Home buyers who take the necessary steps to improve their credit scores prior to house hunting save significantly over the life of their loans, compared to buyers who wait to fix their scores until they’re ready to buy. Low credit scores negatively affect home buyers by reducing their available loan options and increasing their financial […]
credit reports
How Bankruptcy, Payment Plans, and Debt Settlement Affects Your Credit
A common concern you may have when searching for the best way to get out of overwhelming debt is how it affects your credit score. What follows will help you understand credit score impacts that relate to the most common and legitimate debt solutions. This page will also help to dispel some myths that get […]
Date of Last Activity is Important For Credit Repair and Settlements
Date of last activity (DOLA), or date of last payment (DOLP), appears on your credit report for virtually every trade line that appears. Fixed loans like a car or mortgage payment are reflected on your credit report, as are credit cards that you have. This date of last activity is significant beyond how it “looks” […]
Best Debt Solution Options – An Overview
Because the options available to eliminate problem credit card debt are limited, I often find it more productive to use a process of elimination to help determine what would be the best debt solution. Most readers will find they can narrow down the list of debt relief options to one, or perhaps two, using the […]
Stress about overwhelming debt, or fear?
I generally begin any debt relief consultation I do with people who reach out to my company in search of help with credit card debt with this question: “What has you reaching out to a perfect stranger? What is going on with you financially”? Then, I shut up and listen. I am sometimes the first person […]
Inaccurate Information on Your Credit Report can Cost You
The credit report topic has been covered well on our web site, but mostly as it applies to people who need some form of debt relief due to a financial hardship. While that is an important topic and a concern for more and more people as a result of our tough economy – what about […]
Credit Card Debts and Charge Off – What it Means to You
The term charge off describes an accounting function followed by your lenders. When speaking of revolving consumer credit card accounts, a charge off occurs when the credit issuer either chooses, or must, recognize an unpaid loan balance as a loss. For lenders, losses are bad news. The bad news gets reported and can affect anything […]
Dealing with Capital One in Collections
My experience working with financially-challenged consumers and their creditors nationwide since the economic downturn reflects that virtually every national issuer of credit cards, even larger regional credit unions, have gone as far as they can to assist their struggling account holders. Capital One is an exception to this. How Capital One goes about settling a […]
Settling Credit Card Debt in Michigan
What happens to my credit after settling my debt?
FICO Reveals Timely Credit Score Damage Details For the Struggling Consumer
Despite the FICO data, I must caution you not to base your decision about which debt relief option to pursue based on that information. All debt relief options — credit counseling, settlement and bankruptcy — will have a negative effect on your credit histories and/or FICO scores for some time. (See my recent blog, Debt Relief Options vs. Your Credit Score).