Happy Family

Raise Bad Credit Scores

Up to 100 points In 30 Days or less

Can you truly raise your credit scores substantially in 30 days or less? The answer is definitely yes, but it depends on the specific reasons your scores are low. Unfortunately, many companies are scamming people with promises to fix credit no matter what is being reported and this is simply not true. There are specific credit circumstances that can not be manually fixed other than with the passage of time. This guide will explain exactly which credit profiles can be fixed and exactly what to do to fix them; you will see improvement within 30 days with dramatic score increases of up to hundred points or more if your specific situation applies.

What Are Credit Scores for and What Are They Scoring?

Credit scores were established primarily to determine what consumers were most likely to not pay their debts in the future, specifically to determine if a consumer was likely to file for bankruptcy.

Therefore, those with high and unsecure revolving credit card balances were the likely targets and that is why credit card usage is the biggest factor affecting your scores.

Credit Profiles That Cannot Be Immediately Fixed

So, what type of credit profiles cannot be immediately fixed? Typically, any profile associated with recent derogatory credit cannot be fixed within 30 days. If this is you, read on because although your scores can not be fixed in 30 days, we will still give you step by step tips to raise your scores and rebuild your credit in 2 months to one year’s time at the end of the pamphlet. To be specific, credit affected by charges offs, collections, bankruptcies, foreclosures, judgements, recent 30 to 180 day lates cannot be fixed in 30 days or less with 1 exception: You are currently delinquent and need to bring the account current. Paying an open account, that you are delinquent on can dramatically affect your scores.

Credit Profiles That Can Be Immediately Fixed

· Credit profiles with high outstanding REVOLVING CREDIT BALANCES

· Over the credit limit balances

Credit profiles that can be immediately fixed are ones that are using too much “credit utility.” This means that the amount of credit you are using is too high compared to your credit limits. You may even be paying all of your bills on time, but if you are using more than 30-75% of your credit limits, this could hold your scores down under 640 and even lower. The goal is to get those balances down to under 20% usage to raise scores.

Understanding How Credit is Scored is the Key to Knowing If it Can Be Fixed

There are 3 credit bureaus: Transunion, Experian and Equifax. These bureaus all have different priorities and subtleties on how your file is scored, but they all agree on one thing: Proportion of credit used compared to credit limits is the number one issue that damages your scores. All bureaus list 4 reasons, in order of priority, that is affecting your scores. If reasons 1, 2 or 3 is “proportion of balance to credit limits on revolving credit,” then this booklet will definitely help you with the potential to raise your scores 100 points or more. Additionally, if you have late payments that are over 2 years old and your credit balances are high, then your old lates can dramatically downgrade your scores if you have high credit card balances. The reason is that you are more likely to be late again if you have large outstanding credit debt. If those balances are paid down, then the lates over a year old end up not affecting your scores as drastically. So one gets a double benefit in score increases when credit balances are paid down with non-recent lates.

How Do We Know For Sure Your Scores Can Be Fixed?

I have been fixing credit for over 25 years and I know for sure that scores can be raised 30 points to 125 points depending on how much credit is being used. If you are at 100% of your credit limits, it is almost certain that if you paid those down to using only 10% of your outstanding credit limits that your scores could rise over 100 points.

Credit Reporting Myths

· Inquiries to my credit report drastically affects my credit scores

This myth was started by the auto sales industry and is not true. Dealerships taught their sales’ staff to tell potential purchasers that inquiries damage your report because they wanted to discourage you from car shopping with other dealerships. In fact inquires within the same industry (auto finance) only affect your scores by about 1 point

And sometimes not at all. On the other hand, inquires for different credit purchases such as new credit cards, furniture purchases, jewelry inquires can affect your scores by no more than 10 points if you have 3 or more, but that is still hardly enough to make a big impact.

· Paying off recent collection accounts, charge offs or judgements will immediately raise my scores.

Paying off these accounts could actually lower your scores at first, especially if the accounts are old, because it updates the date of activity to recent which has a negative affect on your profile. The bureau reads this as a recent collection even though it is being paid off. It takes months for your credit report to update after these payoffs.

· All credit scores are the same for all industries.

Consumer scores are different than mortgage scores. There could be a substantial difference between mortgage scores and consumer credit. Mortgage scores are usually lower than consumer scores.

· Closing accounts raises your credit scores

Unfortunately, closing revolving credit cards can actually hurt your scores especially if you have balances on other credit cards. The reason for this is that it lowers your credit utility. For example lets say you have $2,000 in outstanding credit balances and you have $10,000 in credit limits. That means you are using 20% of your credit limits. ($2000 divided by $10,000 = 20%) Lets say your close a card you are not using with a $2000 credit limit. By doing this, you now are using 40% of your credit limits which absolutely lower your scores. ($2000 dived by $8000 = 40%)

· The credit bureaus are hurting or determining your scores

The credit bureaus reporting your scores do not hurt your scores. Transunion, Equifax and Experian report are evaluating what your scores are, based upon what your creditors are reporting. The creditors, companies you owe, determine the outcome of the scores. When you are declined for credit, a letter will be sent explaining how to contact your credit bureaus (Transunion, Equifax and Experian). This is very misleading because it implies that it is the bureaus that are affecting your scores. Instead it should read that the bureaus are reporting what creditors are reporting. The bureau is simply letting you know who to contact to make changes or to dispute an account. Therefore, if you contact the creditor who is reporting you late and they refer you to a credit bureau, that is wrong advice. The bureau can not help you, it is your creditor who must change the score unless you can send prove to the bureaus that the score is wrong.

· Credit repair companies have the authority to remove bad credit

It has been known in the past that “credit repair” can be accomplished, removing bad credit accounts. No credit repair company has the authority to remove accounts from your credit report. They negotiate with creditors to remove accounts by paying them off. In the past this use to work, but creditors are under pressure to make accurate reports, not to change a report for a bribe or to settle an account.

· Hiring a “credit repair: company to “delete” accounts is totally legal.

This is a violation of the fair credit reporting act and is illegaland false reporting in 2021. Although this is true, credit repair companies still charge clients $750 to $1500 to correct reports using the same free methods in this pamphlet. If a negative report is expunged from your report without the creditors agreement, it is a crime. You can dispute an account reporting in good conscience, but a creditor is required by law to report accurately.

What Is a Rapid Rescore?

A rapid rescore is a process that raises your credit scores within one week. Unfortunately, it is quite expensive to do this. It costs up to $90 a trade for each account being scored. So changing 3 accounts could cost as much as $270. That’s if you want a change it on all 3 bureaus. If you choose just the lowest credit score to attack, then this is $30 an account. In order to apply for a rapid rescore, you have to pay off the accounts and then provide a most recent statement showing a zero balance or a letter from the creditor which must have the following:

1. Must be on letter head.

2. Must have either the account number or the last 4 digits of the account number.

3. Your name.

4. The creditor’s name.

5. It has to show a zero balance.

6. You cannot use screen shots in emails. It has to be on letterhead in PDF format or your can email the original letter to the person fixing your report.

Rapid rescores only work in paying off high credit balances. They do not work for paying off collection accounts, judgements, or negative credit reporting. We will discuss how to contest credit issues and work on raising your scores over time.

Establishing Credit or Expanding Credit

· Establish new credit at department stores at the check out stand

· Apply for a gas card for less than a $100 credit limit

· Become an “authorized user” on a credit card

Believe it or not, having lots of credit is better than having none at all. The best way to establish credit is to apply for credit at department stores. The best way to do this is to pick out merchandise in the store and to take it to the checkout counter. You should not try to buy more than $100 in merchandise. You apply for credit right at the checkout stand. Department stores are aggressive in wanting you to buy that merchandise in hand are many times willing to take that $100 risk in doing so.

Applying for gas card with less than a $50 dollar credit limit is also worth pursuing. Sometimes on new credit card is enough to establish scores, but it may take two accounts. Becoming an “authorized user” and not applying for credit should also be done. In this case a spouse or a friend can add you as an authorized user to his or her account. This will not only raise scores but it will also add to your credit limits which also raises scores.

Contesting Bad Scores

There are several ways to contest bas scores, but the process will not immediately raise your scores. It could take over a month, but if you follow these methods, you can effectively raise your scores. You sue this method it you do not have proof or if you do have proof, you should enclose that.

Method 1: Contact your creditor directly by mail disputing your account by mail. They will correct all 3 bureaus if you are successful. In this case you ARE NOT contacting Transunion, Experian or Equifax.

If you do or don’t have proof, you can request a letter removing the account or updating the account to a favorable rating. If you have proof, such as a statement, you can send it to the creditor by email and avoid a letter. If the creditor says they will verbally change the report, you will still need to get them to send you a letter as verbal agreements rarely get reported. If you get this, then you can send it to the bureau as proof it has been changed. If the creditor will not update the rating, you can always dispute it using method 2. If you get the letter, then you don’t use Method 1 and you can skip method 2 because your rating was changed by the creditor and you are done. Even so, I recommend you use method 2 and send the letter to the bureaus.

Even if you don’t have proof, the bureaus will contact the creditor and if they don’t respond in the 30 days, the bureau will automatically remove the dispute rating, so send it in any way.

Method 1 Contact Creditor Directly

Send the following letter:

Bill M. Creditor
Account Number: 12456789

DOB: 9/29/1968

1234 Anytown St

Anytown CA 95945

May 3, 2021

Capital One Credit Card services

PO Box 12345

Billings GA 30374

Dear Capital One,

I am requesting an investigation of the following account reporting on my bureau.

Dispute 1

· Account Number 12345689

· Dates associated or reported on May 3, 2001

· Explanation of account being disputed:

It shows I was 30 days late on the date above and I was never late.

· Please update report.

Enclosed:

· Statement for that month and next month showing I was not late

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Joe Begging

You will need to contact the bureaus and either mail or download your dispute in a format that I will provide.

Here is the contact information for each bureau you will need in contesting your scores:

EQUIFAX Online: ai.equifax.com/Credit Investigation. (800) 864-2978

Equifax Information Services

PO Box 740256

Atlanta GA 30374

EXPERIAN Online: experian.com/disputes/main.html. (888) 397-3742

Experian

PO Box 4500

Allen, TX 75013

TRANSUNION Online: dispute.transunion.com/dp/dispute/ landingPage. (800) 916-8800

TransUnion LLC

Consumer Dispute Center

PO Box 2000

Chester, PA 19016

Method 2: contact the bureaus directly

Even if you don‘t have proof, the bureaus could still change the report. Remember, they contact the creditor and ask them to verify the dispute. If they don’t respond in 30 days, the bureaus will remove the bad rating after 30 days. So it is worth it to contest unprovable claims.

Here is what the letter should look like:

Bill Creditor
Account Number: 12456789

DOB: 9/29/1968

1234 Anytown St

Anytown CA 95945

May 3, 2021

Equifax Information Services (Use this same letter with all 3 bureaus just change the bureau

PO Box 740256 and address)

Atlanta GA 30374

Dear Equifax,

I am requesting an investigation of the following account reporting on my bureau.

Dispute 1

· Account Number 12345689

· Dates associated or reported on May 3, 2001

· Explanation of account being disputed:

It shows I was 30 days late on the date above and I was never late.

· Please update report

Dispute 2

· Account number 9876521

· Date associated with report is June 1, 2019

· Explanation of account being disputed

Account shows in collection. I paid the account in full on June 9, 2019

· Please remove or update the report.

Dispute 3

· Account number 8767432

· Date associated with report is April 1, 2017

· Explanation of account being disputed

Account shows 30 days late. I paid the account on time.

· Please remove or update the report.

(add additional disputes as necessary. You can contest an inquiry saying you never inquired for credit at that creditor, etc. Disputes for inquiries do not require proof)

Enclosures:

· Copy of credit report

· Proof of pay off for dispute #2

· Proof of bill and cancelled check for dispute #1

· I have no proof for dispute #3 but I was not late.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Joe Begging

Important Techniques In Requesting Correction Letters From Creditors and Paying Accounts in Collection

Sometimes you can request a rating change from the creditor that is a more favorable rating. These changes include the following:

This is especially suggested for accounts that were past due or accounts that were in collection. For accounts that are collection, one legal method to use is if the creditor is going to report the account as a paid collection, ask if they will change it to “paid account” and not “paid collection.” Paid account is a neutral rating and it will raise your score. To say that the account is paid is not wrong reporting. It is true. Request a letter and send this as proof in Method 2.

Ralph Migliozzi

Broker Originator

Serving Northern California

NMLS 282851 DRE #01002038

(p) 530-330-3073

rc-advantage.com

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