Kirberts finance advice and news

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Jim Kemish

The Right Way

When most people think of credit repair they think of credit bureau disputes. Historically credit bureau disputes have been the heart of the credit repair process. It turns out that it is really just a first step. Credit repair expert Jim Kemish outlines a comprehensive approach that insures success.

The Real Problem with Disputes

Credit bureau disputes are the essential backbone of every successful credit repair program. And almost without exception it is necessary to start the process with these disputes. But if your efforts are confined only to disputing your issues with the credit bureaus you are virtually guaranteed to be disappointed.

Hitting the Credit Repair Wall

If you send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus you will receive a response back within thirty days or so. You might be excited to see that some of the problem items have been removed. You are also likely to see that some of the items that you have questioned have been verified. This can be frustrating. What is the next step? You might think that a second dispute is in order, and you may be right. Or you may be wrong. Read carefully. Has the credit bureau asked you to address all future inquiries to the original creditor? If so you may discover that additional credit bureau disputes produce no results.

Moving On

Many consumers in search of professional credit repair services will find an ample supply of credit repair companies offering a basic low cost program that consists entirely of credit bureau disputes. What happens to this consumer when the credit bureaus ask you to direct future inquiries to the original creditor? There are two possibilities.

The End of the Road

If you sign up for a credit repair program that only offers credit bureau disputes there is almost zero likelihood that you will end up as a satisfied customer. After the first round of disputes you may get few additional results. Or, if the company that you have chosen does offer additional levels of service you will probably find it necessary to upgrade to a more expensive version of the program in order to get the results that you desire. The truth is that the dispute only version of the program should never have been offered.

An Honest Approach

Remember that I started by saying that credit bureau disputes are the essential backbone of every successful credit repair program. It is so. In fact, it’s absolutely logical to start your dispute process with the credit bureaus. But to stop there would be like putting your socks on and then imagining that you are fully dressed. A truly effective credit repair program will seamlessly move from credit bureau disputes to creditors as a natural part of the process. Collection agencies can be challenged as needed in the same way.

The Educated Consumer

Credit Repair can and will produce fantastic results if done in a competent and comprehensive manner. Would you go to dinner at a restaurant that only cooks the food half way? Would you hire an auto mechanic that takes your engine apart but doesn’t quite put it back together again? Of course not! Make sure that your credit repair company will complete the job that you hired them for.

A Smooth Process

It is our opinion that a credit repair program should be inclusive of every step that is necessary to produce the final desired result. And the credit repair professional should be armed with every tool needed to do the job. We believe that the process should be offered as a unified whole. Our customers hire us for the most important reasons in the world. Their goals are inseparable from the quality of their financial life. We believe that credit should be taken seriously.

Beyond the Dispute

A comprehensive dispute process encompassing the credit bureaus, creditors, and even collection agencies is essential for success. But it is also equally imperative that these activities occur in the context of a complete understanding of both the credit scoring model and the way creditors view credit in making a decision. I cannot emphasize this enough! A good credit repair company always has their customer’s goals in mind. You do not want to complete a credit repair program and discover that your scores have suffered or that you don’t meet lenders criteria for credit content. When selecting a credit repair company make sure that they have the universal perspective that will produce the real results that you want. It turns out that the details can make all of the difference in the world.

Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Jim Kemish, a well known credit repair expert and consumer advocate, is the president of Sky Blue Credit, a leading credit repair service since 1989. Jim is also the president of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage company.

Jim Kemish

Now is the Time

If you are one of the many millions of people who have purchased a home with sub-prime mortgage financing over the last two or three years, now is the time to get to work on your credit report to make sure that you are able to refinance when the time comes. And the time will come before you know it. Credit repair expert Jim Kemish discusses the changing mortgage market and how you can survive, and even thrive. But you must act now.

There is a Lot at Stake

Are you a sub-prime borrower? Chances are that you have had credit issues in the past. There are many reasons for you to make credit repair an immediate priority in your life. There are also many reasons that you might hesitate. Credit reports are not fun to read. Past credit issues are not fun to think about. But there is a lot at stake. Consider hiring a credit repair professional to help you through the process. You can regain control over your own life.

Sub-Prime Financing an Overview

Sub-prime mortgage financing has gotten a bit of a bad rap recently as home values have moderated and borrowers have been unable to escape the inevitable rate increase that is built into the vast majority of sub-prime mortgages. There has been a fair amount of financial hardship blamed on the sub-prime mortgage industry. But there is more to the sub-prime market than meets the eye.

The Benefits

Did you know that over 20 percent of all mortgages originated from 2004 through 2006 were sub-prime mortgages? The sub-prime mortgage industry was developed to accommodate the enormous number of Americans that, due largely to bad credit, could not qualify for traditional home financing. Home ownership is a legitimate and valuable financial goal. And sub-prime financing made it possible for an amazing number of Americans to own homes.

Reality Sets In

Are you facing an interest rate increase? It is true that the sub-prime market has largely evaporated. But there is still hope. Forget the mortgage market and turn your attention to yourself. It’s time to become very proactive about your own credit report. And it is absolutely essential that you act immediately. Please don’t neglect this advice. I am well aware that a large number of people with credit issues feel completely helpless. The thought of consulting a credit repair professional may seem pointless. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Credit Repair Can Save Your Life

I have provided credit repair services to people for a very long time. I speak from experience. Almost without exception people are amazed at the impact that a competent credit repair professional can have on their credit scores, the content of their credit report, and on their ability to completely transform their financial life. When I say that credit repair can save your life I am totally serious. It can also save your house. It can save you tens of thousands of dollars. It can bring you confidence and the long lost knowledge that you have control over your own life.

It’s Your Life

I know that you do not want to be dependant on the availability of sub-prime financing. It is time to take action. The first step is to consult a credit repair professional. You might be surprised to hear that your past credit problems are probably not the sole, or for that matter, the largest factor in your low credit scores. There are a terrible number of errors ranging from subtle misreporting to obvious redundancy that plague consumers and damage their credit scores. The first step in an effective credit repair program is to identify every single one of these issues and eliminate them. But there is more.

Credit Score & Credit Content

Real credit repair requires an intimate knowledge of the impact that every item on your report can have on your credit score. A credit repair professional will make sure that everything that can be done to improve your scores is being done correctly. You cannot afford to ignore anything. The impact of a competent and complete credit repair effort is amazing. Innumerable people start credit repair programs with a skeptical attitude and end up as true believers.

You Have the Power

You have the power to transform your own life. Please don’t believe that because you have made late payments in the past that you are destined to live a life of financial gloom. If you take action to repair your credit you will discover a whole new world of possibilities. Just put one foot in front of the other. Seek the advice of a credit repair professional. When the time comes to refinance your mortgage you will discover that you have more choice than you ever thought. You can make it happen.

Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Jim Kemish, a well known credit repair expert and consumer advocate, is the president of Sky Blue Credit, a leading credit repair service since 1989. Jim is also the president of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage company.

Jim Kemish

A Growing Crime

Identity theft is a growing and insidious crime. The impact on a victim’s credit report can be devastating. Even worse can be the feeling of helplessness that a victim may face as they struggle to find a solution. Credit repair expert Jim Kemish discusses a quick and powerful remedy available to everyone.

An Unpleasant Possibility

Are there entries on your credit report that do not belong to you? These may be the result of a file merger error on the part of the credit bureaus. Or they may be the result of a more nefarious case of identity theft. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives you very specific and powerful tools to correct cases of identity theft and to quickly block the erroneous information from appearing on your credit report and impacting your credit scores.

Section 611

Most disputes are governed by FCRA Section 611 procedures which rule that “if the completeness or accuracy of any item of information contained in a consumer’s file at a consumer reporting agency is disputed by the consumer and the consumer notifies the agency directly, or indirectly through a reseller, of such dispute, the agency shall, free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation to determine whether the disputed information is inaccurate and record the current status of the disputed information, or delete the item from the file, before the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date on which the agency receives the notice of the dispute.”

A Powerful Credit Repair Tool

Section 611 procedures are normally fine, but if you have a pending transaction that requires your credit report to be in top form and time is of the essence you should consider getting out the big guns. The FCRA remedy for identity theft is the most powerful and quick acting tool available. But before you utilize this powerful credit repair tool you need to determine that the erroneous information on your report is something more than a file merger problem.

Assess the Situation

Many of the erroneous entries that appear on consumer’s credit reports are due to annoying file merger problems resulting from deficiencies in the credit bureau’s data management systems. These are altogether too common and do not fall into the category of identity theft. If you examine your credit report and discover an account that does not belong to you it is essential to take action immediately. The first step is to call the creditor that is furnishing the data to the credit bureau and ask them if the account is truly under your name. In many cases victims of file mergers discover quickly that these mysterious accounts belong to someone with similar identifying characteristics, like a similar name. In this case your credit repair efforts will fall under Section 611 as indicated above. But if the creditor says that it is your account and verifies your name and address, and you know that this is an account that you never personally opened it is time to act.

The Dispute

An Identity Theft Dispute must include an Identity Theft Report which may be obtained from an authorized agency including, but not limited to, your local police department, the FTC, the States Attorney General Office, and The United States Post Office. In addition to the Identity Theft Report you must include clear proof of your identity, identification of each suspect account on your report, and a statement that the suspect information is not related to any transaction made by you. Don’t make the mistake of providing speculation about the disputed items. The credit bureaus only want the simple facts. Many credit repair efforts are foiled by too much information. Don’t muddy the water.

Immediate Results

Once you have properly submitted an Identify Theft Dispute to one of the credit bureaus they are required to take immediate action. The FCRA (Section 605B) mandates that a credit bureau block the reporting of any information that you have identified as having resulted from identity theft within four business days of the receipt of your dispute. The blocking of information means that it cannot be included on your credit report nor have any impact on your credit scores. To further accommodate your dispute the three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion must refer your dispute to each other. This eliminates the burden of dealing with your credit repair project in triplicate. Other rights related to identity theft include Fraud Alerts and Credit Freeze which may or may not be appropriate for your situation.

Contact a Credit Repair Professional

If you feel in doubt about the process and want clarification contact a credit repair professional. Most reputable credit repair companies will offer a free consultation and take the time to clarify any concerns that you may have. If you would rather hire someone instead of doing it yourself, a competent credit repair professional can perform the work for you in an efficient and careful manner.

Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Jim Kemish, a well known credit repair expert and consumer advocate, is the president of Sky Blue Credit, a leading credit repair service since 1989. Jim is also the president of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage company.

Jim Kemish

Surprising Facts

It is absolutely essential for anyone attempting credit repair to know the statues of limitation for reporting of derogatory information as it applies to the credit bureaus. Credit repair expert Jim Kemish offers some insight on specific statute of limitation information that may surprise you.

Statute of Limitation Violations

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) amendment to the FCRA of 2003, is the federal legislation that governs the credit reporting industry. Statutes of limitation for reporting time limits are provided by this legislation. Knowing how these time limits work is essential to any effective credit repair effort.

In Plain English

Let’s try to put some of this jargon into plain English. The term “statute of limitation” in the case of your credit reports, simply refers to the maximum amount of time that a derogatory item can continue to be reported. When the statute of limitation passes for any negative item on your credit report, that item should vanish. There are an amazing number of violations of these time limits that may appear on your report. Some violations are intentional as in the case of many of the collection accounts that we see, and others are due to a simple failure of the highly complex credit reporting system. A careful credit repair effort can eliminate these violations.

An Interesting Point

In a moment we will review statutes of limitation for the most common types of derogatory information. But you might find it interesting to know that the Federal Trade Commission permits the credit bureaus to delete information at any time at their discretion. There is no requirement that the bureaus wait until the passing of a statute of limitation date to stop reporting.

Collections and Charge Offs

Collections and charge offs must cease reporting seven years plus 180 days from the initial delinquency that led to the collection status or to the charge off. The initial delinquency is the date of the first 30 day late status that led to the collection or charge off. This period of time cannot be reset by any subsequent payment or for any other reason. The clock starts with the original creditor. Collectors such as assignees, attorneys, or collection agencies must abide by the same original statue of limitation expiration date. Neither the original creditor nor collectors can extend these reporting limits. Any attempt to do so is illegal. Unfortunately this law is often ignored. Effective credit repair efforts require a very exacting examination of these dates.

Bankruptcy

Chapter 7 bankruptcies can report for 10 years from the discharge date. Chapter 13 bankruptcies can report for 7 years from the filing date. But be aware that if the Chapter 13 is not completed the reporting limit is extended to 10 years. I mentioned above that the credit bureaus are allowed to delete information from your report prior to the expiration of statute of limitation. Any credit repair effort should take this flexibility into consideration. Bankruptcy is a case where we highly recommend requesting removal. If you are five or more years past discharge your request may be honored.

Tax Liens

Paid tax liens can report for 7 years from the date of payment. Unpaid tax liens can report for as long as they are in effect. Please be aware that most unpaid tax liens are released by the IRS after 10 years. The IRS will usually provide a lien release upon request after the 10 year limit has past. When you provide the release to the credit bureaus they will cease reporting. There are cases that allow the IRS to re-file. Please speak to your CPA or tax attorney for clarification before contacting the IRS!

Judgments

Generally, unpaid judgments will cease reporting 7 years after the filing date. However, unpaid judgments are a case where state statute of limitation will overrule federal statute. Your state may allow unpaid judgments to report for longer than 7 years. State statutes of limitation are easily found on the internet. Paid judgments may be reported for 7 years from the filing date. No state statutes may overrule federal limits for paid judgments.

Gone but Not Gone

Derogatory information that falls off of your credit report due to an expiration of the statutory time limit does not get deleted. This obsolescent information should not continue to appear on your credit report, but it is not gone. If you apply for a loan for over $150,000, life insurance with a death benefit over $150,000, or a job that pays over $75,000, your potential lender, insurer, or employer has the right to view your prior history. This fact adds some additional support to the case for credit report vigilance. If you are attempting credit repair and have erroneous info on your report it is best to dispute it now. Waiting for the statue of limitation to pass may not produce the clean result that you want. Disputed items that get deleted are literally removed from your credit report.

Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Jim Kemish, a well known credit repair expert and consumer advocate, is the president of Sky Blue Credit, a leading credit repair service since 1989. Jim is also the president of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage company.

NEW YORK (AP) — Solid first-quarter profits from discounters Wal-Mart and TJX show that more Americans are hunting for bargains as they struggle to cover their monthly credit card payments, put food on the table and gas in the family car….

MIDLAND, Texas - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said on Tuesday the credit crisis was not over, even as his colleagues revealed growing concerns about inflation that could signal a pause in interest rate cuts.