Yes, credit training is legal and our credit education and document processing services will help you to use the law in your favor. That law is called “The Fair Credit Reporting Act.” The FCRA gives you the right to dispute any item on your credit report. If that item cannot be verified within a reasonable time (usually 30 days) it must be removed. Studies have shown that 79% of all credit reports contain errors. This is nearly 8 out of 10 reports. Therefore most credit reports improve immediately. For items that disputed that are not errors, a creditor or furnisher is often unable to find the records or signed documents within the allotted time and the item gets removed. Sometimes the furnisher will say it has been verified by not offer proof. It is our job to prepare documents that challenge this and we are very skilled at that.
Contrary to what credit bureaus want you to believe, credit training does work in most circumstances. But it only works if you are getting the best advice from an experienced professional. Anyone with a credit score below 720 can benefit long-term from the advice and information provided through credit education. However, there are limiting factors that will prevent us from helping you. Two main factors are: (1) your financial situation and/or (2) the time frame in which you need to reach your results. It is possible to remove anything from a credit report, even accurate items. For instance, if the creditor makes mistakes or does not adhere to the specific time frame, the negative item may be removed.
We will guide you through the process from start to finish and prepare all your documents for you. We have a superb knowledge of credit scoring and experience working with creditors and credit bureaus. It may be difficult for an individual to communicate with creditors and bureaus without an adept understanding of their techniques and regulations in place for credit reporting. We have spent a great deal of time learning the laws that will help you to remove negative information on your report, which enables us to offer you a flawless, money back guarantee system.
Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee anything. But we can promise to help you work to address any unfair or inaccurate negative items hurting your credit profile. Help you understand credit, credit repair, FCRA, Business, business credit, loans, credit cards, etc….. This is a proven system, starting with our CEO and Founder being the first client.
Everyone is different and every case is different. But to give you an example, we have had clients go from the high 400’s to the mid 700’s in 42 days. That being said you have to take a lot into consideration. What’s on your credit, how you intake information, your follow through and several other factors
Items cannot come back as long as the item is current or paid at the time of removal or if the collection is older than three years. This holds true except in very rare circumstances.
With our assistance and document processing, our clients have had great success with bankruptcies, foreclosures, collections, charge-offs, repossessions, medical bills, credit card debt, inquiries, late payments, old addresses, judgments, tax liens and student loans.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act is the law put in place to protect consumers and regulate the consumer reporting agencies (CRAs). Commonly known as the FCRA, it was put in place to provide guidelines for the Credit Bureaus to make sure there is consistency between them, to make sure that accurate information is being reported, and to protect consumers from inaccurate information. It is also in place to ensure that credit bureaus and resellers of consumer reports provide information to creditors, insurers, employers, and others, do so with due regard for the confidentiality, accuracy, and legitimate use of such data. When those parties take adverse action on the basis of information in a credit report, they must identify the CRA that provided the report so that the consumer can learn how to get a copy to verify or contest its accuracy and completeness. Creditors and others may not knowingly provide false information to CRAs, which are required to maintain reasonable procedures to ensure the maximum possible accuracy of their data.
The FCRA also states that you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report if you’ve been denied credit, insurance or employment and request the report within 60 days of notice.
The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA prohibits certain debt collectors from engaging in abusive behavior. It covers debt collectors who work for collection agencies. It does not cover debt collectors that are employed by the original creditor (the business or person who first extended you credit or loaned you money). If a debt collector that works for a collection agency breaks the law, you can take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The Truth in Lending Act is federal law which sets minimum standards for the information which a creditor must provide in an installment credit contract. The Truth in Lending Act requires creditors who deal with consumers to disclose information in writing about finance charges and related aspects of credit transactions, including finance charges expressed as an annual percentage rate. The amount being financed, the amount of the required minimum monthly payment, the total number of monthly payments, and the APR must all be provided to the debtor prior to entering into the consumer credit contract. The Act also establishes certain requirements for the advertisement of credit terms. Overall, the goal is to enable you to make accurate comparisons of offers of credit.
Credit scores are used by creditors to measure the ‘risk factor’ of a consumer who is applying for a loan or credit line. The credit score was out in place to reflect the financial responsibility of a consumer, through past and present credit use. Creditors use the score to ‘predict’ how a consumer will treat their potential financial obligation.
1. Payment History – 35%
2. Amount Owed – 30%
3. Length of Credit History – 15%
4. New Credit – 10%
5. Types of Credit in Use – 10%
As a ‘snapshot’ of your financial history, your credit report is essentially your ‘financial fingerprint’ and contains information that can be grouped into the five categories listed below.
While we have the above information, we still do not know the specific formula to calculate credit scores. The credit score algorithm is closely
guarded by its originator: Fair Isaac Co. (also known as FICO).
The Fair Credit Billing Act applies if you are a creditor billing customer for goods or services. The Act requires creditors to acknowledge consumer billing complaints promptly in writing and to investigate billing errors. The Act prohibits creditors from taking actions that adversely affect the consumer’s credit standing until the investigation is completed, and affords other consumer protections during disputes. The Act also requires that creditors promptly post payments to the consumer’s account and either refund overpayments or credit them to the consumer’s account.
Based on the laws that the Fair Credit Reporting Act has set, it is legal for credit bureaus to send out letters to notify consumers of a response to a dispute or other information (such as informing someone that the bureau is not going to investigate or reinvestigate an item). They also can stall the process by requesting personal information such as your identity for validation purposes. The credit bureaus write these vague and sometimes confusing letters, mostly with the intent of stalling consumers, hoping that the dispute will not be pursued. They also send these letters out hoping to scare consumers away. If they state legal terms or ask for a lot of documentation, they hope you will feel defeated and not pursue the issue any further. This is commonplace and happens to the majority of consumers who send disputes to the credit bureaus; however, persistence will eventually warrant a response. At A+ Financial, we know how the bureaus operate and we are diligent in our efforts to accomplish the results you are seeking and remove the inaccurate information from your credit report.
The FTC’s concerns regarding credit repair agencies address the unethical individuals who have taken advantage of the rising demand of credit restoration by posing as credit repair companies on the Internet or via telemarketing, making promises they either couldn’t keep or never intended to keep, and/or charging fees up-front and then vanishing after providing minimal and inadequate services – if any services at all. Several of these agencies encourage consumers to use unethical and even illegal tactics to clean their credit reports. In some cases, credit repair agencies attempt to disguise themselves as credible law firms to falsely persuade you that you have retained licensed professionals. In an attempt to discourage these unscrupulous credit repair opportunists, the government has imposed strict regulations on credit repair agencies. Overall, these regulations are a positive step towards protecting consumers from disreputable credit repair agencies. Unfortunately, disreputable credit repair agencies continue to exist on the Internet awaiting to be discovered by regulatory agencies and extinguished. To avoid their scams, you, as a potential consumer, should be wary of any credit repair agency that won’t provide their complete address (beyond a Post Office Box), fully identify who they are (including a verifiable identity), or demand large fees in advance of services rendered. Consumers should avoid credit repair agencies that guarantee credit report results or guarantee the ability to remove a bankruptcy from your credit report. Their methods are usually unethical and/or even illegal and may subject you to personal liability.
Remember, it is your legal right to dispute inaccuracies on your credit report. Deal only with companies that are up-front about their fees and willingly share information with you.
If you believe that you have been the victim of unethical, misleading and/or deceptive behavior by a credit repair agency or law firm providing credit restoration services, or any credit repair agency or law firm you have engaged has performed illegal or unethical acts in an attempt to restore your credit, you should report them to the FTC immediately and/or notify the State Bar Association in the law firm’s respective state. Your cooperation in this regard will assist the FTC and respective State Bar Associations to find and eliminate the unscrupulous predators in an effort to provide a safer, fraud-free experience for everyone.
Settlement vs. Charge Off
A charge off is a credit account that you did not pay and then the creditor wrote the account off as a loss. A settlement is an account that went past due, maybe even charged off, and then you negotiate a payoff amount that is less than the full balance due. Once you pay that negotiated amount in full then the account reports as a settlement. As consumers we depend on credit bureaus to report information accurately. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In fact, it is the minority. Seventy-nine percent of all credit reports contain inaccuracies – meaning that we all must be diligent in monitoring our credit reports and take immediate action when mistakes are discovered. In our expectations of being treated fairly, we assume that if one negative item on our credit report is considered equal to another item; the credit bureaus have to be fair and accurate when reporting the item. Credit bureaus sometimes ‘generalize’ and will argue that ‘Settlements’ and ‘Charge Off’ are the same, when in fact, they are not. It is up to us to insist they investigate these items and change the incorrect information, or if they cannot verify the information within 30 days, then they need to delete the item. This is one of your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. We remain steadfast in pursuing these items.
Yes. Depending on your time, patience, perseverance, and complexity of your dispute, you can successfully dispute inaccurate credit report items on your own. However, credit bureaus’ strategies and tactics make the process often time consuming, overly burdensome and ineffective for the consumer. Disputing items is not difficult; getting results is. Remember, these are billion-dollar companies that pad their pockets with consumers with lower credit scores. For this reason, the bureaus are often not too cooperative with your disputes.
