clean up your credit report

How Do I Clean Up My Credit?

An Actual Case Study For A Real Client- Part 3

by Vincent Polisi on February 25, 2010

In the prior post, I began responding to the questions asked by one of our readers at FinanceTheDream.com. The questions Candace asked were:

1. What happens to the credit score when debt validation letters and the pay for delete process is used?
2. When derogatory items are removed, does your credit score go up or down?
3. When derogatory items are removed, does it show that I have a shorter time length of credit history?
4. Can I get paid collection accounts removed?
5. How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt?
6. How long will it take for my score to improve?

Questions 1 & 2 were answered in How Do I Clean Up My Credit Report?
Questions 3 & 4 were answered in How Do I Clean Up My Credit Report Part 2?

Now, we are going to address questions 5 & 6.

Q: How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt?

A: First, getting an account number on a collection account does not have anything to do with “admitting the debt”. Second, there are a number of ways to get the account number. The easiest is to pull the information directly from your Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring account. This way, you don’t have to deal with a nasty collector on the phone. By law, collection agencies are required to send you notification up front about their intent to collect a debt. This letter will contain information on the original creditor, the account number, the balance owed, ways to make payment and your ability to dispute the collection within 30 days before collection efforts start or the collection is reported to the collection agency.

Let’s assume you threw that letter away and don’t have it. Traditionally, collection agencies will engage in massive deforestation efforts and bombard you with letters and envelopes referencing the collection. All documentation from a collection agency will have the account number on it.

What I personally do is use the information provided through myEquifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring account. In this way, I don’t deal with collectors and I get accurate information. The collection agencies are required to provide this to Equifax when they report an account. Additionally, you can use the debt validation method. Collection agencies are required to provide you this information. You can learn more about the debt validation method by watching our #1 Secret To Credit Repair.

Q: How long will it take for my score to improve?

A: There are many answers to this question because there are so many variables. The short answer is today, tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, several months from now, never. Another great answer, huh?

Ok, here’s the deal, it depends on what you are doing. If you are getting derogatory accounts removed, the answer is as soon as the derogatory account is removed. If you are talking about paying off a loan or credit card, the answer is that it will improve when the creditor posts it to your credit report. If you are talking about a Rapid Re-Score, the answer is from a few hours to 96 hours generally speaking. The best way to know when you score will improve is to use Equifax Score Watch. This service enables you to run multiple scenarios and different simulations based on YOUR actual credit report. There is no better gauge as to the impact of your credit restoration efforts than Equifax Score Watch. You simply cannot affect the fastest possible score increase without it or know how to prioritize your efforts otherwise. As a result, you can waste a lot of time, spin your wheels and get extremely frustrated. If you want to handle credit restoration like a pro, you’ve  got to use what the pros use. If you are serious about credit restoration and having clean credit, you have to have:

Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring

and

Equifax Score Watch

and, obviously, a subscription membership to Credit Repair College so you can see our step by step videos on how to handle every aspect of credit repair.

otherwise, you are wasting time and money. ;) Let us help you fix credit score issues today!

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please post them in the comment box below.

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How Do I Clean Up My Credit?

An Actual Case Study For A Real Client

by Vincent Polisi on February 24, 2010

One of the things I love about our websites is the ability to interact with our clients, readers, subscribers and visitors and positively enrich their lives. The thing I hate is constantly seeing just how much misunderstanding there is of the very systems that so greatly impact people’s lives.  It is very rewarding to see people learn how to fix credit on their own!  If you read one of my prior posts on our retail rent to own website, FinanceTheDream.com about, “How Do I Clean Up My Credit?”, you got a big idea and several real live examples from people just like you of exactly what I am talking about. One of our readers named Candace hit me with a bunch of questions, machine gun style and what I decided to do is answer ALL of her questions in a series of posts because obviously, if she has the questions, so must many of you. So, read on to learn more about how to get clean credit!

Here’s what she asked:

“Hi,
I have a question, I was gonna use my tax return to clean up my credit, but the right way by sending validation letters and intent to delete letters, but my question is, once its deleted off of my credit report does the score stay the same, does it go up or down even further? Also, once the negative remarks are removed does it show that I have a shorter time length of credit history? And, I bought my house a couple of years ago and when I was in the approval phase of the whole home ownership process, I had to pay up a couple of things, and come to find out I didn’t do it the right way by sending the letter thing and the items I paid up says paid but still is reporting negatively, can I get those removed also? Oh, and how do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting to the debt, because on my credit report it shows x’s instead of account. Last thing I promise, how long will it take for my score to improve? I am in the middle of selling my house to buy another one WITH my husband. Hopefully in a year…..”

To sum it up, essentially here’s what she wants to know and the posts/headings where the answers can be found:

1.    What happens to the credit score when debt validation letters and the pay for delete process is used? Credit Score Range
2.    When derogatory items are removed, does your credit score go up or down? Credit Score Range
3.    When derogatory items are removed, does it show that I have a shorter time length of credit history? Debt Resolution
4.    Can I get paid collection accounts removed? Bad credit score
5.    How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt? Debt Problem
6.    How long will it take for my score to improve? Fast credit repair, Credit Score Range

These questions have very simple and easy to understand answers. The sad part is that the information is very simple and easy to understand but many people don’t know the answers and unknowingly do things that will actually hurt their credit score and slow down their credit repair process.  As an example, we had an overwhelming response to the two posts I did on:

Don’t Use Your Tax Refund To Pay Off Items On Your Credit Report!!! and,

Don’t Use Your Tax Refund To Pay Off Positively Reporting Loans!

Many people were unknowingly going to use their tax refund to pay off bad credit items reporting on their credit reports as well as good credit items that were positively reporting. In fact, I had a client yesterday who was going to liquidate funds from a 401k to pay off good and bad credit. Thankfully, we got him the information he needed before he unknowingly shot himself in the foot.

Ok, so let’s get to the answers.

Credit Score Range

Q:   What happens to the credit score when debt validation letters and the pay for delete process is used?

A:   If the account has been charged off as a bad debt and either the debt validation process or pay for delete process is successful in getting the derogatory account removed from your credit report, your score has no choice but to go up, all things being equal. (In fact, this is one of the best strategies around for fast credit repair.)What I mean by that is if everything else remains the same and you don’t do anything else that would negatively impact the credit score, the score will go up. Things that you can do that will negatively impact the score are:  charge up your credit cards so the utilization ratio is high, have numerous credit inquiries from credit card providers or other creditors other than mortgage lenders or car dealerships, have a payment show 30 days or more late, have another account charge off, etc. Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine exactly what the potential increase in the credit score range is without using a service like Equifax Score Watch. With Equifax Score Watch, you can simulate what the impact to your credit score range will be if the items is removed, paid off, paid down, or paid timely for X number of months.

Q:   When derogatory items are removed, does your credit score go up or down?

A:   When derogatory items are removed, your credit score will go up. Again, it is impossible to say how much due to the age of the derogatory account, what type of account it is (revolving, mortgage, installment loan) which is why when working on credit restoration, I always use the Equifax Score Watch service.

To see the answers to the following questions, click How Do I Clean Up My Credit?:

  • When derogatory items are removed, does it show that I have a shorter time length of credit history? Debt Resolution
  • Can I get paid collection accounts removed? Bad credit score
  • How Do I get the account numbers from the collection agency without admitting the debt? Debt Problem
  • How long will it take for my score to improve? Fast credit repair

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment box below.  To learn more about credit repair, please enroll in Credit Repair College!  We will help you fix credit report issues so that you can achieve your dreams!

By the way, if you are considering getting a bad credit auto loan, check out our program!

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How to Clean Up Credit Report Errors

December 7, 2009

The process used to clean up credit report errors is fairly simple and direct and can be done by yourself as opposed to hiring a company to do it for you. However, if you do not have the time or inclination to do it yourself, you should still have errors removed as soon as possible [...]

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How to Clean Up Your Credit Report

October 6, 2009

The big question we often get asked is, “How do I clean up my credit report?” The most important strategy in any credit restoration or credit repair program or plan is to begin by developing a comprehensive plan to fix your credit report. There is no quick fix credit report repair solution despite what you [...]

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