Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice No, you don't need to carry a balance, even a low one. If you want to get really technical, an unused account will over time be less good on your report if the creditor stops updating, but it has to be unused for a long time, and if it's a concern to the customer he can just use it for a small purchase. You would lose that bet. Income and where you live has nothing to do with credit scoring. I have seen people living in the "hood" on welfare who have outstanding credit. Granted, I don't see that every day, but that's more because these people are less likely to finance homes than because they are not out there. High scores are NOT tied to income or location. I agree. It's only trivia until someone says something like: Then it's important to understand that credit cards don't need you to carry a balance to value your business. Motivation is good if directed in the right way. If directed in the wrong way, it can ruin someone. I wish I knew what I said that gave you that impression. Everybody is a debtor, we can't all be dummies, can we? At the same time, many people have misinformation about credit and how it works. Case in point, you seem pretty involved with credit, yet you come here and tell me that people need to carry balances on their credit cards to keep their scores high, and that income and where you live is also important to having high scores. Both of these are dead wrong, yet this kind of information get repeated and accepted as fact. Believing bad information doesn't make a person a dummy, but maybe continuing to believe bad information when you've been led to good information could.
Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Probably a determination based on the general impressions you give in your posts. Of course everybody is a debtor and we all become "dummies" at one time or another when we make unwise buying decisions. But there are many kinds of "dummies" and in this case one kind of "dummy" is the kind that is a debtor and has bad credit because he did not meet his obligations for whatever reason. That kind of "dummy" is the only kind we most generally are speaking of here not the kind you are speaking of. Obviously true. Well, I learned that here on creditnet. I guess that's what I get for being here on creditnet and listening to experts such as yourself and many more. At least that is the impression your statement might very well lead one to believe, true or not. It is also based on the fact that I have had it happen to me. I once had a credit card company close the account because I wasn't using it and therefore they said that it was no longer cost effective to keep the card open. So they closed it and then the credit reports said "closed by credit grantor." You think that helped my score? Well, it really didn't affect my score because at that time there was no such thing as FICO or credit scores. But the next time I wanted credit that's when I found out what a mistake I had made. Ok. If you claim it don't have any effect then you post the equations for the FICO scoring models and we will then be able to believe what you say. (LOL) What basis do you have for making that statement? Who besides you says they are dead wrong? Lots and lots of that out there. Personally it don't make any difference to me or to any of those I advise. Neither they or I are very worried about such things. We live where we live and if that affects the score so be it. For the most part, we worry a whole lot more about the negatives(the problems) first and the postives later. The rest of it is interesting conversation and that's all it is. Might help a bit in the future but right now we are more worried about the present and the past than the future. It should be obvious that you and that with which you work is in the future of most, not the past. Believing bad information doesn't make a person a dummy, but maybe continuing to believe bad information when you've been led to good information could.
Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Talking more about the "criminals" and how they never seem to learn, let's take at how they try to deal with that which they cannot deal with and fear the most. http://www.collectionindustry.com/index.cfm?id=8&news_type=1&news_id=9087 Here, in this article they are obviously trying to react to one of the things which I am very vehement about. Talking to 3rd party collectors on the phone. Nobody else on this entire internet talks about that anywhere near as much as I do and since it is a weapon they have no way of dealing with they use the media in an attempt to defeat me and that which I teach. And that is just one of the many things that I teach against which they have no defense except to attempt to use the power of the media to defeat me. Let's just take the article apart at least to some extent. The first thing is, of course, that the object of their wrath must be made to look as bad as possible. So the article starts off with this little gem. You bet that what I teach is damaging. They just neglected to say to whom it was damaging. (LOL) Notice how blithely they call the other fellow "misguided" and "damaging" while referring to themselves as "professionals"? (LOL) They got that wrong too. The only thing that actually makes financial problems disappear is paying them in full. Once that is understood then it only becomes a question of who is going to do the paying and that sometimes has to be decided in court and sometimes it can be resolved by mutual agreement when those so called and self-styled "professionals" show their true "professionalism" by breaking the law and thereby turning themselves into "professional criminals" At least they got that part right. (LOL) Hey! Rippentrop! Wasn't it a Von Rippentrop that was the minister of propaganda for Hitler's regime? (LOL) That part would be true but I recommend working very closely with 3rd party collectors. They must be off talking about others here who advocate sending cease & desist letters to 3rd party collectors. But the article does at least have some saving grace. Now here is a real hoot. Its a wonder this Ribbentrop glueru hasn't broken his arm patting himself on the back. One quite often needs a very strong set of ear drums and a very thick skin to take the abuse some of these "professionals" put out on the phone. There you go! But don't hold it too long. You can't ask them the 18 questions and write down the answers while holding your breath. All I want to hear is him answering the 18 questions. After that he needs to send a letter and quit wasting his time and mine on the phone. And he had best not fail to answer those 18 questions if he hopes to obey the law. Otherwise he has real problems right from the git-go. Well, he has got to at least pay lip service to the fact that people do have rights, now don't he? At least if he wants to have any credibility at all he does. Oh Sure! And then why not just go down to the butcher shop and get a nice big thick piece of raw beef steak and go visit the zoo. Once there you can grip it firmly in your teeth and go over and rattle the lion's cage just to prove how smart you are. Lots of folks been there and did that only to get completely ignored and worse. So, its the same old ballgame. If you can't defeat the other guy slam the living daylights out of him in the media and do all that you can to make him look like some kind of fool giving you wrong advice that should not be followed. It's a case of the spider telling the fly to come into his version of the Casbah and using the media to back it up. All I got to say is keep your list of 18 questions handy and use them each and every time they call you. In the end you will probably be very glad that you did.
Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice First welcome to the board. Second, you've confused the Statute Of Limitations (SOL) with the 7 Year Obsolescence Period, two entirely different components. You have a good deal of studying to do before you will be accepted as one who knows what he's talking about on CN.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice When I talk about good or bad credit, I'm talking about what changes the FICO score. If you want to talk about what one company does in response to your use of their card, that's a different topic. If a company decides to close your account because you don't use it, that's a decision that one individual company makes, and the decision isn't based on your credit. The actions of that one company doesn't make a rule, because there are thousands of credit granters and they all decide for themselves what their rules are going to be. Another company may offer you a special deal if your card is unused for a while. Instead of closing your account, they may encourage you to use the card by raising your limit, dropping your rate, or offering you a balance transfer incentive. You can't look at something this Wachovia does and say that Discover and Chase are going to do the same thing. These are different companies with different markets and they will make different decisions. Is that LOL because you know that nobody has the FICO equations? Are you laughing because you know that you're setting an impossible standard for verification of what I say? That's fine, I can play that game. Skepticism is good. I encourage skepticism when it comes to important things like credit. There is a lot of bad information put out on the Internet, how is the average joe supposed to tell what's good and what's bad? You say you are who you are and you have all this experience, etc. I say I am who I am, and I have all my experience, etc. We both claim knowledge and expertise, yet we disagree. I'm sure we could find someone else who thinks they know what they're talking about who disagrees with both of us. Fortunately, there are some reliable sources of information available. While the FICO scoring model is secret, Fair-Isaac Company does provide some information as a public service on what goes into the score. Since they are the company that produces the FICO score, they are the authority that trumps anything you, I or anyone else might say on the subject. On the specific issue of income and location not being a factor in the credit score, let me post a link to the relevant web site: http://www.myfico.com/myfico/CreditCentral/ScoringWorks/FICOIgnores.asp And for more general information: http://www.myfico.com/myFICO/CreditCentral.asp This is the best information available. Anything you find that contradicts what's found here is wrong. That sounds like it might be important, if I could understand what it means. Do you want to rephrase that?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Yes, of course. !!!! Yes!!!! That should have been "painfully" obvious and I'm quite sure it was. Good! The name of the game is sometimes humor and that was the name of that game. That is an excellent question indeed and one that needs definition. Sadly enough there really isn't any way to put FICO scores on gluerus either on the internet of off. And there isn't anybody out there from the Office of the President of the United States on down to the lowliest hobo hitchiking down the highway who is going to be right all the time. To err is human and we are all going to err many times in our lives. That is just the way it is. So there are actually no real standards to go by other than common sense and if the "glueru" wants to get paid for his information then what are his guarantees that the information he purveys is valid and will work? In the case of Credit repair organizations, the FTC demands that the CRO give a 3 day guarantee or "buyer's remorse" period after which time the buyer may not rescind his agreement with the CRO. Is that fair? If you buy my course can you possibly tell in 3 days time whether or not you want your money back? Of course not! Any such thought is ludicrous. The same is true of 30, 60 and maybe even 90 days. That is what I believe. So how many "gluerus" out there will guarantee that you will be satisfied with what you paid for and back it up with a 100% money back guarantee of customer satisfaction even up to 30 days after you paid for his information? Name me just one that will. Can you? How many vendors of any kind of information will give you unlimited "tech support" for free and unlimited updates to the material you bought as they come out for free forever? Can you tell me of any that will do that and not back down? How many software programs can you find where the vendor will give you free updates every time they put out a new and improved version and free technical support forever? Will Microsoft do it? Who will? Name me a few if you can. Even one? I came up with two very effective addition to my validation letter that makes it much more powerful and also lays a solid foundation for the estoppel letter that follows. Any one who has ever purchased my lessons even before I raised the prices almost a year ago is eligible to get those and any other updates simply by asking for them. Who else will do that? I've also found a way to put an end to the major portion of taxes on telephone bills including cell phone bills. Any student of mine will get that information simply by asking for it. Its a totally new strategy but it has been tested and proven. Southwestern Bell has actually refunded all of the money they charged for taxes and rebate any future taxes on a contested bill using this strategy. My students will get it for free and over the years it can save them many hundreds of dollars. Who else will do that for their clients? Why is it that craftsmen and mechanics buy Craftsman, Cornwall and Snap-on tools? Isn't it because they know that if the tool is broken or ruined they can take it back and get a new one almost no matter how old it is or how much abuse the tool has been given? Now do you know what the standard is and how to judge if someone's information can be trusted or not? If I have to refund someone's money that's going to hurt me a lot so I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that what I put out is right on the money every time.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Bill, you have me speachless. On the surface, it seems that message was a response to something I said. At least, that's what I thought when I noticed you quoted me in it. Then I read through the text...and I can't help wondering if we're having different conversations. I just don't see the connection between anything that you said and anything I said. For example, what part of "I think skepticism is good" did you interpret to mean, "I want to hear a sales pitch"? And what's a "glueru"? I was so stumped by that one, I did a quick search on the internet and I still don't know what it is. Is that like "guru" only about...glue? I thought we were talking about credit. You said income and location were a factor in the FICO score, I showed you where Fair-Isaac says it's not. Did you follow the link? Should I have copied the page here? In fact, let me put the link here again. If you missed it the first time, you shouldn't have to scroll up to find it. That's a lot of text to go through, and even though it shows up in bright blue, it can be missed pretty easy. http://www.myfico.com/myfico/CreditCentral/ScoringWorks/FICOIgnores.asp Oh, I can't agree with that. No standard except common sense? The problem with common sense is that not everybody has it. I've met plenty of hucksters that can make something SEEM like common sense when it's not. If it will make a dollar change hands, that is. Give me old-fashioned fact-checking and verification any day. I'll do the research, I don't mind, I kinda like doing that.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice A "glueru" is my invention and is intended to refer to internet gurus and even some of whom are on radio or TV spouting off all kinds of wrong ideas and wild-eyed theories. As to arguing about FICO with you or anybody else, forget it. While from the standpoint of lenders and mortgage people FICO is vitally important, from my viewpoint its totally irrelevant. The reason I feel that way is because I know that if one gets rid of all the derogatory comments and then follows certain well proven and time tested steps to rebuild credit FICO will take care of itself. I have much better things to worry about than FICO and the like. To me it isn't the least bit important except as a sort of gauge to see how well things are going. If someone starts out with a 500 and ends up with a 700 then he knows he has done the right things. If he starts out with a 700 and ends up with a 500 then he ought to be easily able to realize he must be doing something wrong. I really don't have time for such arguments.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Bill, I think I've underestimated you. You're a marketing genius. In marketing class, they teach that it's important to set yourself apart from the competition. I can't imagine how you could do that more effectively than by being a credit-repair guru (glueru?) that says that FICO is irrelevant.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Thank you. That it is, indeed. That, my dear sir is where you just screwed the pooch. I do not do credit repair. And since I do not do credit repair, yes, to me FICO is irrelevant. So the first thing to learn is to get on topic, stay on topic and if you get off topic then get back on the topic. Since I have never done credit repair and never will do credit repair then FICO is only of passing interest to me. Especially that part of FICO which deals with it's formulations. It is a convenient gauge of how bad one's credit might be. It is a convenient gauge of how well others are doing in their credit repair efforts but it's forumlation is not the topic of main consideration to me. I know what produces results in the quickest possible time and that's all I really care about. As the old gambler said, "there will be time enough for countin when the dealin is done."
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Ewe! Alright, I'll bite. What DO you do, Bill?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Credit scoring is about risk, not profit. Lending is about profit. Mycroft =============== Scoring has nothing to so with risk that's what why lending is profitable. The END ************************* LB 59
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Did I just see someone express a preference for sheep over dogs ? };-)
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plan for credit repair --pls advice Credit scoring is about risk, not profit. Lending is about profit. Mycroft =============== Scoring has nothing to so with risk that's what why lending is profitable. The END ************************* LB 59
