The easiest way to do this is to go to annualcreditreport.com amd fill in the proper information. The site is truly free and you will get a report from all three major credit reporting bureaus. They will offer you other services, but for now, just focus on getting a copy of the credit report so that you can review it for possible errors or identity theft.
Once you have reviewed them you will be on the way to repairing your credit!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT:
- Bill collectors can only call you between the hours of 8 a.m and 9 p.m (your time zone)
BILL COLLECTORS CANNOT:
- Discuss any details of your debt with ANY third party without your permission.
- Call you at your place of employment after they have been told not to do so by ANYONE (this means that even if the janitor tells them that you cannot have personal calls, they HAVE to restrict the number) or if they have reason to believe that calls could hinder your job.
- Call you repeatedly or continuously to harass you if you are not answering the phone.
- Use obscene, profain or abusive language.
- Mail or send anything that is meant to look like legal papers that is not.
- Contact you by postcard, unsolicited fax ot unsolicited email.
- Call any number that will cause you to incur costs or fees without your permission. Examples: cell phones or pagers.
- Misrepresent themselves, conceal their identities or pretend to be an attorney if they are not.
- Misrepresent the balance owed.
- Add fees or penalties not allowed by law in your state.
- Threaten to take actions that they cannot or do not intend to take such as file suit, put you in jail, take your property, expose your debt to others, tell your employer, file criminal charges or harm you in any way.
- Imply that you are committing a crime.
- Ignore or disregard WRITTEN requests to CEASE AND DESIST.
- Ignore or disregard your request to send validation of the debt in WRITING.
- Deposit a post dated check earlier than agreed.
- Continue to collect on the debt before they have provided the validation you requested.
Stay tuned for daily blogs that will give you FREE information about protecting yourself from overzealous collectors, settling your debts and even getting the RIGHT kinds of credit!
BILL COLLECTORS CANNOT:
- Discuss any details of your debt with ANY third party without your permission.
- Call you at your place of employment after they have been told not to do so by ANYONE (this means that even if the janitor tells them that you cannot have personal calls, they HAVE to restrict the number) or if they have reason to believe that calls could hinder your job.
- Call you repeatedly or continuously to harass you if you are not answering the phone.
- Use obscene, profain or abusive language.
- Mail or send anything that is meant to look like legal papers that is not.
- Contact you by postcard, unsolicited fax ot unsolicited email.
- Call any number that will cause you to incur costs or fees without your permission. Examples: cell phones or pagers.
- Misrepresent themselves, conceal their identities or pretend to be an attorney if they are not.
- Misrepresent the balance owed.
- Add fees or penalties not allowed by law in your state.
- Threaten to take actions that they cannot or do not intend to take such as file suit, put you in jail, take your property, expose your debt to others, tell your employer, file criminal charges or harm you in any way.
- Imply that you are committing a crime.
- Ignore or disregard WRITTEN requests to CEASE AND DESIST.
- Ignore or disregard your request to send validation of the debt in WRITING.
- Deposit a post dated check earlier than agreed.
- Continue to collect on the debt before they have provided the validation you requested.
Stay tuned for daily blogs that will give you FREE information about protecting yourself from overzealous collectors, settling your debts and even getting the RIGHT kinds of credit!
Friday, April 17, 2009
how to stop harassment
One of the hardest parts of dealing with debt is the phone ringing off of the hook, with over agressive bill collectors on the other end. No matter what you owe or why you fell behind, you deserve to be treated with respect and you should never put up with verbal abuse from anyone. You do have rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977. This act was put in place to regulate the collections industry and rid it of abusive collectors and illegal collection tactics.
There are several options that you may pursue in the event that you are the victim of harassment, threats or verbal abuse at the hands of anyone calling you to collect on a debt, whether it is a legitimate debt or not.
The first course of action is to give them a verbal warning. Let them know plainly that if the issue continues, you will be sending them a Cease and Desist Notice. If they truly wish to handle the account on an amicable basis, this should calm them down a bit.
If the warning does not work, make good on your promise by sending a Cease and Desist notice via certified mail. By law, once they have recieved the notice, they can no longer call you at all. The day after they sign for the notice, follow up with a phone call. Explain that you do wish to resolve the debt, but will not tolerate harassment or abuse. Then explain what you plan to do in regards to making good on the debt that they are calling about. Give them a mailing address and set up a time to call them back and continue to work towards resolving the debt.
If these steps do not yield the results that you are looking for, the next step is an Attorney General complaint. You can find their contact info on your state's website. Most states have a form that you simply fill out on line and submit. This will definatley put a halt to the harassment and verbal abuse, but be sure to still contact the creditor in writing and work towards a resloution.
No matter what, never let them get you upset... try to stay calm and level headed. By doing so, you can avoid saying or doing things that may get you into trouble or make your situation worse.
Cooler heads will prevail and with a little patience and some perseverance, your situation will improve and the calls will stop.
There are several options that you may pursue in the event that you are the victim of harassment, threats or verbal abuse at the hands of anyone calling you to collect on a debt, whether it is a legitimate debt or not.
The first course of action is to give them a verbal warning. Let them know plainly that if the issue continues, you will be sending them a Cease and Desist Notice. If they truly wish to handle the account on an amicable basis, this should calm them down a bit.
If the warning does not work, make good on your promise by sending a Cease and Desist notice via certified mail. By law, once they have recieved the notice, they can no longer call you at all. The day after they sign for the notice, follow up with a phone call. Explain that you do wish to resolve the debt, but will not tolerate harassment or abuse. Then explain what you plan to do in regards to making good on the debt that they are calling about. Give them a mailing address and set up a time to call them back and continue to work towards resolving the debt.
If these steps do not yield the results that you are looking for, the next step is an Attorney General complaint. You can find their contact info on your state's website. Most states have a form that you simply fill out on line and submit. This will definatley put a halt to the harassment and verbal abuse, but be sure to still contact the creditor in writing and work towards a resloution.
No matter what, never let them get you upset... try to stay calm and level headed. By doing so, you can avoid saying or doing things that may get you into trouble or make your situation worse.
Cooler heads will prevail and with a little patience and some perseverance, your situation will improve and the calls will stop.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The sad truth about debt settlement companies....
In my years of experience dealing with debt collections and credit related issues, nothing angered me more than stumbling upon these so called "Debt Settlement" companies. My first run in came while I was still working as a debt collector for a company that purchased defaulted credit card accounts and unsecured loan debts and collected on the balance. I was already getting fed up with the unethical tactics that I was being pushed to use (to collect on the credit card debts) and at first thought that these guys may actually be helping the consumers settle their debts and it seemed like a great idea... until I learned how they really work and how they really make their money.
It turned out that they were actually worse than the creditors that they claimed to "protect" the debtors from. Most people were actually ending up in more debt and more financial trouble than before they got wrapped up in the debt settlement scams to begin with. They were merely preying on the emotions of the consumers and profiting off of the debtors already bad financial situations.
Call after call they were daring me to sue their clients and the clients (the debtor) had no idea because they had signed power of attorney over to the settlement company, who sent me a Cease and Desist Notice... leaving me powerless to let the consumer know that they were getting scammed out of what little money they had left.
The money they were paying the debt settlement company was simply going to pay inflated fees and various "administration" and "handling" fees. Very little, if any, of their payments were actually going to pay their debts. In the mean time, their credit report was slipping down the drain and their creditors were lining up at the courthouse to sue them, garnish their wages and put liens against their property. Funny thing is that if the accounts went to suit, the debt settlement company did not represent them... they were on their own.
On average, if the debt settlement company did settle an account, they were the only ones that benefit at all. to settle a $10,000 account would cost the debtor over $8,000... the debt settlement companie's profit was over $4,500. The debtor could have settled the account on their own for around $5,000 and not had to pay anyone to do it. Not only did they get hoodwinked, but their credit is destroyed and they can't charge a stick of gum at a country store.
Some deal, huh?
It turned out that they were actually worse than the creditors that they claimed to "protect" the debtors from. Most people were actually ending up in more debt and more financial trouble than before they got wrapped up in the debt settlement scams to begin with. They were merely preying on the emotions of the consumers and profiting off of the debtors already bad financial situations.
Call after call they were daring me to sue their clients and the clients (the debtor) had no idea because they had signed power of attorney over to the settlement company, who sent me a Cease and Desist Notice... leaving me powerless to let the consumer know that they were getting scammed out of what little money they had left.
The money they were paying the debt settlement company was simply going to pay inflated fees and various "administration" and "handling" fees. Very little, if any, of their payments were actually going to pay their debts. In the mean time, their credit report was slipping down the drain and their creditors were lining up at the courthouse to sue them, garnish their wages and put liens against their property. Funny thing is that if the accounts went to suit, the debt settlement company did not represent them... they were on their own.
On average, if the debt settlement company did settle an account, they were the only ones that benefit at all. to settle a $10,000 account would cost the debtor over $8,000... the debt settlement companie's profit was over $4,500. The debtor could have settled the account on their own for around $5,000 and not had to pay anyone to do it. Not only did they get hoodwinked, but their credit is destroyed and they can't charge a stick of gum at a country store.
Some deal, huh?
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