February 7, 2022
In this economy, it is more important than ever to have a high credit score. A good credit score helps you get approved for a loan, get a better interest rate on a loan, and could even save you money on your car insurance. But if your credit score is not as high as you would like, don’t worry – you can raise your credit score fast!
The first thing you’ll want to do is to get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy of your credit score report from AnnualCreditReport.com. This website is authorized by the government to provide free copies of your credit report once every 12 months.
You can also sign up with a credit monitoring company, like The Ascent Network. Credit monitoring helps you get to know your credit score, gives you tips on how to increase it, and often shows you qualifying loan or credit card offers. Credit monitoring companies also flag suspicious activity and notify you of any unauthorized use of your social security number.
Next, you’ll want to check for errors in your credit report. Check the entire report looking for a name, address, and contact information mistakes. If you find errors, you need to dispute them through the credit report showing the error. The addresses to mail dispute letters to Experian, Equifax, and Transunion are here.
In your dispute letter, ask the credit bureau to remove or correct the inaccurate or incomplete information. Explain clearly what needs to be changed. Make sure you have copies of each letter and send the letter certified mail for tracking that it was received.
The credit bureau has 30 days to respond to your request. Once they complete their investigation, they must give you the results in writing.
Many people think that a closed credit account will automatically be dropped from a credit report. Credit bureaus only remove information from a credit report if it’s outdated, or inaccurate, or if a creditor agrees to remove it.
Some closed credit accounts can hurt your credit. If an account is closed and paid off but has delinquent payments or a charge-off, you can write a goodwill letter to the creditor and ask the account to be removed. Creditors do not have to honor your request, but there have been cases when a company is kind enough to do so after a paid balance.
There is also an option for credit accounts that are closed but have a balance. In these cases, you can send a pay-for-delete letter, which is an offer to pay the balance in full in exchange for removing the account from the credit report. Again, the creditor does not have to comply, but, often, they will consider the exchange for full payment.
The last option is to simply wait. Most items on a person’s credit report drop off after seven years. If a negative account is still on your report after the seven-year mark, you can try to dispute the account and have it removed.
Credit repair companies often have a negative reputation because of fraudulent companies in the past taking advantage of already-struggling consumers. The Ascent Network is different. Ascent is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide clients with access to resources and services designed to assist individuals in improving their creditworthiness and financial position. You can find the Ascent Network Bill of Rights here.
Ascent Network is a member of the SecureTrust Trusted Commerce program. They provide services for credit repair, credit score improvement, debt settlement and negotiation, foreclosure prevention, and educational loan negotiation.
A more positive outlook toward a more financially secure future starts today. Give the Ascent Network a call today at 1-877-871-2400. Ascent Network helps consumers all over the United States and is available locally in Huntington Beach, CA, Coachella Valley, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio, and Thousand Palms.
There is a lot of information available on the internet about credit repair. Some of it is good, and some of it is not so good. So, the question is, does credit repair really work?
The answer to that question depends on what you mean by “credit repair.” If you simply mean repairing your credit score, then the answer is probably no. However, if you mean repairing your credit history, then the answer is definitely yes.
Credit repair services can help you to remove negative items from your credit history, which will improve your credit score. They can also help you to negotiate with creditors to get those negative items removed from your credit report.
So, if you are looking to improve your credit score, then there are basically 2 parts to the process:
1. Get your credit report and dispute the negative items in it.
2. Negotiate with creditors to remove those negative items from your credit history, if you have been making on-time payments for a period of at least 6 months or so.
In general, negotiating with creditors on your own is very difficult to do, but credit repair companies have more experience with this kind of thing and are often able to better negotiate on your behalf.
The first step is to get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.
Once you have your credit report, you will need to identify the negative items that need to be disputed. This can be done by reviewing your credit report and looking for any errors or incorrect information.
You can dispute the negative items on your credit report by sending a letter to the creditor or debt collector that is listed on the item. Be sure to include copies of any supporting documentation that you have, such as billing statements or letters from the creditor
If you have been making on-time payments for a period of at least 6 months or so, you can negotiate with creditors to remove those negative items from your credit report. This can be done by sending a letter to the creditor or debt collector that is listed on the item.
Be sure to include copies of any supporting documentation that you have, such as billing statements or letters from the creditor. There is no guarantee that a creditor will hear your story and honor your request. But it’s definitely worth a try.
You can also sign up for professional help to repair your credit. Before you sign up for any credit repair program or service, just make sure that they are reputable. It’s not a good idea to go with the cheapest service available because it increases the likelihood that you will get ripped off.
Hiring a “free credit repair” service is also very risky because they usually lead you to believe that they can do things that are either impossible or illegal to do for free – such as getting your creditors to remove negative items from your credit history after making just one payment.
So, if you are going to hire a credit repair company, make sure that they have a good reputation and that you trust them. In general, the more expensive the service, the better it is likely to be.
The first thing you’ll want to do is to get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy of your credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com. This website is authorized by the Credit repair can often take several months before your credit score starts to show positive results from the work being done on your behalf by credit repair companies.
So, if you want to improve your credit score and repair your credit report as quickly as possible, then the best option is usually just to pay off your debt and stop using credit.
This will also help build up your trustworthiness with lenders over time, which will make it easier for you to get approved for loans (and thus improve your credit score) when you start to apply again.
The other option is to wait, and let time do the work for you. So long as you make on-time payments every month, then your credit score should continue to improve over time without any negative impact from the negative items that are currently in your credit history.
The most important thing to remember when you’re beginning your journey to credit improvement is to be forgiving of past mistakes, learn healthy financial habits moving forward, and seek professional help to stay on track.
A more positive outlook toward a more financially secure future starts today. Give the Ascent Network a call today at 1-877-871-2400. Ascent Network helps consumers all over the United States and is available locally in Huntington Beach, CA, Coachella Valley, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio, and Thousand Palms.
It is easy to find information concerning credit today, TV, Newspapers, and the internet are loaded with information, but sadly, much of that information is inaccurate. Here are just a few of some common credit myths circulating today:
(Now, you might think that sounds absurd, but I assure you it’s far more widespread than you think.) Your spouse and your credit report and scores are looked at individually. If you have joint accounts, they’ll show up on both your credit reports.
If you get an authorized user account for your spouse, that’ll also show up on your report. However, if none of your accounts are joint, and you don’t have any authorized user accounts, there will be nothing that will affect your score for one another.
Huge Myth! Your credit score, right now, is looked at for almost everything you do. Increasingly, when you’re applying for a job, they look at your credit score. When you’re applying for auto insurance (in most states), homeowner’s insurance, or life insurance, they look at your credit score, they look at your credit history.
That’s why it’s so important to clean your credit up. Make sure that your credit’s reporting accurate information. If you have derogatory credit that’s truly yours, you work to rebuild credit.
This credit myth could not be further from the truth! The truth is, there is only one payment per billing cycle that is reported to the credit bureaus from creditors.
Multiple payments or trying to split up payments so that it “looks like” there is more payment activity on an account can actually hurt the consumer, how…….a lot of times if a payment is due on the 10th of the month and partial payment is received on the 1st of the month and then a 2nd payment is received on the 15th of the month if the payment made on the 1st was equal to at least the minimum payment due there will be a late charge which will be charged to the account no matter how large payment is made on the 15th.
The best advice, make your payments once a month on Credit Cards, Installment Accounts, and Mortgages and pay them at the same time each month so you develop a habit of paying on time.
Credit scoring started in the late 1950’s to support lending decisions in large department stores. The concept was revolutionary and by the end of the 1970’s most of the nation’s largest commercial banks, finance companies, and credit card issuers used credit scoring. It became widely accepted once Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fully endorsed the use of the FICO score for home mortgage lending.
The FICO score was first created in 1956 by William Fair and Earl Isaac when they created their company Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). Their system used a mathematical model (algorithm) and a computer to help depict consumer lending risk. To be more specific, the FICO score originally was designed to represent or predict a consumer’s risk of going 90 days late on an account within the next 3 years.
Until 2001 consumers were not even allowed access to their credit scores. This changed when California adopted a law stating consumers were entitled to know everything about what is on their credit reports.
At the same time FICO started developing customized scoring models for each individual credit bureau. Today each bureau still has their own specific FICO designed score. Which is one of the reasons why you will very seldomly see all three of your credit scores be exactly the same at the same time. Equifax commonly names their score model BEACON. Experian many calls their model Experian/ Fair Isaac Risk Model. And Trans Union has named theirs simply FICO.
Even though the bureaus have their own FICO models, in 2006 they decided they wanted a bigger piece of the pie and announced their intent to design their own credit scoring model. Today that model is known as Vantage Score and is offered on the credit monitoring sites owned by the credit bureaus. The intent of the bureaus is to have Vantage Score widely accepted by lenders to eventually replace the FICO score.
Even though the bureaus have their own FICO models, in 2006 they decided they wanted a bigger piece of the pie and announced their intent to design their own credit scoring model. Today that model is known as Vantage Score and is offered on the credit monitoring sites owned by the credit bureaus. The intent of the bureaus is to have the Vantage Score widely accepted by lenders to eventually replace the FICO score.
Vantage score is VERY different than FICO. For one, FICO’s credit scoring scale ranges from 350-850 while Vantage ranges from 500-990. This is a BIG difference in credit scoring and can be very confusing to consumers and lenders. A 700-credit score with FICO is “A” credit, but with Vantage a 700 score would be classified as “D” or poor credit.
There are also many different algorithms used by the FICO depending on why a credit report is being pulled, an example maybe someone looking to open a $1500 Revolving Account with a department store is going to get a much different score than if they are applying for a $35,000 car loan, simply because of the type of account which is being applied for.
And those “free” credit score offers should not be looked at as anything but a possible trend of how your scores is going due to the fact that when you are looking at those sites and requesting your score(s) you are not even applying for anything, so there is no risk calculation used in that particular algorithm. Stick with a TriMerge Mortgage Credit Report for the most accurate FICO scoring for yourself.
In order for your Credit Profile/Report to be accurate, the law states that there must be
These are the three thresholds that every item that they’re putting on a credit report must meet. If it doesn’t meet it, they must delete it.
February 7, 2022 Get to Know Your Credit The first thing you’ll want to do is to get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy of your credit score report from AnnualCreditReport.com. This website is authorized by the government to provide free copies of your credit report once every 12 … Continued
Read MoreThere is a lot of information available on the internet about credit repair. Some of it is good, and some of it is not so good. So, the question is, does credit repair really work? The answer to that question depends on what you mean by “credit repair.” If you simply mean repairing your credit … Continued
Read MoreIt is easy to find information concerning credit today, TV, Newspapers, and the internet are loaded with information, but sadly, much of that information is inaccurate. Here are just a few of some common credit myths circulating today: Credit Myth: “Your credit score only counts when you’re looking to borrow money.” Huge Myth! Your credit … Continued
Read MoreCredit scoring started in the late 1950’s to support lending decisions in large department stores. The concept was revolutionary and by the end of the 1970’s most of the nation’s largest commercial banks, finance companies, and credit card issuers used credit scoring. It became widely accepted once Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fully endorsed the … Continued
Read MoreIn order for your Credit Profile/Report to be accurate, the law states that there must be These 3 Credit Report standards are: Third, The item must be verifiable. The item in question must be able to be verified by the credit bureau because they are the ones disseminating the information and by the creditor because … Continued
Read MoreWE COMMUNICATE WITH ALL THREE CREDIT BUREAUS FOR YOU:
