Be wary of fake 'free' credit reports
Be wary of fake 'free' credit reports - 2005-08-26
Credit Repair, Equifax, TransUnion ,collection agency, creditors, fix credit bad, credit bankruptcy News and Discussion
Sometimes you just have to get a chuckle with things.
I had a client in today who was the nicest person possible. We'll call this person Mrs X.
Mrs X has bad credit and we had a lovely chat while reviewing her credit reports, of course with both Equifax and TransUnion.
I found a surprising response to most of my questions. My questions weren't all that difficult. They went something like this:
ML "Is this your debt. What can you tell me about this debt?"
The reply to most of the items was, "I honestly can't remember.!"
At that point I wasn't shocked that this person had bad credit.
If you've got credit and don't have a head for numbers.. PLEASE make very loud reminders for yourself when things need to be paid etc. Make notes of every contract that you've signed with every company.
Quite frankly.. not remembering your debts is not an eligible excuse for not paying them. Creditors will still get mad at you and sue you for not paying them.
SERIOUSLY.. this person had credit items that were literally 10 years old and still plaguing her. (They were credit items for 5 and then went into collections for another 5) This is the penalty of not paying attention to your debts.
In short... the best way to repair your credit is by a great deal of planning and forethought about how to keep your debts current every month.
Here's my tip for credit repair.
When communicating with credit bureaus, creditors etc, always write letters to them.
Make copies of your letters. Date stamp your letters when you send them and when you receive correspondence back from them.
I hear time and time again people say that they spoke to so and so creditor to try to fix their credit. I ask them.. "did you ever hear back from them?" Their reply is usually "no.. and I forgot when I called and what I said."
Even though writing is alot of work, you'll get much further with your dispute, especially when you've got back up documentation.
If you're not getting any results with your written documentation, the next thing is to take your folder full of letters to your local justice department and start complaining there. When the justice department asks for what happened between you and the creditor, you pull out your folder and hand it to the clerk.
When you write letters you've got a concrete history of events that is really hard to dispute.