     Christine Baker (Admin) | Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 09:02 pm 
Recently I had a client who wanted to "AGGRESSIVELY" improve his credit scores. He sent me detailed e-mails about the success he finally had with the 2nd credit repair company and he seemed very educated about credit.
I just about fell off my chair when I saw that he was currently 60 days delinquent on an installment loan, past due over $1,100.
Somehow it never occurred to me that one could not know that there is NOTHING worse than current delinquency.
If you can't pay your bills, do NOT waste your money on credit repair or my services.
There is only one exception, and that's if you consider filing for bankruptcy or debt consolidation.
Neither one of these options will increase your credit scores in the immediate future, and it was NOT an option for my client as he had already discharged a few years ago.
I don't want to waste your money. Your very first step to increasing your scores is paying your bills without incurring lates on your credit!
Use the money you'd spend on credit reports and services to pay your bills, or to help with a budget (invest in Quicken!) or come up with some solution to your cashflow problems.
I don't believe that disputing old collections and the bankruptcy could result in solving that cash flow problem. Even spotless credit would only result in new credit lines to be used to pay bills.
It sucks for me to spend 5+ hours going over these credit reports with 20+ derogatory accounts, knowing that it really is a waste of time, money and energy. I wrote up my recommendations, but what good are they when there's no cash to follow them?
If you
** are currently behind on your bills and
** do NOT expect your cashflow to increase SOON so all accounts stay current
there is nothing my credit review will do for you.
My first and most important recommendation would be to bring your accounts CURRENT and to literally jump through hoops if that's what it takes to KEEP the accounts CURRENT.
If you're thinking about buying a house:
A 60 (or even 30) day delinquency on an installment loan TODAY is much worse than a collection or bankruptcy a few years ago (provided the accounts are reported correctly.)
Another really bad move is to NOT pay numerous accounts in the $100 - $200 range and to let them go to collection. I'm NOT in favor of paying money you don't owe -- sue if you don't owe.
BUT, if your credit reports show that year after year you add more of these very minor collections, ask yourself WHY someone would make you a loan.
HOW are you going to explain numerous lates and collections over several years to an underwriter who MANUALLY underwrites your loan?
Maybe you did have a problem that was resolved:
Your mother had expensive cancer treatment and she's now dead or cured and you have the cancelled checks and invoices to show that you made substantial payments to her doctors during those years of delinquencies.
I know how this sounds, but it's just how it is. A paper lenders want to get paid.
When I brokered loans I found that one-time credit problems, even when severe and prolonged, were fairly easy to explain after a couple of years of no lates.
But you can't expect to improve your scores or get approved for a mortgage with CURRENT lates.
There's so much I can do for people, but there ARE limits - I don't do magic. |
