Credit Repair Attorney: How to Decide if You Need One to Clean up Negative Items

Fixing a bad credit report is not a pleasant experience. There are basically two ways of going about the credit repair process.

Many people decide first to fix their own credit only to discover the process is much more involved than they expected. This is because they are trying to save a few dollars by going the inexpensive route.

Unfortunately you may discover that repairing bad credit is one of those projects that only appears easy. There is so much to the process including legal research and writing, which is challenging even for credit lawyers at times.

If you are not the type of person who enjoys legal research in your free time, or don’t have patience for translating wordy statutes and confusing case laws from around the country, then this might not be for you. But if you are determined enough to plow through the stacks of law books, then you should expect to spend at least a a few Sunday afternoons researching applicable credit laws at your local library.

Assuming you are able to understand the case law and statutes, then you have to move onto the more important part of credit repair. The next step is to write a coherent and compelling dispute letter. You will need to cite the applicable case law and disputed items.

For example, the credit bureaus are trained to be on the lookout for those people trying do it yourself credit repair. They can easily spot the dispute letters written by amateurs. This can be a problem since credit bureaus are infamous for ignoring badly written dispute letters.

Even if you are a good writer, you probably are not going to enjoy standing in line at the post office. To ensure your dispute receives a proper investigation, you will need to mail the letter via United States Certified Mail.

By now you are probably wishing you had more free time. Mailing dispute letters via certified mail takes a lot of time. Unless you are extremely casual about how you spend your free time, this is probably not worth your time.

Disputing bad credit errors on your own also takes an organized office space and a strategic plan. For example, you will need a spreadsheet to track the progress of each disputed item. Plus, you will need to give yourself reminders or some type of alert in the event the bureaus or creditors have allowed the proper investigation period to expire.

As you can see credit repair is not a fun experience. There are so many better and more efficient uses of your time. Plus, it is difficult to learn and apply complex legal statutes and case law to your unique credit experience.

I repaired my Terrible Credit. My credit Score is up to 745. Lexington Law Works. See Documented Proof at www.creditforcouples.com

Posted under Credit

How a Low Credit Score Affects Your Purchase of a Home

Have you ever considered what a lender thinks when he or she reviews a credit report in relation to approving or denying a mortgage application? Well, the most common answers would be: What is their credit score? How is their credit history? What is their income? What is their debt to income ratio? Will they be providing a substantial down payment?

The negative effects of a less than stellar credit history may be minimized by a large down payment; however, you will still likely pay more in fees and end up with a high mortgage interest rate. The fact is that in the past 12-18 months the minimum score necessary to buy a home has increased.

You cannot hide from a low credit score. In order to purchase a home, it is necessary to have a good credit history, whether you can provide a large down payment or not. A prospective homeowner should attempt to obtain an average credit score of 758 in order to receive the lowest interest rates, according to CNN.com.

Find Out How to Raise Your Credit Score and Improve Your Chances of Purchasing a Home

It is helpful and easy to request a copy of your credit report and read it over for negative entries. Mistakes and errors are often found on credit reports and this information can be disputed.

A dispute letter to the relevant credit bureaus would be a good start. Alternatively, to resolve the negative entry, you will need to contact the creditor directly.

Sometimes a cleverly crafted dispute letter will result in the removal of the negative entry. However, it is often the case that investigative procedures are careless and result in errors.

The reason for this is, when investigating any dispute, credit bureaus must necessarily spend additional resources and time to resolve the matter. Unfortunately, some credit bureaus feel it is more cost effective to take their time or ignore the matter altogether. It is their desire that you give up on your request to remove negative entries from your credit report.

Will it Take Long to Boost My Credit Score?

Often people want to know how long it will take to see an improvment in their credit score. This answer, of course, is dependent upon the individual situation, however, in many cases, an improvement may be seen by 6-12 months.

Although this may seem like an extremely long time, it is exceedingly shorter than waiting 7-10 years for the negative information to be erased. If you plan to purchase a home, it is imperative that you wait the 6-12 months to clear your credit report of any negative information.

Discover how I raised my credit score from 582 to 745 in four months with the help of Lexington Law. Learn the truth about quickly and effectively deleting bad credit at www.creditforcouples.com.

Posted under Credit

The phenomenon of credit reports and why they’re around always comes to the front of a person’s attention whenever he or she needs to apply for credit for just about anything these days. What is a fact is that a credit report has much more of an impact on almost every aspect of a person’s life than in the past, even when much of their life has nothing to do with actual credit.

As an example, it’s important to understand that having what the credit industry refers to as poor credit can cause much more to be paid for something that’s financed — in terms of interest rates — than if good credit existed when upon initial application. Additionally, understand that organizations like auto insurance companies are pulling credit to determine policy cost.

The reasoning behind this — most auto insurers would say — is that people with poor credit (nowadays, that would usually be people below a 600 credit score) seem to be higher risks in terms of claims and driving behaviors. Many experts dispute this and say that it is pure nonsense and some states have begun to outlaw the practice, but it is still out there.

What is also good to know is that more and more prospective employers are looking at a prospective employee’s past credit history before coming to a decision about hiring him or her. Keep in mind that a prospective employer must obtain, in writing, permission from the prospective employee to pull credit from one of the three major bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) in order to assess it.

For the most part, just about everything discussed should serve to reinforce that there are a myriad of ways that credit and how it’s assessed exists in society nowadays. Think about the typical mailbox and how full it becomes from companies and the like who have pulled a quick look report from one of the bureaus and then sent out an offer for possible credit based on that quick look.

These reports exist as a way of gauging a person’s risk, for the most part. They can provide a 7 to 10 year (or even longer in cases where a bankruptcy has existed in the past) glimpse of a person’s consumer life. Poor credit can mean a much higher interest rate on a mortgage or an automobile loan. In other words, poor credit cost people quite a bit of money over the long run.

All of the above highlights why it’s important for a consumer to pull his or her credit reports on an annual basis. By law, each of the reporting bureaus must provide a free credit report to a consumer who asks for it. There won’t be a credit score on the report (that costs money) but the report itself can be a good way to see just what each bureau might have on a consumer, which is a good thing to know.

Understanding and appreciating credit reports and why they exist becomes necessary anytime a person is going to apply for credit and they want to make totally sure they’ll be successful in the application for it. Bad credit thus calls for credit repair.

Posted under Credit