THE PROCESS

Bad credit is subjective and is in the “eye of the beholder”. When I was in the mortgage business I considered a 580 score as good credit because with a 580 credit score I could get someone approved for a house with no money down. Of course as time goes on, guidelines change, client goals are adjusted and the definition of good credit goes with it.

Today you can get approved for a mortgage with a 620 score so for that goal some would consider 620 as a good credit score.

Scores range from a low of 300 to a high of 850, according to Experian as of Dec 2020 the average credit score was 711 and FICO considers that good. According to FICO scores are labeled as follows

– Very Poor Credit: 300-579
– Poor Credit: 580-600
– Fair Credit: 601-660
– Good Credit: 670-739
– Very Good: 740-799
– Exceptional: 800-850

I have different opinions of what good and bad credit are.

Good Credit is having good enough credit to be able to qualify for the loan you may be seeking at the best rate possible.

Bad Credit is having anything on your credit that doesn’t allow you to qualify for the loan you are seeking at the best rate possible.

You credit score is determined by the combination of everything showing on your credit report, this includes all the bad as well as any good accounts you have. However one caveat is that you have to have open and active credit if you expect to get a high score. Many people, especially when starting credit repair have lots of negatives but very few positives, usually any positives they have on typically from before things went bad. (ie. old car payments, credit cards that were previously closed before everything hit the fan).

You should have a goal of having and keeing open and active at least 3 total credit lines, many lenders want you to have these accounts open and active for at least 12 months before they will approve you for a loan. These credit lines you have in combination with us removing negatives will go a long way towards getting the high scores you need to qualify for loans.

We help our clients obtain and properly manage new credit throughout the process.

Yes, many people would be surprised to know that we all have dozens of different credit scores.

Most credit scores are provided by FICO and NOT the credit bureaus.

FICO uses a mathematical calculation (algorithm) that takes the data provided by the credit bureaus which is run up against the algorithm to determine your credit score. This credit score is published for the lender along with your credit history and is supposed to quickly summarize your overall credit.

Since the calculation is basically a computer program it is updated periodically. This is similar to your operating system on your computer (ie MS Windows) as with MS Windows most “New” Computers come with the latest and greatest version while people and companies who purchased new computers years ago may not be upgrading to the newest versions all the time. Many time people don’t upgrade their windows software at all even though there are changes almost weekly.

This is no different than when dealing and working with FICO and other credit scores. Not only are there different versions of the algorithm but there are different “base” versions based on the industry.

The following are some of the main “different” versions of the FICO score

Mortgage Score – For mortgages
Auto Score – For car loans
Revolving Score – For Revolving Credit
Utility Score – For Electric and the like.

There are also others as well.

In addition to this “Industry Specific Algorithm” there are also differences within the industry. ie. A large car dealer who’s been in business for decades (ie. Ford) may be using a different version of the scoring model than a dealer that is relatively new (ie. Tesla)

This difference between scoring models explains why when you apply for a car you see multiple credit pulls on your report as these car dealers are sending your application to various banks and lenders who are most likely using different scoring models/versions based on their company policies.

Mortgage companies however handle this a little different. Since mortgages are ultimate bundled and sold on wall street their grading must be based on something consistent. This means that most mortgages are issued using the mortgage score but more importantly ALL people involved in mortgages must use the exact same version of the mortgage score so that ultimately it can be sold on wall street (This is why you don’t see dozens of credit pulls when a broker shops your loan around).

In summary the answer is yes, there are different scores for mortgage companies, however this is true for just about any lender who “pulls” your credit. So in essence there technically is no such thing as a “Normal” score.

This also means that ALL the scores we get from credit monitoring services, or credit card companies are not showing us our score but instead they are showing the score they calculated using their version of the score (even if they say its a FICO score)

I hope this helps.

There is one source that can explain more and actually give you the “truest” version of your score. If you pull your credit report from FICO directly at MyFico dot com you will see what score they have for you in each industry. Although a little pricey it does open your eyes.

Yes not only is credit repair legal it is regulated by the Federal Government as well as within various states in the country. The CROA Credit Repair Organizations Act sets the legal guidelines for the operation of a credit repair company. 

Now although credit repair is legal there are lots of companies operating credit repair firms outside the boundary of the law. Some of the major issues you’ll see that can be a huge red flag are as follows…. 

• Advance Payment for Services – Credit repair laws do not allow companies to charge for work in advance. The do however allow a “First Work/Setup” fee but this fee is still not actually due until the “First Work/Setup Fee” work (as described by the company) is complete. ie. Our first work fee is due after completed which technically is just an hour or two after you enroll. The people who get in trouble are the ones that charge you fees upfront (ie $500, $1,000, $2,000, $2,500 etc) before completing the work you are paying them for. ie. You cannot be charged for the removal of items until the work involved in the removal of items is complete (ie. Letters prepared and mailed)

• Larger than acceptable first work/setup fees – Traditionally businesses have been able to choose the fees they want to charge, however in credit repair too many companies used a scheme of charging a large “First Work/Setup Fee” and very small monthly fees with the intention of getting the bulk of the fees charged upfront. There has been some consensus in the industry that $150 should be the max “First Work/Setup Fee” as anything above has been criticized. If you have a company that is charging more than a $150 “First Work/Setup” fee they may be breaking the law.

• Deletion Promises – As with any investment in the stock market past performance of a company doesn’t mean that future performance will be the same. Stock brokers do not have any control of the stock market and thus are required to avoid making false statements related to specific deletions. If a company is promising a specific deletion they are breaking the law as they have no control what or when or if an item will be deleted. When asking a company specifics like this stay away from those that make false promises as that is a huge red flag.

• Time Frame Promises – For the same reasons as discussed with deletion promises anyone who promises or even “implies” specific results within a certain time period is being misleading as there is no way they could no for sure and making such a statement would be false and is illegal.

Although there are not a lot of companies doing pay after deletion there are a few, The few available with either offer both pay per deletion and monthly thinking they can entice you to call because of the pay per deletion and then switch you to monthly saying it will ultimately be cheaper.

Some companies that offer pay per deletion will instead of offering both will only offer pay per deletion showing what appears to be a very low pay per deletion fee. May times these low deletion fees are because they know they probably won’t delete them anyway and they know it looks attractive especially if they can “sell” you on paying a much higher “first work/setup” fee with no real intention of getting much of anything off your report.

I once saw a company charge $500 setup/first work fee and a $5 per deletion fee. The problem is how exactly can this company afford to continue working on a file and have success, especially if many of the best strategies require at some point certified mail, even without certified mail how can they afford to send regular mail. Don’t they have to pay for stamps, envelopes, ink, staff, etc.?

Maybe these companies only want your setup moneys with the hopes that someday you will just go away.

Personal data security is of the utmost importance to us.

Credit repair companies require lots of info that is deemed very private in nature. I tell clients that there is a great chance that we know things about you that your best friends and many in your family don’t know. 

We typically get access to the following data on clients.

Name, Address, Social Security Number, copies of drivers license and utility bill as well as access to your credit reports and even payment info. This means that there should be a level of trust established when choosing a credit repair company. 

We employ the following steps to keep your info safe. 

• Segmentation of information – Most employees have no access to anything regarded to as private, those who do have very limited info.

• Offline – As much private info as we can is housed offline in PC’s not attached to the internet. ie. Payment info, ID Documentation

• Online – Software we use to work on your file and provide you back end access is 100% encrypted and shows minimal information.

• Hard Copy- All letters are printed and physically mailed in house by one of two team members, we do not outsource such sensitive information.

• Hard Copy Extras – On occasion we may print letters an extra time (ie. printing errors) where we wind up with extra hard copy documents that are not needed. This also happens when/if clients snail mail us documents. Any hard copy documents we have is shredded using commercial shredding services.

• Website -Our website which is used to gather information is SSL secured, additionally the most sensitive info is collected offsite using a 3rd party service with bank quality encryption.

 Restricting the number of disputes is a delay tactic practiced by many monthly credit repair companies. The goal is to dispute 3-4 items at once and prolonging the monthly payment.

When asked they will typically tell you that disputing more than 3-4 items will cause a red flag. This may sound legit at first but imagine the following…

Imagine if you went to review your credit report and found 30 items that was merged into your report from a complete stranger (it happens all the time) Do you think you would be restricted to disputing just 3 at a time? of course not.

This is a made up excuse with no factual evidence.

Our goal is to get the best results therefore we have no restrictions and will dispute as many items at one time as needed.

As you may already know our fees are as follows on a per item per bureau basis.

• $500 Setup Fee (one time upfront payment paid upon booking your consultation)
• $25 Personal Information (per deletion per bureau)
• $50 Standard Items - most negatives (per deletion per bureau)
• $75 Technical Data (per deletion per bureau)
• $100 Public Record (per deletion per bureau)

Most companies will not go into other possible expenses you may incur throughout this process. 

Credit Monitoring – We require clients to have credit monitoring, through >>Identity IQ<<

Credit Building – Although not required for us to delete anything in order to get a high score and qualify for stuff you will need about 3 open and active credit cards. Many cards will have fees associated with them. ie. application fees, annual fees, enrollment fees, etc. or in the case of secured cards you will need to provide a cash deposit as security. You also typically have to buy something and pay it off to get the good credit recorded on your credit report.

We do not have any hidden fees and want to make sure you are aware of fees/costs/expenses you could be paying even if you are not paying us. 

Yes, credit repair does work…..if done correctly, legally, and given the proper amount of time. That being said there is different perspectives as to the definition of “work” or “success” which I’ll explain below.

To us credit repair works 100% of the time, however what we don’t know as individuals, as a company, or as an industry for that matter is the WHEN! We also don’t always know a clients specific personal definition of “Success”.

Nobody really wants a specific credit score, they want what that credit score can help them get. ie. nobody wants a drill, what they really want is a hole. Maybe a particular client wants to get some credit cards, a new car, a job, a apartment, a home, a business loan. If credit repair allows the client to get what they are seeking then it could be deemed a success.

We do find that everything we go after on a credit report does “eventually” get deleted. This can be due to the fact that the item in question is 7 years old and must be removed by law (of course we don’t charge when this happens) or it may get deleted sooner due to our credit repair efforts.

Our definition of whether or not credit repair “works” or is working or is a success for someone is if a client is able to improve their credit profile so they can buy something they want on credit at an interest rate that is acceptable and that ability to qualify is a direct result of our work.

Our clients ultimately succeed due to our efforts with their credit repair, assuming they allow the proper amount of time.

This question is probably the most asked question any credit repair company will get. 

Maybe a close second to pricing.

The legal answer is we don’t know, the real answer however is…..We Don’t Know!! You see a credit repair company, an individual, a financial guru, a lawyer giving you a specific timeframe or even implying it is 100% illegal. Its illegal because the real answer is “We Don’t Know” and telling customers a specific answer is ALWAYS misleading.

Its the same for the stock market question of “How much will my stock go up in 10 years?” the broker DOESN’T KNOW. The broker doesn’t control the stock market. They will give you charts of pass performance but they also disclose that “past performance doesn’t guarantee future results” Credit repair is exactly the same. We don’t control the credit bureaus or the creditors that placed negative items on your report and thus we can’t control when or if they will actually be removed.

Like the stock market we can tell you what has happened in the past in an effort to give you some idea.

In our case we have seen on average (keep in mind and average means some people are higher and some are lower) of around 75% of the items we dispute get removed/deleted/resolved at some point during the 1st 6-9 cycles. Our cycles are about 35 days each (can be longer if there are delays between cycles) After the first 75% we then see an average of about 1 item deleted per cycle after the first 9 cycles. We will also see several cycles throughout the process where nothing will come off. We also know that once we get down to 1-3 negatives on a credit report that those items can and many times will be stubborn or get “stuck” and can remain on your report indefinitely.

Monthly companies don’t want to be honest with consumers and take a “Try not to answer while answering approach” when answering this question.

We decided to answer this question with the proper answer of “we don’t know” we then gave you some honest statistics (which if you work it out says the bulk of items are within 6-9 cycles but the remaining items and more importantly having perfect credit can actually take a very long time.

It is this main reason we recommend all credit repair prospects enroll in some sort of “Pay Per Deletion” program instead of monthly. 1-2 years of monthly will be much more expensive than paying for deletions as they actually happen (especially if 1-2 years of monthly doesn’t actually mean they will delete everything anyway).