Congratulations! You are taking the next steps toward a solid and healthy credit profile. This page was made to educate you on the credit repair process itself, and to show you about credit in general and how to maintain a healthy credit profile while we are working, but long after we are finished.
The credit repair process can be extremely rewarding, and frustrating all at the same time. Here are some tips to make your experience the best it can possibly be.
Think of your credit report as a balance scale. You have your satisfactory accounts on one side, your derogatory accounts on the other, and that needle in the middle is your credit score. The credit score is lower on the derogatory side, and the higher on the satisfactory side. Obviously, the side with the most weight determines your credit score. During your credit repair program we are obviously working on the negative side, and we may encourage you to add some credit building items on the good side, but for all intents and purposes we are going to show you what goes into a credit score so you know how to maintain a healthy credit profile.
Payment History is the largest factor in credit scoring. The credit scoring models are not only looking to see if you are paying on your debts, but also if you are paying them ON TIME. Of course your most recent payment history will have the bigger effect, Although you might not be able to change your past (We’re working on that), you can change your present and future by simply paying on time each month. Budget appropriately, set reminders on your phone, use autopay, whatever you have to do to ensure your payments are made and made on time
Of course the credit scoring models, and especially your creditors want to see you using your credit, but the credit scoring models look even deeper to ensure you are using your available credit responsibly. The general rule of thumb is to keep the balance of your available credit below 30%. (ex: Card Credit Limit = $1,000, the max you want charged on that card is $300) This applies to individual accounts and the sum of all your accounts combined. The scoring models love to see it even lower, say around 10% or less to maximize your credit scores. One strategy you can implement now is to pay down your current obligations, and always pay more than the minimum payment.
This one is pretty self explanatory, the older the average age of accounts on your credit file, the better. This is why credit experts always advocate to keep your lines of credit open. For instance you may get a Fingerhut account and not use it, in order to keep it open buy something small and pay it off. You never want to close old accounts as it lowers your credit age, thus reducing your credit score. We have one neat trick up our sleeve to help increase your credit age, just ask how.
This one is also self explanatory. The scoring models, and lenders like to see how you manage multiple types of credit. They don’t like to see all credit cards, or all loans. On your credit building journey, try to diversify. We typically recommend to our clients who are starting fresh, 2 revolving accounts (credit cards, charge cards) and 3 installment accounts as a pretty good mix. There is no golden rule on that, but ensure you are mixing it up some. We offer all types of credit builders on our website.
Inquiries are most talked about but have for the most part the least impact. After 1 year their effect diminishes, and Of course, we recommend not apply for credit unless you need to. Watch this video for pointers about avoiding hard inquiries, especially when applying for a big purchase like a car or a home.
Remember the balance scale illustration above? Bad credit items on one side, good credit items on the other, and the needle in the middle is your credit score. The side with the most weight on it determines your credit score. So obviously, we are working to remove weight on the bad side of the scale for you so your current good items weigh more. But here is a little trick that can honestly be as effective if not more effective than the credit repair process and that is adding more good credit items to the good side of the scale. So imagine adding more good weight while we work to remove the bad weight. Using the power of credit builders, we can maximize the potential of your credit profile to produce the best possible score using these items. Below are a few recommendations for any client. Best of all many of these resources are fairly inexpensive and even better, NO HARD INQUIRIES! This is not a complete listing of our available tools. To see a complete listing visit our credit building page here. Check with your credit repair specialist for individual recommendations for your credit profile needs.
*Keep in mind, the good and the bad reports on your credit, you MUST make your payments on time each month.
Credit Builder Card is an awesome secured credit card that reports to all 3 bureaus up to 6 times a month to help you build positive revolving credit. A security deposit of $200 gets you started. The account reports within a week of signing up, and interest rates are low in comparison to many credit cards out there. Click the image to the right to get a Credit Builder Card.
Credit Strong helps you build installment credit and a savings account all at the same time! Essentially you make monthly installments that are deposited into a savings account that you can have after you have completed the program! The savings account also draws interest, so it is also making you money! If you have started a business, or plan to become a business owner, they also have a similar program to help you build your business credit. That is huge because it can move you away from having to rely on personal credit to obtain business credit! They report to all 3 credit bureaus for personal credit, and report to Equifax Business and Paynet (more business bureaus coming soon) for business credit. Click the image to the right to get started.
Self Lender in our opinion is the best overall credit builder because you can build both Installment and Revolving credit at the same time! It works similar to Credit Strong, you deposit monthly installments into an interest-bearing CD where you have cash available to you when the program is completed. After you have built $100 in savings and 3 on-time payments you have the Self Secured Visa card available to you where you can begin to build revolving credit too! The credit limit can be increased on the card, and can become an unsecured card with a higher credit limit over time! Click the image to the right to get started.
If you are renting a home, Rent Reporters is awesome for many reasons. To begin with, you get 2 years of credit history reported as a Real Estate Installment account. You get credit for something you do every month. As you already know rent is never reported to the credit bureaus, unless they take you to collections. Now you can get your rent reported just like people who have mortgages. Clients have seen an average of 30-35 point increases in their credit scores! Currently they report to Equifax and TransUnion, but working to add Experian. Still easy points on your credit for something you already pay. Click the image to the right to get started.
Kikoff is awesome! A $500 installment loan tradeline reports on your Equifax and Experian credit reports. The total cost is $60, and you only pay back $5/mo, or get their premium $2500 credit builder for only $20/mo. Set it on auto pay, and you can auto-renew each year to have a perpetual account will low utilization that will report for years to come. Click the image to the right to get started.
Experian Boost is a program through Experian and only reports on Experian where you can get utility bills, or other services such as streaming service subscriptions reported. While this may not be a huge boost, every point counts. This is a totally free service though Experian. Click the image to the right to get started.
Chances are during this process you will receive some crazy responses that will blow your mind. Letters like “We can’t find a credit file for you” or my personal favorite “We think a 3rd party wrote this letter, so we are going to ignore your dispute”. If you haven’t already noticed, we prepare the vast majority of our letters in 1st person as if you wrote it. We do this for 2 reasons. To begin with it helps to build a stronger case for you in arbitration or court. Also, our network of attorneys prefer our dispute letters written in 1st person for the very reason mentioned above. By all means READ our dispute letters. In court or arbitration should you need to appear, they will ask if you were aware of the letter contents, and understand what is being disputed. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. Here are some facts about the dispute process.
Pictured below is an example of one of these letters… Client info is redacted for privacy.
Our Attorney friend and one of our network attorneys, John Watts talks about the Contempt the credit bureaus treat consumers, attorneys, and credit repair companies with.
There is a plethora of great information about credit, how to manage credit, and about the credit repair process in general. For Example, the Tradeline Supply YouTube page features credit industry expert, John Ulzheimer who gives wonderful information about the credit industry. The attorney YouTube page features one of our personal friends and one of our attorneys in our extensive network, John Watts who is also one of our CEO’s mentors. He shows you the ins and outs of law and how it applies and can work for a sucessful credit repair journey. Take advantage of all of these resources, they are life changing!
Starting your credit repair journey, and every 45 days (after each dispute round is received) we will have you get your credit bureau direct credit reports. This is important because we need to see how each account is reporting directly from the source so we can prepare accurate disputes. Disputes based on credit bureau direct reports are the only disputes that will stand in court or arbitration. Here are some basic instructions on how to get those reports, and save them in the format we need to work efficiently.
Work hard pray harder.
ACTS 2:37-40
