Wow… thanks for the updated credit repair seminar!  Already saved me money!  I have been paying Identity Guard $13 a month and only have an update quarterly!  Can you suggest a monitoring company that would let me check my reports daily? 

Thanks for all your help!

Gayle (more…)

Hi Paul,
 
Thanks for your site.  Excellent information.  
 
I’m writing for clarification on your post – FACTA and Debt Collector Inquiries. 
 
I’m new to learning about FACTA, but am familiar with pre-FACTA FDCPA.   So am I to understand with FACTA, a collection agency cannot pull or report on a consumer’s credit report unless the original debt is credit based??
 
I ask because I have a collection agency listed on my reports for a vetinary bill.  The circumstances were that the vet’s office forgot to charge me $200+ and never told me that my dog’s treatment would cost that much.  I refused to pay, and they sic’d a collection agency on me.
 
I don’t think this qualifies as a credit account?  I’d appreciate your advice. 

Thank you
 
Tamara (more…)

Can a debt collector run your credit report?  This question has been asked many times here on the Broken Credit Blog and it has generally been posited that ‘debt collection’ is a permissible purpose under the FCRA.  A recent filing in Pintos v. Pacific Creditors Association, Case no 04-17485 (September 21, 2007, Ninth Circuit) changes things a wee bit in favor of the consumers of the world.  And oh yes, debt collectors [I know you read my blog too so pay attention] this is your warning!  Be afraid; be very afraid… (more…)

Hi!
My husband and I had perfect credit until last year when I began a business expansion.  I entered into a sales contract & lease on a commercial facility, but a fire in the building closed me down for almost a year.  Now I’m finally reopened, and got an SBA loan to purchase the building, but racked up almost 100K in credit card debt keeping things afloat (yes, we had that much available beforehand.)  This is all on our personal credit, as I did not think to try to get business credit beyond a 5K credit card, and once the problems started it was too late.

Our credit scores are around 585-620 right now.  No negative items, but utilizing 95% of available credit.
Now I really need to be able to get business credit to do some equipment leasing needed.   My husband and I have joint credit cards.  I’m wondering if taking me off some of his cards, and vice versa, will improve my score by lowering my amout of debt? 
Or is is just about % of credit used.    Some of his trade lines are longer than mine, but I have over 10 yrs.   There is one card with about 25K and another with 15K that are both “his” with me as a co-signer.  

#2.   Can the original creditor take inquiries off the report? We were trying to apply for a home equity loan to pay off some of these debts.   We applied, did all paperwork, even had an appraiser out, but then were told that, because we are in Texas, we can only have 1 home equity product at a time, and our current mortgage is a “home equity mortgage.”  Therefore, we can only get a home equity loan if we refinance our house.  Since we have 5.25 fixed for 30 yrs, we’re not wanting to do that.  Now, we only have one mortgage, we paid 20% down when we purchased 8 yrs ago, but we did a cash-out refinance in 2004.  
Recently the bank where we have our mortgage called, asked about home equity, and I told them we didn’t qualify.  They insisted that we could get one, she even checked with her manager.  After pulling our credit, approving us, then they too said we didnt’ qualify.  Now I have 3 more inquiries on the report from their various offices.   We have multiple multiple inquiries on the acct from the commercial mortgage, I was trying to avoid having anyone pull the credit. 

Thanks for a great site

Sarah (more…)

Hi Paul!

I am a bit confused right now concerning the process for our government 502 direct mortgage loan.

My husband just called me and said that his human resources dept received a call from Transunion CRA to verify his employment. I didnt know they did that type of job. Are they affiliated with the government?

Also, I pulled my husbands free annual report for Experian earlier today. It states that an inquiry from Transunion to Experian was pulled yesterday on behalf of Rural Devel Housing. Why did Transunion have to get Experians info?

Thanks so much Paul. Our credit just keeps getting better and better thanks to your excellent advice.

Deborah (more…)

Hi, I absolutely love your site, it has helped me so much.

Anyways, I wanted to get some of the hard inquiries off of my husbands report and I remember reading somewhere in your blogs that there is some website thats $9.95 a month and you get unlimited credit inquiries.  And that all of those soft inquiries can actually start to bumb off the hard ones. 

Well I can’t seem to find the article that has that website and was wondering if you can tell me what it is because I would like to do this. 

Is it true that the softs bump the hard off?

Heidi (more…)

“Permissible Purpose” credit inquiry:  How long can a former creditor keep running “permissible purpose” credit reports, without your express permission, when you have already terminated your relationship with said company?

Kay (more…)

Cheers or Jeers?

Besides  one successfully rehabing loan my only other fish to fry  cr wise currently is an old cc debt.  A junk debt buyer (jdb) apparently purchased  a 16 year old  $150.00 bad credit card debt (ofcourse the bill they sent is for an amount 7 or 8 times  the amount owed which was150) attributed to me and from my ignorance is bliss college days.  It has long passed the statute of limitations for this to appear on my cr and it doesn’t, which is probably why they are sneakily running soft inquiries on my cr every month…I’m afraid if I pay now through them it will bring the expired debt current and show back up on my report damaging my score for another 7 years potentially.

I hadn’t seen any posts here on whether  or not an opt out  request would remedy the problem of  jdb’s trying to collect expired debt and getting your personal credit info by running soft inquiries periodically, it’s like spare me the pipe dream buddy it aint happening for goodness sake…  How can I block these jdb’s from getting all excited over my quickly improving credit rating  and pulling my personal credit information at their whim?   Is there any way to prevent them from reviewing my credit info without my consent esp since it is apparently not for an allowable purpose? 

Best wishes to all here and many thanks.  What a wonderful consumer resource site, it’s like positive credit energy of all the hard working people it attracts and the sage advise of our credit experts and newbies alike unites for good cause:  good credit… Best wishes to all, and to all:  fix your credit, you deserve good credit too!  Gorem. (more…)

First of all, great site.  I’ve learned alot in the last few days.  Im trying to purchase my first house (actually been in the process for the last year and a half) and I’m trying to get my credit up as high as possoble.  My mid score has fluxuated from 650 to 700 the past 6 months.  All current revolving accounts are 1-2 years old, no lates and low balances, 2 installments, no lates, and I’m on 3 accounts as an authorized user which are all very very good accounts.  The negatives are 3 collections, all 3-5 years old from when my father stold my identity.  I paid the collections, all accounts have been closed but are still on my report.
 
The questions I have are:     1.  Are these 3 collections hurting my credit that bad?  Should’nt I be at a higher score with the combination of no lates since these collections and 3 outstanding authorized user accounts?
                                         2.  Is the only way I can delete these collections from my report by disputing them to the CRAs?  Do I write the dispute saying my father had stolden my identity?  What if one of the collection agencies is out of business now, can it be deleted? 
                                         3.  One of the collections accounts is from an overdue, never returned library book.  Friggin rediculous, huh?  Can this seriously hurt me?  An overdue library book?
 
                                         4.  And finally, how much can inquiries really hurt your credit, that my be another reason my credit is not breaking through to the other side.
 
Thanxx Very much
Keep it real,
 
Dustin (more…)

I am currently trying to refinance my home.My credit score was 626 and I had a broker offering a 6.75 thirty year fixed, and was going to go with this. A week later, after not hearing from him, I finally got him and he said my credit score had gone down to below 620 in a week. He didnt know why but speculated it could be my current mortgage and I also thought it might be credit inquiries that weren’t authorized.

  Today, I got call from another broker who said he could beat the 6.75 rate because he could raise my credit score dramatically in 7 days by doing something that required my SS#. Now…he offered to do this magical thing for me if I would guarantee him my business, which of course I would not. My guess is that he is talking about the optout program. Am I correct in this assumption?..as I need to bring my score back up over 620 quickly.

Debbie (more…)