Monday, July 12, 2010

Credit Reports And Collection Practices

Education of Credit

Our education system lacks emphasis on the number one issue in our financial life; credit. Credit determines the cost of everything you finance in your lifetime and either contributes to your financial well being or cripples you financially both in the short term and into your retirement years. In a perfect world credit bureaus would have your best interest at heart but we don’t live in such a world.

“It’s The Best System We Have”

Transunion, Experian, and Equifax do a wonderful job at keeping trillions of bits of information straight and accounted for on billions of credit reports, but they aren’t perfect. It truly is your responsibility to hold an accurate report. Credit Repair is the only means of an accurate report.

Not Once, Not Twice, But many

You think you are going to default on that credit card and only have the credit card company to deal with? Think again. Collection companies are paid dividends to collect on the debt and the debt is sold and resold again and again. The problem is your debt will report many times throughout this grueling systematic way of reporting. Credit Repair stops this from happening.

Example

Let’s say you default on a Visa card in January and by May collection companies are calling you repeatedly. You ignore the calls because you can’t pay it. That collection company is going to have a certain time limit per their contract to collect on the debt. If they don’t succeed in collecting on the debt by December they will then sell your information to another debt collector. This process will go on and on and on. It could be years later and you will still be receiving phone calls. Each time a new collection company attempts to collect from you they also put it on your credit. One account reporting many times can be a very frustrating situation. Griffin Credit can stop this.

Bottom Line

Laws are provided to you but you have to know how to enforce them. If you are behind on credit cards and are being hounded by collection companies they won’t go away. You must prepare yourself by hiring a firm such as Griffin Credit to assist you in this situation. Collection companies are paid to harass you and they do a fine job at it, but here is the catch… you don’t have to answer that call or be harassed. It is your responsibility to hold an accurate report and credit repair is the only way of making sure the report is accurate.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Considering Credit Repair

Credit Scores

Credit Repair will increase the beauty of your credit reports, raise the credit scores, and you will reap all of the benefits that come from having excellent credit. Good credit translates into self-confidence, having an inner peace, and rewards of lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms. Credit repair can provide all of this, but you need to take the initiative. Credit is very important, and there is no derogatory credit event that can’t be offset by knowing the Fair Credit Reporting Act and how to apply it to credit repair principles. Regardless of your credit situation, if you take action now you will soon be rewarded with considerable improvements. Stay the course, and before you know it you will have credit that you can be proud of.

Credit Repair Services

The first step is to contact www.griffincredit.com and discussing your specific credit issues. There is more involved than simply spotting items that do not belong to you. Many of the errors on credit reports may look familiar but should not report as a matter of law. These legal compliance issues require training to identify. Doing the job on your own can be rewarding, but unless you have the time to learn the applicable laws and completing a 6 to 12 month process of fighting the agencies…. You should hire a reputable credit repair organization. A good service will quickly spot the issues that should be challenged as well as providing a plan of action for rebuilding and raising your scores.

Why Rebuild?

Tough times may have left you financially upside down and either reluctant to open new accounts or fearful of being denied or perhaps you told yourself “I won’t use credit again so who cares?” And yet, there is nothing more critical to credit repair success than rebuilding your credit. Many people are under the impression that they should wait until their credit has recovered before applying for new accounts. Do not hesitate. Now is the time to start. The condition of your credit is not an obstacle we can’t overcome together. Secured credit cards are the perfect solution. Your credit will recover most quickly if you get two cards. A good credit repair company should be able to recommend good low cost cards with no income or credit requirements that will report to all three bureaus.

Debt Management for Credit Repair

Now that you are seeing improvement on your scores, it is essential that you manage your finances very carefully. Budget yourself, do not let your obligations exceed your ability to repay, and establish a solid plan for paying your bills. It is crucial for your credit repair program that you do not fall behind on your payments. It is equally critical that you manage your new secured credit cards in a special way, a way that will optimize your scores. Use your cards regularly, but do not use more than 30 percent of the cards limit. When you make your payment each month, leave a small balance, even ten dollars, on the card. This requires a little attention, but it will be worth it.

The Payoff of Repair

It is a wonderful feeling to watch your credit reports improve and your scores increase. And the new confidence and self-esteem you will experience will carry into many parts of your life and relationships. But there are fantastic financial benefits to credit repair as well. As your credit scores increase you will be eligible for low rate, favorable term financing. This does not mean that you should go into debt, but when financing is needed for something like an automobile or a home purchase the difference can add up to hundreds of dollars each month, and thousands each year. The lower payments that you will qualify for can easily mean budgetary comfort. Soon you will discover that your credit repair success has built on itself and transformed your life.

Monday, June 7, 2010

About Credit Repair

Why Credit Repair?

The main reason for doing credit repair is to improve your credit and raise your scores. The most significant improvements will occur with those with poor credit, but if you have decent credit you may still get impressive results. Credit scores determine the interest rate you receive on financing, leasing, even insurance… Everyone can benefit from higher credit scores.

What Does Credit Repair Do?

Credit repair will address anything that contributes to your credit and it’s score. The process will include sending dispute letters to the credit bureaus to repair damaging information from reporting. Basic information in your credit profile should be addressed as well; if you do not have the accounts you need to develop higher scores a good credit repair service should provide you with the guidance and assistance to rebuild your credit to insure the best outcome. And finally, you may benefit from appropriate score optimization tips. Credit Repair can help but having good trade lines and knowing how information hurts or helps your scores is infinitely valuable.

Do it yourself?

Just like anything else with proper information and knowledge you can do it yourself. If you want to re-wire your electricity in your home go ahead...we just don’t recommend it. Your local hardware store may have a “do it yourself roofing guide” but we don’t recommend it. Here is why; you must have an understanding of the Fair Credit Reporting Act as well as knowledge of the way the Fair Isaac FICO score works. And if you have any collections on your credit report you will need to understand the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and your state statutes of limitation. In addition to the extensive knowledge you must have in order to repair your credit you must also know how Transunion, Experian, and Equifax work. These agencies have in house resources to protect and will do anything and everything they can to prevent you from effectively removing items from your report; if you don’t do it right the first time they may lock you out of attempting it again. You are better off to hire a professional like Griffin Credit to do the repair for you.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Know your report inside and out

Credit repair is a great tool . . .if you know how to use it. You must have a watchful eye on your report. Question everything on your report. It is your responsibility to ensure a healthy credit report, no one else is going to have as much interest in your credit than you. The entire credit reporting system, with its many participants, is prone to error. And these errors have the tendancy to lower your credit score and ultimately cost you dollars. Take your time, find every error, and get ready to fight. Griffin Credit can help.

Dispute Collections

Give special attention to collections. Collectors buy and sell debt every day. If your account does not pay off the collector will package it up and sell it to another collector who will try their luck. And each collector in turn will report your collection to the credit bureau. By law, when a collector sells a debt they must withdraw the account from your credit report. Unfortunately, there is no real motivation for them to do so and these erroneous accounts can linger needlessly for years. Griffin Credit removes such accounts from the report.

Think before you act
dispute letters are the back bone of credit repair. It is not hard to write a dispute letter, but it is very difficult to make the letter effective. When it comes to credit repair you take a chance if you dont have the proper angles to dispute. It may be tempting to tell your whole life story in your dispute letter, but your heartfelt tale will fall on deaf ears. The goal of a dispute clerk is to translate your letter as quickly as possible into a two digit code summarizing your concern. For best results, you must know that codes that the bureaus use to dispute, it makes it much more effective.

Build New Credit Today

As important as the dispute process is, it is even more essential to your credit repair that you have open positive accounts. Your credit scores are based on everything on your report, both the negative and positive. Removing the negative will eliminate the burden on your scores. But your scores will not automatically rise. You need something good on your reports for your scores to improve. If you cannot get regular credit cards, get secured cards. They are the perfect credit repair tool and can improve your scores over 100 points within six months, if managed right.

Manage Revolving Debt Right

Your credit scores are very sensitive to the balances. Many people working hard at credit repair are discouraged when their scores continue to fall in spite of perfect on-time payments. For the best credit repair results you should only use 30 percent of the amount available on your cards. To underline the importance of this matter it is worth noting that your revolving balances can move your scores over 100 points. A maxed out credit card will have a devastating effect on your scores. Watch your balances!

Budget and Save

For long term credit repair success you need to make sure that new problems do not arise. A fresh late payment will be a major setback. The best way to avoid the kind of financial stress that can lead to late payments is to have a financial buffer in the form of a savings account. When unplanned expenses arise they will not become unmanageable. If you do not seem to be able to save money you should start by creating a written budget. Examine all of your expenses and make sure that there is room for savings each month. Even a small contribution will do the trick.

Get Credit Repair Help

Professional credit repair help is very affordable! Griffin Credit can help with all of your credit repair needs and bring you effective results, we are here to fight for your credit and we guarantee results.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Integrity

A few words on integrity.

In a world of high-tech, instant emails and instant gratification, there seems to be an ever growing sense of impersonality within our midst. We overhear personal conversations at the deli counter. We see people waiting in offices, enveloped in their mobile laptop and blackberrry. We seldom know our postal carrier, and we don’t even have a milkman or butcher anymore.
We’ve become unaccountable; hiding behind electronic doodads so we don’t have to face each other eye to eye in total honesty.

It used to be a handshake was all it took to confirm in stone our business intentions. Now, we have to engrave our signatures in blue ink, notarized with seals of approval. We simply do not do what we say we will do… we lack integrity.

What ever happened to integrity? Whether you define it as a core value system, or being honest, you’re only half right. Those are some components of integrity…but it is so much more.

Integrity in whole, respects a unity a completeness of consistent principles and ethics – which comprise a value system that never sways, never erodes. It is committed to authenticity– direct accountability. It doesn’t concede to infallibility, but rather is a refusal to engage in incorrect behavior and instead embraces the ethics of correcting fallibilities under a moral guideline.

According to famed law professor, Stephen Carter, integrity imposes three distinct steps as such: 1. The discernment of what is right and wrong. 2. Acting on what one discerns as right and wrong even at a personal cost. And 3. Stating you are acting on your discernment of right from wrong.
In this model, integrity isn’t honesty. It is an act of thinking and taking action on what is right and remaining accountable for those actions regardless of its outcome.

What we need more than ever is to remember that behind every keystroke is a person who needs to remain accountable, reliant, efficient and trustworthy. We need to remain ethical in our high-tech world, and remain steadfast in our society’s definition of integrity.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Repair and Prepare

Credit repair brings incredible results, perhaps it will change the entire look of your report and raise the scores beyond what you thought was possible. It may happen fast or it may take time, this all depends on your report. One thing is for sure . . .credit repair is not the only cure for your sickly credit, it will take work. It is important to understand what credit repair is and to set a realistic mind set of expectations.

Prepare for the Repair

There are three things you must do to ensure that credit repair brings the best possible results. Get control of your existing obligations by building a practical budget. You must learn how to manage your account balances to promote higher credit scores, and you must learn the effect each type of credit will have on your credit report.

Fail to Plan;Plan to Fail

Creating a budget is an emotional process. The more you know about your finances the better off you will be. When the time comes to make a decision that will affect your monthly cash flow it should be made unemotionally. Too many financial errors were made out of emotional decisions or purchases. You are going to work hard on your credit repair. Look at the numbers . . .numbers don't lie. You can’t afford to fly blind.

Get a pad of paper and list everything that you spend money on. Take your time and make sure that you have included everything from the big monthly obligations to your daily incidentals. Don’t forget an item because it occurs only occasionally, like an annual vacation. Just estimate the total amount you will need and divide it by twelve to determine the amount you should set aside each month. The goal of this exercise is to get a complete picture of your expenses.

Your Balances and Your Credit Scores

There was a time when you would have great credit if you paid your bills on time. This is no longer enough. Making timely payments for years and still having terrible credit scores is very common. For best results you must understand the relationship between your balances and the scores. The FICO scoring model grades you on the amount of available credit that you use, commonly referred to as the balance to limit ratio.

For the best credit score you should reduce your balances so that you are using less than 33% of the credit. The lower the balance, the higher your score will be. Don’t underestimate this. You could lose over 100 points by running up a revolving balance to the limit.

Using the Right Kind of Credit

The FICO scoring model likes certain credit types, but will penalize you for others. If you want to improve your credit you should use common cards like MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover. Avoid consumer credit, including store cards and financing offered by furniture and electronics stores.

Soap Box

This country is ridden with debt and borrowing money we don't have. The government has announced that Americans are in trouble with credit card debt and imply that we, as Americans should not be in such debt and have been carilous with our spending . . .while this is true, the Goverment is now borrowing more money than ever with a unsurpassed deficit with no solid recourse in balancing back to zero. This goes to show that credit can be misused. Credit is a wonderful thing in many cases. Being able to buy a home and manage a payment has helped our country grow and prosper, sometimes even made the economy boom and create millions of jobs. On the other hand credit can be dangerous and cripple family by leading them into debt and ultimately ruin your marriage, split families apart, and foreclose on homes. Use credit wisely and ask yourself . . ."Do I really NEED this?" and "At what cost am I really prepared to pay for this so called NEED?" When you purchase using credit you are gambling on having the money to pay it off later, their are few guarantees in life and this is not one of them.


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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Credit Repair- The Start of a Long Race

Be prepared for more than clean up

Credit Repair is a great tool for cleaning up your credit, in fact it is the only tool. However, to get lasting results and to better your life from the repair on it is crucial that you stay persistant and keep a watchful eye on your report. You must be willing to fight for your scores, challenge everything, and be prepared to harrass the agencies until they adhere to the laws given to you and I. Or, you could hire www.Griffincredit.com to fix your credit for you.

Your Credit Report

Your credit report is most likely not accurate in telling you who you are. I have been doing this for many years and I can tell you that credit scores are no more than a reflection of a window of time in your life . . .it doesn't make you who you are. The credit bureaus make mistakes, so do we as humans, the report reflects such mistakes and either allows you or prevents you from financing or buying things that you and your family need to enjoy life. It is necessary to look at your credit and comb through with a fine tooth comb to ensure all information is correct. Does the addresses reflect correctly on the report? Does your spouse or former spouses information report on your bureau? Are their any AKA's (Also known as) showing on your report? This is a large entry for Identity Theft to find it's way into your life. You must examine your report line by line and take a vicious approach at ensuring the bureau is reporting correctly. www.Griffincredit.com can repair your credit and ensure your report is accurate.

Don't Give Up

Items arent removed on your report the first time you dispute, you can't give up. You must have follow up disputes to back them up. A good credit repair company is poised to dispute and follow up on previous disputes to ensure the highest success. Griffin Credit is ready to fight for you and raise your credit scores. We customize your credit repair to ensure maximum yield for your money.

Repair Isn't the Only Answer

Credit repair can get you on the right path, but you must have good credit accounts reporting. Griffin Credit is aware of this and we do our best to turn negative information on reports to positive if we can rather than just getting them deleted. It is important to strive for more credit and use it wisely to build bigger scores.