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Credit Correction
L.C.C.I. has the most effective Credit Correction Program
available to you today. L.C.C.I. uses the Fair Credit Reporting
Act (FCRA), which was established by the federal government
to protect an individuals rights about the information
reported on their credit reports. When reporting information
on your credit reports the creditors and the credit
bureaus have to comply with over 300 points of law for
the information on your credit report to be valid and remain.
With L.C.C.I.s extensive knowledge of the laws, we challenge
the creditors and the credit bureaus to all these points of
the law. When creditors or credit reporting agencies fail
to abide by these 300 plus points of law, the result is the
negative information has to be removed, forever. We are so
confident in our process, if you do not see an improvement
in your credit scores, that L.C.C.I. offers a money back guarantee.
L.C.C.I. is one of the only Debt Settlement companies, which
will not only get you debt free, but also follows though to
clean up your credit reports. With both of L.C.C.I.s
programs, you will become debt free, plus have your credit
reports reflect such!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CREDIT
Credit is a powerful tool. Credit cards, loans, and other
types of credit are convenient to use, make managing your
money easier, and can be especially useful during emergencies.
Credit makes it easier to pay for large expenses such as cars
and home improvements, and a mortgage can put you in a home
without needing cash for the entire purchase price.
But credit is also a big responsibility. When you use credit
improperly, it can lead to unmanageable debt and financial
crisis. The more you know about credit, how to manage it,
and the warning signs when you may need help with managing
credit, the easier it is to use the powerful tool wisely.
REBUILDING CREDIT
We cannot stress enough the importance of staying out of trouble
as a credit-rebuilding tool. Even doing nothing can help a
bad credit report, but repeating poor credit habits can make
things much worse. Creditors can be somewhat understanding
of a bad credit incident, if corrected. This can be particularly
true when the bad credit originated with problems outside
of the debtors control such as emergency medical bills. Repeated
bad credit behavior indicates a problem with deeper roots
and looks to be a stronger indication that future credit worthiness
looks shaky. If you want your credit to improve, be perfect
with your new credit, as well as old credit where accounts
remain open.
To accelerate the rebuilding process try to have at least
three active credit lines open, and be perfect with them.
Car loans or mortgages count if you still make payments, as
well as old credit cards if they can still be used. If you
need to obtain new credit store cards or gas cards can be
easier to obtain than major credit cards. If even those fall
beyond reach any one can be accepted for secured credit cards,
make sure when taking a new credit for rebuilding purposes
that the creditor reports to the major credit agencies. Not
all creditors submit information to the credit bureaus, and
almost no debit card or check card issuers do, even ones with
a MasterCard or Visa logo. Use the credit you have obtained
and make your payments on time (did we mention that we can't
stress this enough). On time means never being 30 days late.
At fifteen days you may pay a late fee, but late items must
hit 30 days overdue before they will be reported. Using credit
does not mean abusing it, you need not run the card up to
its limit. On the other hand, leaving the card in your wallet
will not help rebuild your credit as much as positive usage.
RESOLVE PAST PROBLEMS
Before beginning a full-scale attack on one's bad credit and
repair of a negative credit report the person must first address
each of the negative items and resolve them. Resolution may
take many forms, which we will explore here. From a credit
repair standpoint the significant starting point is "closing
the book" on each of the bad credit items on the credit
report. A horrible but old and closed bad credit item most
often gets viewed better than an open current bad credit item.
Believe it or not, a viable resolution method turns out to
be a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In this context the bankruptcy
paves the way to the first step of credit repair by putting
an end to the old bad credit items. While bankruptcy adds
it's own significantly terrible credit reporting item, bankruptcy
by definition will be "resolved" when the case ends.
In the early stages of bad a credit incident the easiest and
best solution can be catching up on a payment. As with many
of the circumstances we will discuss the prior late payment
will still appear on the credit report. The important point
being discussed in this section is resolving the initial issue.
Catching up on a past due payment constitutes resolution.
When payments continue delinquent for a long enough time catching
up may become out of reach. Negotiating a payment plan with
the creditor either directly or with the aid of a credit counselor
constitutes resolution of the item for credit repair purposes.
Settlement of a debt, even at a fraction of the original amount
due, means resolution.
Eventually banks charges off unpaid debt balances. A charge
off does not mean that a forgiveness of debt occurs, it only
indicates the creditor has made an accounting notation that
they do not believe that the debt will ever be repaid. A charge
off represents a significant black mark on one's credit report.
Charge offs can be noted in several ways. A charge off which
is unresolved appears as such on a credit report. Charge offs
can be resolved the same as any other debt by either paying
them in full, paying them at a discount, making a payment
over time or filing a bankruptcy. Aside from the obvious downside
of a charge off in that it paints the debtor in a very poor
light, an open unpaid charge off indicates to a potential
creditor reading your report, not only was there financial
trouble at one time but further more that the debtor has not
made any effort to deal with the problems. A bankruptcy is
certainly not a favorite resolution by the creditors but it
shows that the debtors have recognized there is a problem
and has taken some action. In terms of a credit report a bankruptcy
is not a clean slate. A bankruptcy remains a nasty item on
one's credit report as long as ten years. On the positive
side, however, the bankruptcy is a clear time or "line
in the sand", from which the debtor can begin to rebuild.
With open unresolved charge offs there is no such point in
time where rebuilding can start. Open unresolved charge offs
remaining glaring poor credit cavities on ones credit report.
To convert this concept into terminology in the medical or
financial industry, the first step is to "stop the bleeding".
Many people look at their financial picture and think they
must cure the entire situation in one huge step. Most times
this is neither something an individual with limited resources
has the ability to do nor something anyone with unlimited
resources could achieve. The debt and credit resolution process
takes several steps. One does not go to a hospital with a
gaping wound and expect to walk out perfectly cured the same
evening. In the first step the doctor stops the bleeding then,
as we will see, there must be time for healing of the wound
itself followed by an inevitable scar and
perhaps in time fading of the scar itself or cosmetic surgery.
The Answer is clearly no. If your loan broker tells you
otherwise, replace him or her. Closing accounts can never
help your credit score, and may hurt it. While it is true
that having too many open accounts can hurt your score,
do not compound the problem by closing them. Once you have
opened the accounts, you've already done the damage and
you cannot repair this damage by closing them. In fact closing
them might actually make things worse.
The credit score looks at the difference between your available
credit and what you're using. Shut down accounts, and your
total available credit shrinks, making your balances appear
larger. This typically hurts your score. The score also
tracks the length of your credit history. Closing older
accounts can also make your credit history look younger
than it actually is, which can hurt your score. Rather than
closing accounts, pay down your credit card debt. That's
something that actually can and almost always will improve
your score.
WILL CHECKING ONES SCORE HURT THEIR CREDIT
Applying for new credit is generally what hurts your score.
Ordering a copy of your own credit report or credit score
doesn't count. Those mass inquiries made by credit card
lenders, who are trying to decide whether to send you an
offer for a pre-approved card, also aren't going to hurt
you, either unless you actually take them up on their offers.
If you want to minimize the damage from credit inquiries,
make sure that when you shop for a mortgage you do so in
a fairly short period of time. The FICO score treats multiple
inquiries in a 14-day period as just one inquiry and ignores
all inquiries made within 30 days prior to the day the score
is computed. For most people, one inquiry will generally
knock no more than 5 points off a score (and scores typically
run from 300 to 850, so that's not a big percentage).
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