Professional Credit Repair Organizations

When it comes to credit repair, there are many professional organizations out there who are willing to help you with this monumental endeavor.  It takes a lot to make repairs to bad credit and it can be overwhelming when you try to do it on your own.  That’s why these professional organizations were formed and they can invaluable for you.


The truth is that many of these organizations really can help a person repair their credit and do so in a very professional way.  They will work with you to assess exactly where your credit is and where you want it to be.  They will help you set goals and then do what they can to help motivate you to achieve those goals.

Of course, there are many credit repair organizations who aren’t exactly on the “up and up”.  They will make outrageous claims in their advertisements such as they have the ability to completely erase all negative account information from your reports, create a new credit identity for you, and even erase bankruptcies that are on your credit record.  Stay away from companies who make any claims that are even a little similar to these.

You should also avoid credit repair companies who ask for their full fee up front before any work is done to repair your credit.  Some of these so-called professional credit repair organizations also will not disclose your legal rights to you in the even that you may decide to not secure their services thus causing them to lose money.

There is a school of thought that says you don’t even need the services of a professional credit repair organizations since credit repair can be done by you yourself.  But as I said before, it’s often a difficult and frustrating process.  If you want to secure the services of a professional credit repair organization, ask questions.  Make sure they know and follow all credit repair laws. The laws that govern the credit repair organizations are defined in CROA. A couple of the major consumer protection laws are FCRA and FDCPA.  If a credit repair company says they can repair your credit for $300, or $500, that's a sign that they don't know the credit repair laws. Those companies typically just send out a basic dispute form letter found on the internet to each of the credit bureaus and stop there.

Legal and effective credit repair requires a lot of knowledge of the laws, what items are more heavily weighted in the score, and several letters to not only the credit bureaus, but also to collection companies and original creditors. Your credit report should be reporting 100% accurate, timely, and verifiable information.

Expert Credit Consultants, LLC specializes in credit restoration and optimization.  www.ExpertCreditConsultants.com

How Long Do Negative Items Stay on a Credit Report?

Delinquencies (30 – 180 days): Can remain seven years from the date of the initial missed payment.

Collection accounts: Remain seven years from the date of the initial missed payment that led to the collection (the date of last activity). When a collection account is paid in full, it will be marked “paid collection” on the credit report. If a payment is later made, the new date used to calculate the seven year period starts over with the date the new payment was made.

Charged-off accounts: Remain seven years from the date of the initial missed payment that led to the charge off (the date of last activity). If a payment is later made, the new date used to calculate the seven year period starts over with the date the new payment was made.

Closed accounts: Closed accounts are accounts that are no longer available for further use. Closed accounts may or may not have a zero balance. Closed accounts with delinquencies remain seven years from the date they are reported closed, whether closed by the creditor or by the consumer. Positive closed accounts remain 10 years.

Lost credit card: If there are no delinquencies, credit cards that are reported lost will continue to be listed for two years from the date the card is reported lost. Delinquent payments that occurred before the card was lost are reported for seven years.

Bankruptcy: Chapters 7, 11, and 12 remain for ten years from the filing date. Chapter 13 remains seven years from the filing date. Accounts included in bankruptcy will remain seven years from the date they were reported as included in the bankruptcy.

Child support judgments: Remain seven years from the date the judgment is filed.

Civil and small claim judgments: Remain seven years from the date the judgment is filed.

City, county, state, and federal tax liens: Unpaid tax liens remain on credit reports indefinitely. Paid tax liens remain seven years from the paid date of the lien, although some paid tax liens can be removed earlier.

Inquiries: Most inquiries listed on your credit report are from the past two years. Older inquiries don’t hurt your score as much.

Positive open credit information: remains indefinitely and paid positive accounts remain ten years.

Expert Credit Consultants, LLC specializes in establishing business credit and funding using the exclusive Business Credit and Finance Suite as well as credit restoration and optimization. www.ExpertCreditConsultants.com.

Late Payments and Credit

Making your credit card payments on time is extremely important to your credit score. Late payment fees and higher interest rates are undesired results of late credit card payments.  

What does a late payment really do to your score? Credit score calculation doesn't treat all late payments the same. While thirty and sixty day late payments affect your credit score more in the months they occur, their effects diminish over time as long as they’re isolated incidents. A ninety-day late payment, on the other hand, is more harmful to your credit score, especially if it occurred within the past 24 months.

Whether it is a 30, 60, or 90 day late payment, the results are detrimental to your credit score, so you don’t want to drop the ball and miss a payment.  How your creditors respond to late payments can continue to affect you for months, and even years, to come. 

Five Things Happen When You Pay Late

1.       Your creditor will charge a late fee. Your next billing statement will include a fee for the late/missed payments. Late fees typically range from $35 to $50. You'll receive a late fee each month your payment is late.

2.       Your interest rate will increase. Creditors don’t just penalize you with a fee, they’ll often increase your interest rate to the default rate. The higher interest rate increases your finance charges making it more expensive to carry a balance.

3.       Other credit card interest rates might increase. If any of your other creditors include a universal default clause in your card agreement, you’ll see those interest rates rise as well.

4.       The credit bureaus are notified when your payment is more than 30-days late.  An entry is added to your credit report and will stay for seven years.

5.       Your credit score will drop. Remember, your payment history makes up 35% of your credit score. Late payments can have a significant effect on your score affecting your ability to get new credit in the future!

Defensive Tip: Set up auto-pay on your all your credit cards to make the minimum payments. This will ensure that at least your minimum payment is made on time, regardless of how hectic things can get! This is what we call strategic planning.

Expert Credit Consultants, LLC specializes in establishing business credit and funding using the exclusive Business Credit and Finance Suite as well as credit restoration and optimization. www.ExpertCreditConsultants.com.

The Truth on Credit Repair Companies

Contrary to what the credit bureaus would like you to believe, credit repair does work. This is, of course, provided you are getting the best credit information and advice and have an experienced professional working on your case.

Anyone with a credit score below 720 can benefit long-term from the advice and credit information provided through credit repair companies; however, there are times when your own limitations make adhering to this advice impossible. The two limiting factors are: (1) your financial situation and (2) the time frame within you need to reach your results. It is possible to remove anything from a credit report, even accurate items, if the creditor does not adhere to the law that outlines what needs to be done and by when. Just because you have a certain type of account removed at one time does not mean other, similar items are going to be able to be removed, even with the same circumstances. A hit-or-miss aspect exists in credit repair, because credit repair relies not only on the strategies of the person attempting to repair the credit, but also on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the creditors and credit bureaus in adhering to the laws.

The reason credit repair has received such a bad name is due to the abundance of scam artists who flock to the easy money made available by people desperate for this type of service. This unfortunate reality leads the credit bureaus and the FTC to make blanket, untrue statements such as, "Credit repair does not work ever and there is nothing credit repair companies can do for you that you can't do for yourself." Given that approximately 80% of credit repair companies are scam artists, promising the world and then disappearing when you pay, the credit bureaus and the FTC are forced to make such bold statements. It would be impossible for them to explain the truth to consumers without causing them to make a bad choice that would result in them getting scammed. As a result, the credit bureaus and the FTC must adhere to the "credit repair does not work" position.

As I have stated, credit repair does work, but...don't let anyone tell you that credit repair is effective every time. Its success varies with the number of players in the game, some of whom never perform consistently. Even if you have a true master of credit repair on your side, you have to take into account that sometimes the other players perform in a way that throws your master off his game. Even if you follow the same approach with every situation that arises when doing credit repair, your results will still vary due to the other players involved. So if credit repair companies tell you they can get everything repaired on your credit, run the other way, because, at best, the pendulum will swing widely both ways for the same situation.

Credit repair limitations do occur under the following situations. These situations make it nearly impossible for credit repair to help someone needing results within six months or so. Please keep in mind even when you can't be helped in the short term, the credit information that can be given now, if coming from a professional, can prevent you from making a mistake in the near future that may worsen your situation. Here are examples of situations where not much can be done within a six to twelve month period.

1. If more than 50% of the negative accounts showing on the credit report appear as unpaid collections, charge-offs, repossessions, or foreclosures and you do not have the money to either pay the accounts in full or settle them.

The only way to prevent this is to bring the account current by paying the past due amount, or, in the case of a collection, charge-off, repossession, or foreclosure, pay the balance in full or settle it for pennies on the dollar. Unpaid accounts that do not have collection, charge-off, repossession or foreclosure status require only that the past due balance be paid to be considered current. Unless the negative account is a public record, the only way to keep it from being re-reported is to make sure the status is "current, paid, settled, transferred or sold."

Public records are the only negative items that do not need to be paid to prevent re-reporting. Because they are only reported once, public records, such as unpaid judgments and tax liens, can remain unpaid and yet will not reappear once they are removed. In fact, the only time they reappear is when the initial reason for removal was the public record agency failing to respond the credit bureaus' verification request with-in the 30 day period outlined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, in which case the credit bureau would reinsert the public record if and when the public record agency responds to the credit bureaus after that 30 day period.

2. Credit repair is nearly impossible if you can't pay your minimum monthly payments and you keep adding new late payments to your report. This is a "spinning wheels" scenario that rarely yields much improvement to your credit score.

In conclusion, you can repair your credit if you hire a pro and listen to his or her professional advice. The effectiveness of the credit repair depends not only on the skill of the professional you hire, but also your ability to cooperate with his or her advice.

Expert Credit Consultants, LLC specializes in establishing business credit and funding using the exclusive Business Credit and Finance Suite as well as credit restoration and optimization. www.ExpertCreditConsultants.com.

What Exactly Is Credit Repair?

When most people think of credit repair they think of credit bureau disputes. Historically, credit bureau disputes have been the heart of the credit repair process. It turns out that it is really just a first step.

It is a reality that many people are faced with the difficult task of credit repair. They may have found themselves overextended on their credit cards, have some late payments, and even some collections because of a job loss or medical problems. When it gets to this point, it can be very overwhelming to get back on track. Credit repair takes time, patience, and discipline, but it can be done.

First, you need to obtain a copy of your credit report from either one or preferably all three of the major credit reporting agencies. The “big three” are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. They can be found quite easily on the Internet and will provide you with a copy of your credit report.

The FACT Act that was passed by Congress back in 2001 allows all consumers one free copy of their credit report per year. For this, you will need to go to www.annualcreditreport.com and request yours. You can request one from each bureau every 4 months or print all 3 at once.

However, if you see errors on one, then you will really need to obtain copies of all three credit reports. Creditors are not required to report to any or all of the agencies, and often they will just report to one. Having all three credit reports on hand will help you make corrections to your credit more effectively and more thoroughly.

Once you have these reports in hand, go over them “with a fine tooth comb”. Check for any errors such as accounts that have been paid off but are still appearing as delinquent or accounts that you never opened or used in the first place. Also, verify your credit card limits are reporting correctly. This is an important factor that goes into your score. If you do find errors on your report, it is essential that you contact the credit bureau to make the correction if you want your credit repair efforts to be thorough.

After checking your credit report, the essential part of making improvements to your credit report and score is to change the way you are using credit. That includes making all payments on time and not using credit when you can't afford to make the payments. While it’s true that it’s virtually impossible to go through life today without using credit, you can use it wisely and not end up in trouble down the line. The best uses of credit cards are for emergencies and for the benefits (airline miles, cashback, etc.).

Repairing your credit is not a difficult task, but it does take a lot of time and patience. Truly what you need to do is simply take steps to evaluate your use of credit and then see where changes can be made. Then not only will your credit be improved, your credit score will increase as well.

Expert Credit Consultants, LLC specializes in credit restoration and optimization.