Are Credit Repair Courses All A Scam?

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:26 am  
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The short answer is “No they are not”. However, when you are looking at doing credit repair yourself, you must be careful to whom you are listening.

There are credit repair courses available that teach you how to repair your credit and get back on track financially. These courses many times are free and can be taken by anyone. The entire purpose of the courses is to help consumers take control of their finances by teaching them about how to manage their money and learning different methods of spending and saving.

Part of the courses were helping you find better ways to manage your finances and to look at your money as something not to just be spent, but also to be save. Make your money work for you instead of you working for your money. More than that, credit repair courses help fix your credit, and improve credit score & definitely making sure that you can maintain good credit and will not fall into the same problems again in the future.

A few things that credit repair course can do is help you repair the credit that you have. Every repair course will be slightly different, but the results will always be the same, to fix your credit so you do not have further problems. You will learn how to write letters to the three major credit bureaus to make sure that they fix any errors or incorrect information on your reports.

Thousands of people have wrong information reported on their report that further lowers their score. Learning your consumer rights to have the mistakes fixed and corrected is a major part of course. It can be very difficult to get the credit card companies and banks, as well as the bureaus themselves to fix the errors. You will learn what to write, who it needs to be sent to, and what information needs to be included. You will also learn what information can be reported or used against you and what should not, how to have old information removed permanently and removing black marks as well.

Each state has varying rules on information being reported, however learning how to remove these negative marks will further improve credit score. Also, remember that your score will not go up over night. It will take a few months of letter writing and checking your reports to make sure the information was taken off. However, you will slowly begin to see your score improve and go up.

These courses if applied correctly will raise your credit score which is extremely important even if you have no plans of using credit cards and loan again. Having a good credit score can affect many areas of your life as well. With better credit score, the better the offers you will receive and the less hassles you will experience with your application.

Your Credit Score Insider,

Mark

How Long Does It Really Take To Fix Bad Credit?

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 1:57 pm  
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   Ok, so our economy is still  in shambles and even more companies are filing for bankruptcy. Unemployment is rising (still!) and foreclosures continue to rise. If you listen to any news program or financial advisor, most if not all of them continue to preach doom and gloom.

   They say you need almost perfect credit to get a loan for anything. And that statement if very true. Many people who could have gotten financing for a car or home loan last year are having their credit applications denied.  Most every creditor has raised their minimum requirement over 30 points on your FICO scores from this same time last year.

   If you want to get a loan of any kind, the key is to get your credit score way up, but this can prove difficult if you have bad or no credit. The good thing is that there are tricks that will get even the worst credit score up in no time.

   First of all, you need to try to get your credit card limits raised. If you have credit cards, you should contact the banks and ask for a limit increase on each one. Believe it or not, your limit is a primary factor in your FICO score. And once approved for these increases don’t go out and max out your cards. It is also helpful to leave a gap between the amount you owe and your spending limit.  If you are wondering how long does it take to raise your credit score if you don’t have credit cards or if they won’t increase your limit, move on to my next tip.

   Have negative reports removed from your credit history. You can do this on your own by disputing each negative remark on your FICO report. Usually when the consumer disputes it, the company will soon remove it. If not, keep disputing it until they do. This is easier than you think. So, how long does it take to raise your credit score? As little as 42 days if you stay on top of things and know the right method.

   We also have to be cautious of the credit accounts we do have. Many of them are lowering credit limits or cancelling card accounts altogether! Some creditors are becoming more and more cruel when it comes to any negative account history.  I had one student who was never late on her payments before, but due to a change of address mix-up, missed paying one of her accounts and the creditor dinged her score by almost 2oo points!!  

   So how do you fight back?? Good question. Arm yourself with knowledge and practical credit repair information that works.

Learn how here credit report repair tips.

 

Up Next For Taxpayers – A New Fannie Mae

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 8:43 am  
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     A few of the larger mortgage companies have changed their FICO score requirement. What has taken place is that lenders are now increasing the middle score requirement to qualify for a home loan. The have increased the requirement by 20-40 points!

Why is this happening now? It is mostly due to all of the HUD defaults.  Lenders are responding by increasing the scored needed on your middle FICO score to qualify.

In the wake of the mortgage meltdown, most private lenders have reverted to the traditional down payment rule of 10% or 20%. Housing experts agree that a high down payment is the best protection against default and foreclosure because it means the owner has something to lose by walking away.

Meanwhile, at the FHA, the down payment requirement remains a mere 3.5%. Other policies—such as allowing the buyer to finance closing costs and use the homebuyer tax credit to cover costs—can drive the down payment to below 2%.

Then there is the booming refinancing program that Congress has approved to move into the FHA hundreds of thousands of borrowers who can’t pay their mortgage, including many with subprime and other exotic loans.

HUD just announced that starting this week the FHA will refinance troubled mortgages by reducing up to 30% of the principal under the Home Affordable Modification Program. This program is intended to reduce foreclosures, but someone has to pick up the multibillion-dollar cost of the 30% loan forgiveness. That will be taxpayers.

In some cases, these owners are so overdue in their payments, and housing prices have fallen so dramatically, that the borrowers have a negative 25% equity in the home and they are still eligible for an FHA refi. We also know from other government and private loan modification programs that a borrower who has defaulted on the mortgage once is at very high risk (25%-50%) of defaulting again.

Folks, this has the potential for things to get uglier in the housing market and refinance arenas.

Even more reason to know how to increase your credit scores and protect them once you get them above 700.

Stay tuned.