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.

Instead after finding out all the facts, I might ask “Well your credit score is 585 and your mortgage broker told you they cannot do a thing for you with those scores, so how soon do you want to actually close on a new home?”   I’ve learned two things with this approach.  The first is I don’t have someone on the other line wanting to punch me and send me into next week (which is a good thing!).  Also, this will address real desires as I’ll most often hear “as soon as I can get approved” or “within the next few months” really almost any answer is good and allows us to continue our discussion.

Here are some hard truths. Negative inaccurate, un-validated information on your credit report can prevent you from buying that new home or a new car.  It can cause you to pay a higher insurance premium than if you had 720+ credit scores.   In addition, the credit reporting agencies (CRA) by law can keep this information on your credit report 7-10 years depending on the creditor or furnisher.

Here’s a dirty little secret that the credit bureaus don’t want you to know. You have the right to demand and have every negative item removed if there are any reporting inaccuracies or if the item cannot be validated.  The FCRA or Fair Credit Reporting Act is very specific here about your rights.  The bottom line is that the law says negative items must be removed from your credit report if the credit furnisher or CRA cannot prove it’s accurate.  They must remove the bad credit mark if they are unable or unwilling to validate it or if the item is outdated.  This is not about whether you actually went to the doctor last year and the debt ended up in collections.  The law doesn’t ask you if you went to the doctor’s office.  It simply states that if a negative item is not accurately reported, if the item cannot be validated or if it is outdated it must be removed from your credit report.

So knowing this, the real question that needs asked is this. “If you knew today that in the next 6-12 months your credit scores could be up 100 points higher, our average member sees 127 points, do you think credit repair would help you?”  Ok, if you’re into a bit of pain then the question might be “If right now today, you knew, that 6-12 months ago IF you had gotten started with credit restoration and your scores were well up over 100 points and a bunch of the negative items on your credit had been deleted, how hard would you be kicking yourself for not starting the process?”

That’s it!  These are the real questions to ask because ugly credit, even fair credit can cost thousands of dollars in additional interest or higher insurance premiums preventing you from making the purchases you want or maybe worse, now knowing that waiting almost always is a very costly decision.  Attorney assisted credit restoration can make a dramatic improvement many times in just a few short months. If you’d like to get a free consultation to find out how we might be able to help just Click Here and let us know

If you have anything to add that might help others or just want to comment please let me know your thoughts by commenting below.

Be Bold!

Herschel