The last couple of days has been very interesting.   I have been contacted by the guys at TU, and by guys I mean the President and the COO, who seemed to be interested about working with us in a more constructive fashion.  They wanted to discuss how we could work together to streamline the process and cut costs for both of us.

My first reaction was …

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on February 1st, 2011 :: Filed under Credit Repair, Credit Report, Transunion
Tags :: Credit Repair, Credit Reporting Agencies, national credit, TransUnion

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Experian and Transunion have been playing the game for some time but now Equifax has jumped into the selling of FAKE-O credit scores. They just couldn’t hold off adding this USELESS product to add to their bottom line!

Now all three of the credit reporting agencies are in the business of pushing the FAKE credit scores to the unknowing consumer who thinks they are buying their FICO scores.

Shame…Shame…Shame is all I can say.

I mean really what is the purpose in selling you a credit score that not one single lender cares about?  

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on October 12th, 2010 :: Filed under Credit Bureaus, Credit Score, Equifax, Experian, FTC, Transunion
Tags :: Credit Reporting Agencies, credit scores, Equifax, Experian, FAKE-O, Federal Trade Commission, FICO, FTC, TransUnion

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The credit reporting agency, Transunion settled on a class action lawsuit by setting aside 75 million dollars nearly 2 years ago.  Now, this amount is but a drop in the bucket and a baby slap on the wrist for this particular credit bureau but that discussion is for another day!

The reason if you’re not familiar should knock your socks off, make you down right red eyed with blood rising to your head causing those vessels to bulge. Why? 

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on August 27th, 2010 :: Filed under Class action lawsuits, FCRA, Transunion
Tags :: Credit Bureaus, Credit Reporting Agencies, FCRA, lawsuits, TransUnion

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In today’s market place there are three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and Transunion.  You’ll also find many smaller agencies that act as “affiliates” of one of the big 3 like CSC and CBCInnovis or others that service their local geographic area but have less than complete national coverage.

There are other companies like ChoiceData that act as sales agents that sell credit data that is supplied by one of the big three credit bureaus.  In addition, many companies like Credco and Kroll actually a whole army of these type companies act as a “broker” buying and selling your credit data.  Finally, other companies are consumer reporting companies as defined by federal law but let’s not confuse these with CREDIT reporting agencies.  Companies like LexisNexis and Intelius are in this category.

Now this can become quite confusing and quite frankly seem like a pretty crowded market place but follow me on this point…

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on June 8th, 2010 :: Filed under Credit Bureaus, Credit Repair
Tags :: Credit Bureaus, Credit Repair, Credit Reporting Agencies

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This question came in recently from Janice and I started to send a reply to you but decided I’d address this in the blog for all to read.  Janice, I thank you for sending in this question as many people wonder the same thing.   Of course, you can insert foreclosure, tax lien, judgment, collections, slow pays, repossession, and the whole list of bad credit issues one might face to the question “Can you legally take a bankruptcy off a credit report?”.

The short reality is every single entry on your credit report is suspect. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and law that states you as a consumer have the right to challenge the credit reporting agencies (CRA’s) and demand removal of any trade lines that are reported inaccurately, that cannot be validated or simply outdated.

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on May 26th, 2010 :: Filed under Bankruptcy, Credit Bureaus, Credit Repair, Credit Report, FCRA
Tags :: Bankruptcy, Credit Repair, Credit Report, Credit Reporting Agencies, FCRA

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I just got back from spending a few days in Savannah, GA for my wife’s birthday (I’m not suppose to tell you her age!!) But what a great town.  We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast that was built back in 1862.  There is so much history in that town, so much Civil war history with the big names like General Lee and others who lived or stayed in the area during the war.  The food…WOW that was a really good time!

As I got back into the groove this morning I had several messages and one woman has called me wondering if she should begin the credit repair process with us by asking the question “Is credit repair really needed in my case, I mean won’t my scores go up over time?”

Now I must warn you that I am a bit biased but I do try to give a fair assessment to this question and in answering  this question it might be best to rephrase it and ask a few other questions first.

Now I have to be honest here and tell you that my first reaction at times is to reach through the phone and grab you by the scruff of the neck and shake you like a rag doll to knock some sense in you but I refrain from this immediate knee jerk reaction.

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on May 25th, 2010 :: Filed under Credit Repair, Credit Score
Tags :: Credit Repair, Credit Reporting Agencies, Credit Score

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Today’s posting will give you the FICO credit score breakdown.   Knowing what to do and the areas to focus on when rebuilding your credit or if you’re looking to increase your credit scores can be the difference between success and failure.

The term credit score usually refers to your FICO score, a number based on a formula developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation, which looks at a summary of all your credit accounts and payment history. Your FICO (credit) score determines your access to and cost of credit. Most lenders use it as the main basis for loan or credit approvals, so the higher the better and the lower the more problems. FICO score ranges from 300-850, and Fair Isaac calculates them for each of the three big credit reporting agencies: Transunion, Equifax, and Experian.

Here’s how your score is determined:

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on May 20th, 2010 :: Filed under Credit Score, FICO
Tags :: Credit Reporting Agencies, Credit Score, FICO

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Well it is official!  The National Credit Federation Blog is alive and off to the races!!!

The intent or shall I say content of this blog is to inform and assist the reader in all things that involve credit, credit scores, and overall the trials and tribulations as well as the satisfaction realized in working to improve one’s credit.

My hope is to deliver solid information to help you better understand the whole credit scoring system created by FICO aka the Fair Isaac Company.  This is the scoring system that has truly taken over all lending decisions from mortgages to credit cards to the rates you pay for your car insurance.

There will be lively discussions on the abuses and blatant moves the credit reporting agencies (CRA’s) take to increase their profits.  Yes, I know it might be hard to believe but believe this… the credit bureaus main purpose is to make money! They are not your friend and they are not in business to help you.  Sorry, I know that can be a depressing thought but 100% truth it is!

Discussions can range from steps you can take to move towards becoming debt free to the actions you must take to insure you’re getting the best credit scores you can. Now, there will be many times this blog is going to be something I can just rant and rave on and talk about things going in our world that can affect all of us through interest rates, lending practices, or other credit policies.  So, basically what I’m saying is, whatever I want to discuss that might help I’ll throw at you…:)!

Over the next 10 days or so I will be posting some thoughts every day to get better noticed by Google.   On a new blog the more activity you throw out in the beginning the more it helps in your page rankings.

I’d like each of you to take a quick moment and respond below letting me know what you’d like to see me talk about in coming posts, as well as any additional thoughts you think would help others to know about.  Many of you have shot in your opinions and thoughts of previous Tidbits and many times those opinions have great value.  Now we have the forum for others to enjoy your thoughts as well.

Lastly, make sure to post your website URL to link to us by posting it in the comment section below, this helps the visibility of both our websites in those ol’ Google rankings! Do me a favor and do this even if you don’t have any comments to make right now.

Till tomorrow….

Be Bold!

Herschel

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Posted by Herschel Bentley on May 18th, 2010 :: Filed under Credit Repair
Tags :: Credit Repair, Credit Reporting Agencies, FICO

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