I used to work for a collection agency.  I hope this advice helps some of your readers.  Call at the beginning of the (more…)

If you have fallen behind on your bills but are now ready and able to start paying again then you should know how re-aging can benefit you.  Through re-aging, your credit history is re-written and you are given a fresh start on that account.  (more…)

A collection company must report the ORIGINAL date (actual month and year) the account FIRST became delinquent.  This is when the clock begins ticking.  In the following link, NCO was reporting later-than-actual delinquency dates.  This is a violation of Section 623(a)(5) of the FCRA and NCO was required to pay a $1,500,000.00 fine. (more…)

No one has to pay for credit repair.  There is nothing that a credit repair company can do that you can’t do yourself.  The following text is a copy of the disclosure required under the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA).  No one should be paying for credit repair.      (more…)

Recently, I had a loan request from a borrower who lived in an owner occupied mobile home on land. He also owned a vacant lot worth $70,000. He wanted to get a construction/ perm loan to build a new home on the vacant lot.

However, through a bad divorce situation, the borrower’s credit would not allow for any of construction money, even though the borrower owned the vacant land free and clear. (more…)

I recently had a client with a FICO mid score of 497. As many of us in the industry know, anything under 500 is a hard equity loan with a maximum 65% LTV and an interest rate around 12% plus points up front.

I discussed the benefits and risks of the rapid rescore option with my client.  We decided to go for it. (more…)

ftc.gov/os/statutes/031218fcra.pdf

Many times bad things happen to people who have tried to do the right thing but circumstances moved them into an area of financial peril. Most times this path of peril was self inflicted. Other times a massive medical problem or an act of God type disaster became more than the family could bear. The results of the lack of financial discipline for, whatever reason, abounds. Once a person or family has gone through the financial ringer, unless you love stress, creditor calls, threatening letters and even judgments, it is something they do not want to go through again.  What to do? (more…)