Mike Clover asked:




Your credit score report can be affect by more than your available credit history. We talk about how credit cards, mortgages, car loans, and any type of loan that reports to all 3 credit bureaus will affect your credit score. We don’t always talk about utility companies and how they can have a negative impact on your credit report. Here are utility companies I like to consider non-creditors. In other words these companies don’t give you a line credit, they just provide a service.

Utility companies

- Phone companies

- Electric companies

- Security companies

- Cell phone companies

- Water companies

- Gas companies

- Cable companies

- Internet Companies

Let’s assume you are having a tough time currently, and you stop paying your cable bill. The cable company will give you a little time to pay off the debt for service rendered, but will eventually turn that debt over to a collection company. The collection company in return will report that obligation to the 3 credit bureaus wanting their money. This is how it works with any of the companies mention. Once this collection reports to the credit bureaus your credit rating just dropped about 100 points. Utility companies on the other hand don’t help your credit when you are in good standing, but will also hurt your credit score if you don’t pay. Once the collection hits your credit report, and you finally decide to pay off the collection, the collection will be on your credit report for 7 years. 7 years of negative information will be on your credit report. If you don’t pay the collection, the collection company can sell the collection repeatedly to different collection companies which will ultimately drive down your credit score even more.

Pay your bills on-time

If you get behind, call your creditors immediately and work out a payment arrangement with them. They will typically work with you, especially during tough economic times. A creditor or utility company would rather get some form of payment versus nothing. If you don’t pay your bills including utility bills it will affect your credit score report. With lending getting extremely tough currently, your credit scores are more important than ever. If you have credit issues, the banks may look at your credit history as too big of a risk for there portfolio.

Don’t assume if you don’t pay utility it will not affect your credit. Because it will affect your credit, and will not go away until you pay it off. If you are unsure what is on your credit report, get a copy of your free credit score report today.

Arlene

Tarron Acuff asked:




The three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and keep information on your credit history. If you don’t have any credit it should say is that the report does not exist because no credit has been established. If they do have credit established, it will tell you what is on your report. If you should ever see something on your report that looks like fraud, Contact the fraud departments of any one of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit file.

You may request free credit reports once a year from all three major credit bureaus. Your credit score is a number given to you by the three major credit bureau agencies that reflects your credit profile. At first, it would seem as though your credit score would be the same at all three major credit bureau companies, but in fact all three scores can be different. Credit scores are improved by having the right type of credit, showing responsible use and not having too much credit.

Let’s say, find that some information in your credit report that is incorrect, you may to dispute that information to have it corrected. To file a dispute, you have to attach a copy of your credit report and mark the incorrect items. You most likely will have to prove that the information is false. You should mail the dispute letter as certified mail and always keep copies for yourself. Just like most data you need to have a backup in case you would need to prove what you had sent. Your letter should include your complete name and address, clearly identify each item you dispute, explain why you dispute the information, and request deletion or correction.

Nathaniel

Tim Bock asked:




Many times people are unaware of exactly what’s in their credit report, let along if there’s a collection account in there. There are usually 1 or 2 reasons why a collection account may exist.

- The account went to collections
- Mistaken identity

Fortunately it’s not the end of the world. There are steps that can be taken to get the collection off of your credit for good.

Get a copy of your credit report

There are 3 main credit bureaus where you can obtain a copy of your credit report. These are as follows:

- Equifax
- Transunion
- Experian

Dispute the findings

Each credit bureau operates separately. Therefore having the account deleted from one does not automatically mean it will disappear from all 3. Lenders do look at all three credit reports, so it’s extremely important to follow up with all of them. Not doing so will affect your ability in getting a loan.

Do it in writing

It’s important to mail your dispute in. Do not try to do it over the phone. Writing gives you documentation in case you need it. After they received the dispute, they will investigate the matter. If the investigation is not resolved within the allotted amount of time, the item will automatically be deleted from your credit report.

Fair credit reporting act

Become familiar with this law, before you contact the credit bureaus. It could save you a lot of time and trouble. It’s important to get the facts, so you have all the tools at your disposal when going up against the credit bureaus.

Tamara

Justin Hutto asked:




NCO Financial is a collection agency. They work with financial services, healthcare, utilities, education and more.

They have been in business since 1926. They do both first party and third party collections.

They are located in 9 different countries with over 140 operation centers. They are headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

They claim to be customer oriented and committed to integrity, teamwork and quality.

NCO Financial has the authority to do credit reporting. Meaning they can make negative listings on your credit report. If this happens your credit score will be lowered.

However there is hope, you can have this listing removed. There are two options to have a listing removed from your credit report.

1. You can dispute the listing with the credit bureau directly.

You can do this yourself by sending a dispute letter to the credit bureaus. Or you can hire a credit repair firm to handle the dispute process on your behalf.

If you do this yourself you must send a dispute letter to each credit bureau disputing the validity of the negative listing. Common reasons for a dispute are: the account has been paid, not your account, or the listing is inaccurate.

2. You can pay NCO Financial. I would recommend disputing the listing first and then if that is unsuccessful consider paying.

However before you pay you should negotiate a settlement offer. Often you do not have to pay the full amount. I would suggest offering 50% of the balance.

Also make sure that you have in writing that NCO Financial will remove the negative listing from your credit report in exchange for payment. Otherwise the listing will remain on your credit report and making payment will not help improve your credit score.

You should also be aware that NCO Financial may not be the only company reporting a negative listing for this account. The creditor may also have reported this account as a negative listing too.

It is common for collection agencies to sell accounts that they are unsuccessful collecting on. Thus NCO may have sold your account to another collection agency that has created a negative listing on your credit report too.

If you have the same account reported more than once on your credit file then I would suggest consulting with a professional credit repair firm because making payment to one company will not remove all the negative listings on your credit report.

However if the debt is legitimate and you decide to make payment, do not pay the full amount. Collection agencies buy your account for pennies on the dollar. Thus you are giving them a huge profit if you pay 100% of the balance.

Also do not be fooled into believing that NCO has the authority to remove a negative listing from the creditor or another collection agency.

I would recommend having all communications with NCO in writing. This way if there is a breach of your settlement agreement you have written documentation.

In sum, make sure that if you do settle that you have written documentation that the listing will be removed from your credit report in exchange for payment.

Doris

Marc Marseille asked:




A 3 credit bureau report can be useful for various reasons. There are 3 key credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, and each of them have their own knowledge about your credit, so to obtain a good credit score, you need all three.

Several financial institutions require a good score with all 3 credit agencies before they will approve you. For example, a house loan won’t be approved if you have a bad credit rating from 2 out of the 3 bureaus. You also will not qualify for low cost life insurance, a credit card with a low interest rate, or some cases even an apartment. In essence, knowing your three score can save you time from applying to services which you already know you will not be approve for.

Another advantage about knowing your 3 credit bureau report score is that it can show you if somebody has been defrauding you or hijacking your credit profile. If, for example, somebody has been opening accounts in your good name without your knowledge, that information will show up on your 3 credit score report as derogatory. The knowledge of this information will allow you to take legitimate action to get the derogatory items removed from your credit bureau report.

There are many ways you can enhance your credit rating, but none of these tactics can be implemented if you do not know your credit score. One solution to improving your score is to acquire a couple secured visa cards and pay off your bills before they are due. If you continually pay off your balances in a timely manner, this will affect your credit score in positive way.

In addition to paying your bills on time, maintaining a low balance on your revolving accounts and credit cards are mandatory. High balances reflects someone who is strap for money which creditors tend to stay away from. You may be surprised at how many points your credit can rise by simply reducing your balances.

In the long run, it is worth it for you to keep your credit in good standing, because it means you will be able to qualify the things that are important to you. The ability to stay on top of your finances does not have to be difficult, the main thing is not living beyond your means. The more discipline your are now, the more rewards you will receive in the future.

Theodore

Samantha Monroe asked:




People who are keen on maintaining high credit score know the importance of a credit report. Having a very detailed credit report is the first step towards ensuring your credit score remains high.

Getting a detailed report from any of the bureaus may cost you some money. If you are really serious about keeping a check on your report, then you would know you need a real report and won’t find it difficult to spare $20 to get a very detailed report.

After getting a detailed report, you should continue in that same vein by going through the report with a fine comb and identifying EVERY wrong entry no matter how small. Every entry that is incorrect should and must be corrected for the sake of your credit score. NEVER over look anything.

Now you have all the wrong entries you have found and are ready to dispute. One important thing to bear in mind is that your letter MUST be concise because the bureaus have a huge amount of letters to treat so they do not need long letters as any such letter stands a risk of not being processed.

One big problem you may face is using the right identifying information for a given bureau as different bureaus have different identifiers. Send the right information to the right bureau.

Another sad truth here is that many people have tried to dispute without success and have had to repeat a number of times. Your letter may not even be processed so you should be ready and willing to keep sending.

Disputing a credit report, removing a judgment or generally repairing your credit does not have to be such a drag or a mission impossible. You can engage the services of professionals to take the burden off you while achieving results you may never be able to achieve on your own. Save yourself the heartache and disappointment of having you credit bureau dispute letter rejected or not processed by allowing professional handle it for you.

Judith

Hector Milla asked:




There are three credit reporting bureaus which although do similar business, may come up with varying reports. Different individuals and professionals work in the firms and thus it’s expected that their conclusions even on similar things is different. With this in mind, a consumer would therefore be better off if he considered the three reports before making any conclusions on his credit condition. Actually a review of the three reports should be done before conducting a final analysis.

A typical 3-1 credit report will contain consumer’s basic information i.e. name, address, date of birth and employer. It also has a consumer statement and accounts histories while the public records section is a log of events such as bankruptcy and judgment filings. There is also a section with a list of creditors and their contacts.

There are two types of 3-1 credit reports; the first comes with a single score and has an advantage in that one gets all the three reports from the three firms but the shortcoming is that the consumer ends up getting one score from one bureau. This means that if the bureau has a bias in its conclusion then the consumer will be affected and will actually end up getting the wrong idea as regards to his/her credit position. This may lead to loss of investment opportunities because most lenders will need to look at the three reports each with their scores before approving a loan.

The second type of a 3-1 credit report is very similar to the first one but in this case each report has its own scores. This means that the consumer may end up having three different scores for his/her report. Thus he/she will be in a better position to understand his credit situation. Lenders also feel more secure when dealing with a client with scores from different agencies because it means that the likelihood of a biased report are very minimal. This kind of report can also be useful to the consumer as a personal regulating tool to ensure that his credit path stays on track by regularly checking the scores and analyzing his performance.

Clinton

Matt Douglas asked:




If you have a tax lien on your credit report, you should take immediate action to remove it. This is a very bad mark and will lower your score considerably.

The first step is to have the bureaus validate the lien. You need to send each bureau a dispute letter. Once your letter is received an investigation will occur. The bureaus will contact the government and ask them to verify your debt. If it is verified you are going to have to make payment to remove it.

Depending on the amount you owe it may be in your interest to contact a tax negotiator. This is because they can often negotiate a reduced payment for you. However you can also negotiate directly with the government. It can be collected upon for 10 years, and will stay on your report for 7 years once it is paid.

Upon payment you should wait around 3 months and then send another dispute letter to the bureaus asking for validation. We have learned that once the government has received payment they often will ignore a request for validation.

Thus it will not be verified and will be removed from your report. Additionally if this mark was make in error then send any documentation along with your letter to prove that. It is estimated that 1 in every 4 people have an error on the report.

Repayment

The IRS and state government often accept partial payment. To propose this you will make an offer in compromise, often called an OIC.

The government will look at; your ability to repay, your income, your assets, and what they expect to recover. Additionally it will help your chances of acceptance, if you attach a letter explaining financial hardship. It may be in your interest to hire a negotiator to help with this. However you do not have to just live with this mark on your report.

In sum, you can remove a tax lien and should. You don’t just have to wait seven long years for this mark to fall off.

Lois

Debbie Dragon asked:




There are attorneys and credit repair “clinics” that claim to be able to remove negative items from your credit file. The service is costly, with some providers charging up to $3,500. It sounds great, in theory, because what’s a few thousand dollars for repaired credit? The trouble with this service is consumer’s pay out the money and their credit files are not always repaired.

About Your Credit File- What You May Not Know

Every item listed on your credit report must be proven. If a credit bureau investigates an item and cannot verify that it has been reported correctly, then it must be removed from your file whether it’s true or not.

Whenever there is a negative item on your credit report, you can challenge or deny the negative report at any time. If the item can’t be verified within a reasonable amount of time, it must be removed from the credit report. The older an item is the better your chance that it will not be successfully re-verified. Creditors don’t always keep good records beyond a year or two.

How to Get a Negative Item Removed From Your Credit Report

The procedure to get negative items removed, if they are incorrect, is straight forward. Some of getting an item removed is simply luck, but if you follow the steps you will increase your chances of having the negative items removed.

Tip: Send your disputes in during the busiest time of the year for credit bureaus. Send them during November or December, and if the dispute isn’t verified in time, it will have to be removed from your credit file.

Step One: Obtain a copy of all three of your credit reports- one from Equifax, one from Esperian and another from Trans-Union. You can get one copy from each credit bureau for free every 12 months.

Step Two: Review each report and find any negative items.

Step Three: Use the credit bureau’s dispute process (sometimes online, sometimes a printed form) to dispute any and all negative items.

Step Four: The disputed items are removed or corrected.

Step Five: For any negative items remaining on your credit report, you can try to negotiate with the creditors to be able to make a lower payment to pay the account off The creditor must then report the item to the credit bureau as paid, and change it to a positive rating.

Consumer Rights Under The Fair Credit Reporting Act

The federal laws are in the consumer’s favor when it comes to credit reports. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, there are 5 basic rights given to every consumer:

1. You may challenge the accuracy of the details in a credit report at any time.

2. Any items you challenge must be investigated (and re-investigated) without a charge to you.

3. All challenged items must be investigated within 30 days time or they must be deleted from the file immediately.

4. If errors are found during the investigation, the credit bureau is required to delete or correct the item within your files immediately.

5. If the credit bureau investigates and finds the negative items to be correct, consumers can place a Consumer Statement as part of your credit report as explanation to any inquiries made to your credit file.

Maurice