What's In Your Credit Report

       - Your name
       - Your address (and previous addresses)
       - Employment (and previous employment)
       - Your current and past loan information
       - Your public record information (court judgments, bankruptcies, liens)
       - A list of other companies who have reviewed your credit.
       - Your 3 digit credit score (optional)

While some of this credit information is self explanatory, some of the other aspects, especially your credit score, are a bit of a mystery to most consumers. Few people know their credit score or understand how it is calculated. Additionally, most people are unclear about how their behavior can affect their scores.

The majority of people understand the basics, like failing to make a payment will make your score go down, but there are a number of complexities that trip up the average consumer. If you pay your debts on time, don’t carry too much debt on any one card, don’t close older accounts unless absolutely necessary and only apply for new credit when you have to, you will generally be in good shape. However, it is important to keep yourself informed so you can maintain a credit score that accurately reflects your consumer status.

Your credit score is determined by an algorithm developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation (hence its other name of FICO score). Since its inception, three corporations, called “credit bureaus” specialize in collecting and reporting on financial history. Those three companies are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. While the exact formula used to calculate your credit score is a tightly guarded industry secret, these companies provide general guidelines about financial behavior that can affect your credit score. When calculating your score, the basic formula includes:

35 percent: History of on-time or late payments of credit

30 percent: Available credit on your open credit cards

15 percent: The age of your lines of credit (old = good)

10 percent: How often you apply for new credit

10 percent: Variable factors, such as the types of open credit lines you have

Lenders use your credit information from your reports in order to judge your reliability as a loan candidate. Your credit report indicates your ability to handle debt responsibly and will help banks decide if you are a desirable loan customer. A high credit score can help you lock in low APR rates or secure special deals on loans. A bad credit report may prevent you from securing loans and can damage your ability to buy a car, open a credit card or even rent a home. A history of inability to manage your credit successfully will make lenders uncomfortable about trusting you with additional funds in the future.

You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once a year, an offer you should take advantage of. When you do receive your credit report, check to ensure the figures are accurate and act quickly to correct any mistakes. This may include any clerical errors, identity theft issues or incorrect information. If your credit score is low, you should begin working on a financial rehabilitation plan, either on your own or with a certified debt counselor or credit repair company to begin correcting your bad debt habits.


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

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.